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| Marie Löhr (1890-1975) |
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In Press and Literature |
(Oakland Tribune, 10th March, 1912)
"LEAVING HER TRAIL OF BROKEN HEARTS"
Pretty Marie Löhr will now "Jump-"
BUT NOT WITH ROBERT LORAINE, AVIATOR-ACTOR, NOR LORD deWALDEN, RICHEST PEER, NOR ONE OF HER DOZEN OLD LOVES BUT WITH PLAIN ANTHONY PRINSEP
Looking back over her path of "broken hearts," pretty, vivacious, witty Marie Löhr of the English stage will "jump." By this is meant that she will jump into matrimony. There are a great many people interested in Marie Löhr - among whom are a few odd dukes, a prince or two, and a string of millionaires that would tempt the vanity of the prettiest girl that is any sort of a real girl at all, providing she has a heart.
Marie Löhr has held London in her grasp for several seasons. One by one she has seen the other bevy marry off - Lily Elsie, the last! Lily Elsie drew a plain man - so will Marie. Dukes and princes have done all well for fun and frolic and flowers and that sort of thing, but when it comes to taking to the hearthstone they pass up the dukes and take the plain man.
Marie Löhr has selected plain Anthony Prinsep. She says she is in love - that is natural - and that she will now be a dutiful wife. Not long ago a certain continental prince visited gay London and, as is natural in such cases, he was wined and dined by members of the great world. There was a box party - which in natural, too. And they were a great lot of coroneted, crowned, and jeweled women who looked down at pretty Marie Löhr from the tier of boxes.
Prince Enters the List
The prince fell in love. He sat silently Watching her as she crossed the stage. He went out of the theater a thoughtful man. He sent flowers and called and Marie dined with him a time or two - with a chaperon - and they were good friends. Then the prince foolishly began to make love. For a while he was egged on, and then Marie Löhr said he should never see her again. Quite a shock for a prince who is used to seeing nearly anybody any time he so desires! But down came the silken foot of the vivacious Marie! Out he went.
Gossip has it that Marie Löhr has had more "desirable" marriage proposals than any girl in England. It is certain that she is one of the most notorious flirts on the English stage. Her following has always been extensive. She has been the best "material" in the world for the weary pross agent. Her pathway is strewn with interesting love affairs, in which big names and bigger fortunes have played prominent parts. But, on top of all this, it is commonly acknowledged that she is one of the few English stage women of prominence who have never got into any scandal.
Her broken hearts trail is strewn only with the remnants of past and done for flirtations - harmless - passing - and upon which she says she looks back with pleasure.
Marie "Daughter of the Stage"
Marie Löhr was the daughter of a more or less obscure actress - Kate Bishop. She went on the stage at 6 - a heart breaker then. She was reared behind the footlights, traveling as a child with her mother on an Australian tour. She gained fame when with the Kendals. Handsome Robert Loraine - aviator-actor - looms up on the horizon as the man who almost married Marie Löhr. He is handsome, clever, and has gained wide fame for his campaigns in South Africa, for which he was decorated by the king. Then he went in for aeronautics and won additional honors. He was considered one of the most popular young men of London. He frequented the important drawing rooms and had many conquests, but London early cooked up a match between the beautiful actress and the daring and handsome aviator - Robert Loraine.
Everything looked like they were right. The two seemed admirably suited to each other. The only thing that Loraine didn't have was nobility. He was fairly well off - handsome and more or less "lionized." The gossips had it posted as one of the interesting "matches" of the season.
Then Marie fooled 'em. She has always been fooling 'em - some of 'em - dukes and earls thrown in. She never made any promises. They will tell you that. She just enjoyed their company and their gifts and when they proposed she said she'd think about it, or, as she did with one old bachelor - so the tale goes - she knocked off his tile and put him out of her suite at the Ritz. All because the old chap had suggested marriage - and he divorced twice!
"No Man Worth Real Worry."
But the fair match between the daring South African campaigner and the beautiful stage favorite took a decidedly sudden turn. Miss Löhr called off the engagement. Loraine had decided to become an aviator. This she would not listen to. Loraine would not give it up. So, there you are. The match was called off. Loraine went soaring off into the air in a military biplane and Marie Löhr went on her way without any regrets, seeminqly.
"No man is worth real worry," she said to friends when the engagement was snapped, "and so I am not worrying about this turn in my affairs." And she has kept her word. No mere man has worried her yet. Then up bobbed brainy Lord Howarde de Walden, richest peer in all England and one of the greatest "catches" in the world. London had him engaged to Marie Löhr and all waited for the announcements, De Walden, a brilliant student, essentially a man of brains, with a string of titles, the biggest town house in London, an income of almost a million a year, and reported to be handsome too!
Snap! went this engagement and De Walden and Marie were cold to each other in public. Why? No one seems to know. The Mrs. Grundies tried their best to find out the why, but to no avail. De Walden seemed to pine for a while - broken hearted - more or less, and will now become the husband of Miss Van Raalte, an accomplished society girl and painter of great talent.
Anthony Prinsep is not known extremely well in the great world. But he is said to be a sensible chap - just the sort of a man a girl with loads of good sense might accept. And few doubt Marie's good sense. Anthony Prinsep thinks he is the happiest man in England and he says that this time there will be no broken engagement. The English theatergoers are hoping that Miss Löhr will not retire after her marriage. For it is hard to lose a stage favorite, especially when she is an ingenue and beautiful and only 21.
Some of the plays in which Miss Löhr has appeared with greant success are "The School for Scandal" at His Majesty's theater, in which she took the part of Lady Teazle at 18; "The Duffer," "Tantalizing Tommy," "Getting Married," "Colonel Newcombe," "Her Father," and "My Wife."
In spite of the many proposals that Marie Löhr has received and refused it must not be supposed that she is just 21. But she has had most of the eligible male element of London society at her feet since she was 17.
And during the years Miss Löhr, became cleverer and more beautiful. As a child she was strong and healthy, with regular features and a rosy color, but as Marguerite, in the soft robes of that character, she stood revealed in all of her fair, ripe beauty. Her beauty was delicate and ethereal and her eyes calm and beautiful.
Miss Löhr's admirers have been many, but she has cared for few of them. Even from the first her head was not turned by the many attentions she received.