As part of our Giants extravaganza in the Sunday newspaper, I wrote a feature on the history of jock-to-starlet couplings, which as it turns out predates Tony and Jessica by a few decades. Actually, by more than a century.
In the summer of 1887 - before basketball was invented, before Babe Ruth was born - reporters took note of a famous actress of the day, Helen Dauvray, suddenly becoming a regular at the Polo Grounds. She did not wear a form-fitting Giants jersey and dance for the cameras, but it did turn out she was there to watch her man in action.
On Oct. 12, The New York Times broke the story that that very morning, Giants star John Montgomery Ward would wed Miss Dauvray. At first, the actress stonewalled when reached at her Park Avenue apartment, then admitted all.
Here are two fascinating stories, the first describing Miss Dauvray's sudden interest in the Giants and the reporter prying the marriage news out of her. Then a followup the next day reporting the marriage, which the actress' brother said took place weeks earlier than planned BECAUSE of the The Times' inquiries of the night before.
Apparently life was just as messy and amusing in the 19th century as it is now.
Read the first story here. And the second here. (The latter includes a bizarre subplot theorizing that Ward married in haste because of something relating to a former friend reportedly seeking to kill him.)
Alas, by 1891, the couple had separated.
Comments (2)
I used to hear my grandfather complain alot about how Mike Donlin left the Giants for show biz. As for other celebrity couples, how about Ralph Kiner and Janet Leigh. He used to talk about that relationship quite a bit with Tim McCarver. There were also hidden relationships between Maury Wills and Doris Day (according to Maury's book) and Wilt Chamberlain and Kim Novak and Elke Sommer (according to Wilt's first autobiography "Just Like Any Other 7 Foot Black Millionaire Living Next Door.").
To take the Ward story one step futher, his divorce may have been caused in part by an affair with another starlet of the stage from the late 19th century Maxine Elliott. This theory comes from Mark Lamster in his book "Spalding's World Tour".
Interesting that The New York Times was hot on the trail of this story. Who knew the Times made its bones as a gossip rag in the pre Ochs/Sulzburger era.