Thread by @stampden

1 of 21. Long Thread...

Covers provide opportunities to uncover fascinating stories from the past. This is one such cover, sent 100 years ago (6 Jun 1920) to Ingfrid Anderson, c/- Delia Ayer, at "The Australia" hotel, in Sydney, Australia.
#philately #postalhistory

2. On the rear, the senders name and address, Sydney receiving cancel (Jul 13), and same-day Hotel Australia receiving time & date stamp. The sender, Lottie Anderson, was Ingfrid's sister. Her address is given as 4931 Franklin Ave, Los Angeles.

3. This is one of 3 covers in my collection sent from Lottie to her sister. The later covers are dated July 15 & 18; both arrived Sydney on the same date, Aug 12, with hotel redirection labels to the American Consulate in Sydney, & subsequently Paris, and London (4 Oct 20).

4. The postcard pictured here (not mine) shows Lottie's address, Holmby House, at 4931 Franklin Ave, L.A. She was likely to have been a servant (she had worked as a servant previously). Holmby House belonged to Arthur Letts, owner of the Broadway Department Store.

5. Arthur Letts died in 1923. Holmby House was demolished in 1927; parts of the residence incorporated into his son's English Tudor mansion. This was the home that, in 1971, would become The Playboy Mansion.

6. This is a picture of Ingfrid Anderson, submitted as part of her April 1920 passport application for travel to Australia "to be employed as a governess for Mrs. Delia C. Ayer, now travelling in [Australia]." Ingfrid was born in #Mankato, #Minnesota, 10 Aug 1889.

7. Ingfrid had started working for Delia and her husband, Wallace Cahill Ayer (m.1906) in 1907 as a housemaid, & later as governess to their child Delia (b.1909). The Ayers divorced in 1915, & Ingfrid became a servant for Delia's aging aunt, Mrs. Abbott. Pic. of 1910 Census...

8. This is the photo submitted by Delia Ayer, an operatic singer and music hall entertainer, for her 1919 passport application. She was born Delia Catherine Donald Plumstead in Minnesotta, in May 1881. Her father was Ackley Franklin Plumstead, of #Cattaraugus, New York; but...

9. ...in Delia's passport application, she falsely gave her father's name as "A. Ackley", deceased. He was very much alive. He did not die until Aug 1926. She also gave her year of birth as 1886. Census data seem consistent in 1886 being the birth year of her sister, Florence.

10. To show just how alive Delia's father was in 1919, here is a 1921 advertisement in which the 70-year old Ackley Plumstead, extols the health-restoring properties of Tanlac! He was living with his 82-year old widowed sister, Ms. Abbott, at the time.

11. Delia was applying for a passport to travel to Australia, New Zealand, Straits Settlement, India, China, Japan and Java, as a singer. In Australia, she was contracted to J.C. Williamson, who were responsible for bringing many notable actors, dancers & singers to Australia.

12. SNAG! The Seattle Star, 15 Dec 1919: "Mrs. Donalda Ayer, actress and music hall entertainer, with a ticket for herself and 10-year-old daughter for Australia in her purse, was prohibited from taking the daughter there by a temporary restraining order..."

13. RESOLUTION! "..after the court proceedings, the Ayers got together and arrived at a settlement of their own. Ayer agreed that Mrs. Ayer could take the girl with her to Australia for four months, providing she did not make an effort to train her for the stage." (16 Dec 1919).

14. Despite that agreement, Ingfrid's passport application to join Ms. Ayer & her daughter was made in Apr 1920, at the time they should have been returning to the US. In fact, 7 months later, they were still in Australia, boarding the Osterley for London (The Sun, 16 July 1920).

15. In Australia, the newspapers took an interest in Delia, and reported on her life. In one article she is "Scotch by birth", and in another, she talked of being a spy during the war in her travels between Canada in Mexico as a performer!

16. After Delia Ayer left Australia, the following article appeared in the Australian newspapers in November, reporting her marriage in London, to a French lieutenant, and "famous polo & tennis player", Jean Arnal of Paris. She was to retire into private life, but...

17. ...in 1922 Delia was back in the US, as Mme. Jean Arnal. The Atlanta Constitution (14 Nov 1922) reported, "Madame Jean Arnal, the international prima donna ... is making her first vaudeville tour in America having previously been in operatic roles in Europe." However...

18. ...this was far from being Mme. Arnal's first American vaudeville tour! She had been on the vaudeville circuit for 5 years, from 1915 to 1919 before she had left for Australia. There is no mention in the papers as to her previous name!

19. Delia had shown a remarkable ability for reinventing herself. In an example from the Daily Mail on 29 Apr 1923, she claims to have been born in New York, & had 3 marriages, "first to a widely travelled cultured Englishman, then to a titled Frenchman, and last to an American"!

20. In 1922 and 1923, she is specializing in songs from India and the Orient; claiming to have lived there. Visited perhaps, but it is at this point that our trail goes cold on all our characters. This has been a VERY abridged history and questions remain unanswered.

21 of 21. Why did Delia lie in her passport application? Why was Delia so compelled to reinvent herself at every opportunity? What happened to her after 1923, and her daughter? And what became of Lottie and Ingfrid Anderson?

Fin.

PS1. Some photos of Delia...

1. Delia, age 21, class president, graduating from the Girl’s Collegiate school on West Adams St, LA (1902)
2. Delia departs for San Francisco to study music (1902)
3. Delia drops surname Plumstead, for Donald (1904)
4. Mrs Wallace Cahill Ayer (1907)

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