Background

Lillian Roth was born in Boston, Massachussets, the elder child of Arthur Roth (formerly Rutstein), a salesman, and Katie Silverman. Her stage-struck parents named her after the famed singer Lillian Russell and put her on the stage shortly after their move to New York City when she was six.

Education

In between Broadway and touring engagements, Roth went to New York's Professional Children's School, from which she graduated in 1923. She also attended the Clark School of Concentration in 1924.

Career

Lillian had her first theatrical role in The Inner Man in 1917, but her breakthrough play was Shavings in 1920. "Just turned eight, " she later wrote with little regard for arithmetic, "I was billed as 'Broadway's Youngest Star. '" Sometimes alone and sometimes with her younger sister, Ann, Roth toured the vaudeville circuit. The sisters were billed first as "Lillian Roth and Co. ," and then later as "The Roth Kids. "

In her autobiography, Roth recalled an unhappy childhood. Her alcoholic father never made a substantial living, and the family depended on the children's earnings. Despite Roth's avowed devotion to her mother, Katie Roth comes across in her daughter's memoir as a hard taskmistress overly ambitious for her daughter's theatrical success. Lillian Roth made the transition to adult roles at the age of fifteen, when the Shubert organization booked her to star in the Chicago run of its revue Artists and Models.

She continued to appear in revues throughout the late 1920's, starring in such productions as Florenz Ziegfeld's Midnight Follies and Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1928. In 1929, Paramount Pictures offered Roth a contract with the studio. Roth played a comic supporting role in the Ernst Lubitsch musical The Love Parade (1929) and leading roles in films including The Vagabond King (1930), Honey (1930), Animal Crackers (1930), and Madam Satan (1930). Her vivacious on-screen personality brought her increasing fame and, she later claimed, $1 million in income in the early 1930's.

Shortly after her arrival in Hollywood in 1929, Roth became engaged to David Lyons, an assistant director. When Lyons died in 1930, she fell into a depression and began to drink heavily. Roth continued to act in films, but she also continued to drink. In 1933 she temporarily retired from show business.

Unable to work and often sick because of her alcohol dependence, she subsisted on checks from her family for several years. In 1945 she returned to New York and checked into a mental hospital in Westchester County for six months of therapy and drying out. Upon her release from the hospital in mid-1946, Roth secured work from her old friend Milton Berle, but she quickly began drinking again and could not fulfill her professional commitments. Her despair during this period of her life finally prompted her to join Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), an organization she would later publicize heavily. With help from fellow AA members, Roth stopped drinking.

Her recovery enabled her to find singing engagements in nightclubs. Later she went on an extended concert tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1947 and 1948. There she helped organize AA groups. Born of Jewish parents, Roth converted to Roman Catholicism shortly after her marriage to McGuire, who had been raised a Catholic. Roth found increasing work in nightclubs around the country. Her comeback was given a boost in 1953, when she was honored on Ralph Edwards's popular television program, "This Is Your Life. " During her appearance on the program, she sang for a national viewing audience. She also discussed her triumph over alcoholism. In 1954 that triumph was further highlighted in Roth's autobiography, I'll Cry Tomorrow, coauthored by Mike Connolly and Gerold Frank. Critical response to the book was mixed. Nevertheless, the combination of Roth's tale of her lurid descent into alcoholism and her recovery, and her final message of hope attracted readers, and the book sold well.

In 1955, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the film rights to the book, which it made into a motion picture that same year; Susan Hayward played Roth on the screen and won an Oscar nomination for her performance. Between nightclub engagements in the mid-1950's, Roth continued to write. In 1958 she produced Beyond My Worth, a group of essays chronicling her life since the publication of I'll Cry Tomorrow. More lighthearted than her first book, it rejoiced in her successful comeback as an entertainer and described her new found role as inspiration to alcoholics and other sufferers. Despite its verbal and photographic images of a happier Lillian Roth, the book suggested that the singer-actress still experienced spells of profound depression.

Roth's comeback was crowned in 1962 by her portrayal of the hero's mother in the musical comedy I Can Get It for You Wholesale on Broadway. She would not play on Broadway again until 1971, when she appeared in the musical 70 Girls, 70. She spent most of the 1960's and 1970's in semiretirement, doing occasional nightclub work and regional theater. Her final film appearance was a brief role in the 1979 film Boardwalk. Lillian Roth died in New York City.

Achievements

• She was known as a singer-actor whose career met with early success but was eventually sidetracked by alcoholism and mental illness. Roth's autobiography, "I'll Cry Tomorrow" was made into a hit film starring Susan Hayward, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Roth. The book became a bestseller worldwide and sold more than seven million copies in twenty languages.

Works

More photos

• book

  • I'll Cry Tomorrow

    (Cloth; Very Good; Signed by Author; Dust Jacket - Like Ne...)

  • The Very Best Of

    (The Very Best Of by Lillian Roth)

  • Beyond My Worth

    (A book by Lillian Roth. A story of a woman placed on a pe...)

  • Don't Take Your Love from Me
  • Why Am I so Romantic?
  • After You've Gone
  • When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along
  • You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby
  • Let's Fall in Love
  • Sing You Sinners!

Connections

Roth was married five times. In 1930 she married airman William Scott, but the marriage dissolved within a few months. In 1933 she married New York City judge Ben Shalleck. The Shallecks were divorced in 1939, and Roth plunged into a relationship with Mark Harris, a playboy with underworld connections. Despite his physical abuse of her and a dependence on alcohol that exceeded even her own, she married Harris in 1940. During their stormy marriage, he spent most of her remaining money and continued to abuse her. She had the marriage annulled.

In 1941, Roth was briefly married to salesman Edward Leeds. In 1947 she married Burt McGuire, a friend from AA who had been an advertising executive before alcoholism had overwhelmed him. In 1963 she and McGuire were divorced.

She had no children by him or by any other husband.

Father:

Arthur Roth

Mother:

Katie Silverman

Spouse:

Ben Shalleck

Spouse:

William Scott

Spouse:

Mark Harris

Spouse:

Burt McGuire

Spouse:

Edward Leeds