At this hangout of the wealthy elite, George Gershwin often played impromptu piano for wealthy guests such as Reggie Vanderbilt, Harry Payne Whitney, or Walter Chrysler, and celebrities such as Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Pola Negri, Al Jolson, Jeanne Eagels, Gloria Swanson, John Gilbert, Clara Bow, Hope Hampton, Irving Berlin, John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, Leatrice Joy and Rudolph Valentino, as well as socialites such as Gloria Morgan and her sister Thelma, Viscountess Furness.

Eagels played her favorite role, that of Sadie Thompson, a free-wheeling and free-loving spirit who confronts a fire-and-brimstone preacher on a South Pacific island.

After services in New York, Eagels received a second funeral service when her body was returned to Kansas City, where she was buried in Calvary Cemetery.

Eagels was posthumously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Letter, but the Oscar went to Mary Pickford for the film Coquette.

Eagels was posthumously put " under consideration " for nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the married woman.

Bette Davis initially turned down the script, but Warner Bros. studio production chief Hal B. Wallis convinced her she could make something special out of the character, who had been inspired by one of Davis ' idols, actress Jeanne Eagels.

Similarly, actress Kim Novak wore a ruby in her navel for the film Jeanne Eagels.

Jeanne Eagels was born in Kansas City, Missouri to Edward and Julia Sullivan Eagles ( 1865 – 1945 ) on June 26, 1890 of German and Irish descent.

Just before she was to return to the Broadway stage in a new play, Eagels died suddenly upon visiting a private hospital in New York City on October 3, 1929 at the age of 39.

In 1928, after failing to appear for a performance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Eagels was banned by Actors Equity from appearing on stage for 18 months.

Eagels was in the supporting cast of Mind The Paint Girl at the Lyceum Theatre in September 1912.

Director Sam Forrest was replaced by George Abbott at the request of Jeanne Eagels ( Roxie Hart ); but Eagels quit the show within a few days, and Francine Larrimore replaced Eagels.

* The Letter ( 1929 ) featuring Jeanne Eagels, O. P. Heggie, Reginald Owen and Herbert Marshall.

** Jeanne Eagels, American actress ( b. 1890 )

( The others are Jeanne Eagels, James Dean, Spencer Tracy, Peter Finch, Sir Ralph Richardson, and Heath Ledger.

* October 3 – Jeanne Eagels, Ziegfeld girl and actress ( b. 1894 )

Swanson had seen Jeanne Eagels perform the role on stage twice and enjoyed it.

Jeanne Eagels ( June 26, 1890 – October 3, 1929 ) was an American actress on Broadway and in several motion pictures.

Eagels attended St. Joseph's Catholic School and Morris Public School.

Eagels played opposite George Arliss in three successive plays in 1916 and 1917.

In 1925, Eagels married Edward Harris " Ted " Coy, a former Yale University football star turned stockbroker.

Eagels with George Arliss in Hamilton ( c. 1917 )

In 1926, Eagels was offered the part of Roxie Hart in Maurine Dallas Watkins's play Chicago, but Eagels walked out of this role during rehearsals.

After missing some performances due to ptomaine poisoning, Eagels returned to the cast in July 1927 for an Empire Theater show.

She began it deliberately, so that none of her words would be lost on him.

Mrs. Roebuck smilingly declined and began suddenly to go on about her son, who was `` onleh a little younguh than you bawhs ''.

Mary Jane took the page from him and began reading it, moving her lips with the words.

And, as the others began to crawl out from beneath the desks and tend to those wounded, and mark the several killed, he climbed across the debris to Penny and took her hand in his.

Reporters began to trail Miriam everywhere, and to encourage her to make appalling statements about Wright and his doings.

When Thompson and her daughter began a correspondence which included fervent verses from Pantasaph, Mrs. King felt a proper Victorian alarm.

Martha picked up the hem of her gown and with eyes closed she slowly began to dance a stately minuet around the ballroom.

-- and flounced to the sink, where she began noisily to wash her hands.

To win her favors, her husband first took an additional job, then desperately began to embezzle from his employer.

Keeping her frightened gaze on the men at the counter, she began to feel her way to the door.

Shadow, the more talkative, began at once to talk, her voice piteous.

When a fisherman brought her up in his arms, still, small, as if she were a child asleep, I began to shudder with a terrible excitement, almost triumphant, that I still cannot account for.

The sounds from the quarry began to pulse in her ears.

But Victoria began yodeling just then and he went home, carrying Sabella in the back of his head, not thinking about her, just knowing she was there, smiling, smelling of peppermints.

Gerry began to aid Freddy with her father, prodded, no doubt, by Joan's open contempt for Freddy and William's irritating competency.

the Gabriel pointed towards her destination and, under one-gee acceleration, began to build up towards her ultimate velocity, 99.1 percent of the speed of light.

Murder on the Links began with news from France, a wife debunked, who claimed intruders tied her up and murdered her husband.

While living in the home, Louisa began writing in earnest and was given her own room.

The tempo of their arrangement was slowed to allow for the bagpipes, but it was based on Collins ': it began with a bagpipe solo introduction similar to her lone voice, then it was accompanied by the band of bagpipes and horns, whereas in her version she is backed up by a chorus.

Many people began to show pity and sympathy to Agrippina, due to the unfortunate circumstances in her life.