On the Weeks Sisters (As Opposed to the Weak Sisters)

Ada May

March 8 was the birthday of stage and screen performer Ada May (Ada May Weeks, 1896-1978.) She was the most successful of four performing sisters from Oyster Bay, Long Island named Weeks.

Of the other three we know the most about Marion (1886-1968). Born in Brooklyn, Marion Weeks is said to have begun her career in vaudeville, and she appeared in at least eight Edison movie shorts in 1912 and 1913. She married a singer named Henri Barron.

Ada May made her mark not long after that, with a career in Broadway musical comedies beginning in 1915. She danced in the shows Around the Map (1915), Come to Bohemia (1916), Miss Springtime (1916), Miss 1917, and Listen Lester (1918) with Clifton Webb, in which she got her first speaking role.

By this time, two other sisters come upon the scene. Grace Weeks danced in the shows Follow the Girl (1918) with Walter Catlett and Jobyna Howland, and Nothing But Love (1919) with Robert Woolsey and Grace La Rue. That year she also danced in vaudeville with Hackett and Delmar’s act. Meanwhile Ruth Weeks danced in The Greenwich Village Follies (1919) and Hitchy-Koo (1920).

At the same time, Ada May had begun to break out of the chorus. She had a proper role in Jim Jam Jems (1920) with Joe E. Brown, Frank Fay, Harry and Rose Langdon, and Ned Sparks; followed by The O’Brien Girl (1921) with Harry Rose, Kitty Devere, et al. She had the star role in Zelda Sears’ Lollipop (1924); it was Sears who encouraged her to drop her last name and just bill herself as “Ada May”. This same year Ada May married millionaire big game hunter Wilson Potter, sometimes known as “Captain” Potter. (Shades of Captain Spalding? And Mrs. Potter in The Cocoanuts? I wonder). Ada May then went on to co-star with Wheeler and Woolsey in the original 1927 production of Rio Rita. She was replaced by Lila Lee in the film version. However, she did co-star in the 1928 short The Dancing Town with Helen Hayes and Hal Skelly, followed by a 1930 one called The Shaming of the True.

In 1932, Ada May divorced Captain Potter in a case that earned a lot of press, though the cause was never reported. She must have made out well in the settlement, for she retired after just two more projects: the 1932 Broadway premiere of The Good Fairy (later adapted into a film by Preston Sturges), and the 1933 film Dance, Girl, Dance, in which she was fourth billed behind Alan Dinehart, Evalyn Knapp, and Edward J. Nugent.

Meanwhile, Marion Weeks had her Broadway debut in a 1931 revival of The Student Prince. She later went into the cast of the original production of Clare Booth Luce’s The Women(1936), appeared in the cast of Strange Bedfellows (1948) and toured in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes(1951). In 1948 she made her television debut on Chevrolet Tele-Theatre.

In 1946, Ada May married Count Mario Castegnaro, an Italian film editor. She briefly came out of retirement to take a supporting role in Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and made a 1950 appearance on the TV show Fireside Theatre hosed by Gene Raymond.

For more on vaudeville history,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and please stay tuned for the upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.