Saturday, April 26, 2008

To Joey Ratliff


Scan000011152, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Did you know that Harriet Beatty's sister was also part of the Beatty Entourage?
Her name was Jean Evans (not to be confused with Jean Allen) and seen here with my dad working "Mary", "Sidney" and "Anna May" with the Hamid-Morton Circus in 1943.

Posted by Buckles at 4/26/2008 06:13:00 AM

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful sidenote that I will write down in my Beatty file. Thank you Buckles. Did she remain in the business long?

26 April, 2008 08:18
Buckles said...

Miss Evans was a typical show gal, meaning she could do aerial work, ride menage, etc. but even as an 8 year old, I was aware she had a drinking problem.
The man that managed things for Mr. Beatty was Ernie Sylvester and I remember she gave him fits.
I have pictures of her working the same three elephants with Arky Scott at the Beatty Park.
I'm sure Dave Price would know her eventual disposition.

26 April, 2008 08:53
Anonymous said...

Well, it wasn't good. I think Roger can provide the tragic details.

26 April, 2008 13:21
Wade G. Burck said...

Who was Edith Evans?
Wade Burck

26 April, 2008 17:00
Roger Smith said...

Jean Evans was the sister of Harriett Evans, wife of Clyde Beatty. Their family name was Iwicki, pronouced ee-VEEK-ee, and translates to Evans from the Polish. Beatty (or an imaginative collaborator) wrote of Harriett as Russian which may have seemed a little more daring, but the family was Polish. Some accounts spin the English result to Evanski, or Evaniski.

In a month in which we lost two great ones very close to me exactly 40 years ago--Arky Scott on April 11, and Mabel Stark on April 20, it is difficult to recount another tragic passing.

I have more details than are needed for this telling, but suffice it say that in 1954, Jean Evans was discovered injured and incoherent, attempting to make her way along railroad tracks in Los Angeles. The most plausible story is that Good Samaritans found her and notified police, who took her to a hospital. During treatment there, she was eventually able to tell medical personnel that she had fallen from a train. Upon further identification, it was learned she was the sister-in-law of Clyde Beatty. When he was informed, he replied he had not known of the incident. Sources I've met in Los Angeles believe, but have not confirmed, that Mr. Beatty quietly paid her medical bills.

Whether as a result of her injuries, or of her alcoholism, it is not known, but Jean was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. She languised in detention but a short time, when jail matrons found her the victim of suicide. Her brother John arrived from Chicago to claim her body.

There is no kinship between the Evans sisters and Dame Edith Evans, proclaimed the greatest actress of the English stage of the 20th century, who died in 1976, at 88.

Roger Smith

29 April, 2008 00:04
Wade G. Burck said...

Roger,
I understood there was an inquest into the incident. Was it concluded she fell off the train?
Wade Burck

29 April, 2008 13:00
Roger Smith said...

In cases of questionable incidents, the police always become involved, especially since they were summoned for Miss Evans. Law enforcement has to know if this is an isolated incident, or if someone committed a crime, in this case by throwing, or red-lighting, someone from a moving train. The case drew to a conclusion when Jean stated only that she had fallen. No further investigation was made beyond her initial questioning.

Roger Smith

02 May, 2008 04:32

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