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Lyda Roberti
Roberti in 1934
Born	Lyda Pecjak (1906-05-20)May 20, 1906 Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (present-day Warsaw, Poland)
Died	March 13, 1938(1938-03-13) (aged 31) Glendale, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Occupation(s)	Actress, singer
Years active	1928–1938
Spouse	Bud Ernst ​(m. 1935)​

Lyda Roberti (née Pecjak; May 20, 1906 – March 13, 1938) was an American singer and stage and film actress. (According to the opening credits of "The Big Broadcast of 1936," Lyda is pronounced LEE-duh.)

Early years

Born in Warsaw, then part of Imperial Russia, Lyda Roberti was the daughter of a German father (a professional clown surnamed Pecjak) and a Polish mother. As a child she performed in the circus as a trapeze artist and bareback rider. She had an elder brother, Robert, also born in Poland, and a younger sister, Manya.

To escape the upheaval in Russia after the Communist revolution in 1917, the Pecjak family settled in Shanghai, China, where Lyda earned money as a dancer in the Carlton café. Eventually, she saved enough money to pay her passage to the United States, where she performed in vaudeville in both San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Career

Roberti made her Broadway debut in You Said It in 1931 and, with its success, became an overnight sensation. During her run with the show, she was nicknamed "Broadway's preferred Polish blonde". Historian Edward Jablonski found that "much of her appeal to the audiences at the time was due to her Polish accent" and cited instances when her pronunciation of certain consonants would "stir audiences to gales of laughter."

In 1932, she was signed to Paramount Pictures, where she appeared in Edward F. Cline's comedy film Million Dollar Legs (1932) as "Mata Machree, The Woman No Man Can Resist", a Mata Hari-type spy hired to undermine the President of Klopstokia (played by W.C. Fields) in his efforts to secure money for his destitute country.

In 1933, she performed in two more Broadway musicals: the short-lived Pardon My English and the much more successful Roberta. Throughout the 1930s, she played in a string of films. Her sexy but playful characterizations, along with the accent she had acquired during her years in Europe and Asia, made her popular with audiences. In 1936, Roberti replaced Thelma Todd in several films after Todd's death.

Personal life

On June 25, 1935, Roberti married aviator Bud Ernst in Yuma, Arizona. They separated one year later but secretly reconciled in January 1937 and remained together until her death.

Roberti struggled with health issues for most of her life, mainly related to her heart. In the spring of 1935, she underwent surgery for heart and appendix issues. In 1936, she was forced to withdraw from Wives Never Know owing to an unnamed illness. A series of heart attacks forced her to curtail her workload in 1937.

Death

On the night of March 13, 1938, Roberti suffered another severe heart attack. Dr. Myron Babcock unsuccessfully administered heart stimulants, and Roberti died at age 31 with husband Ernst at her bedside. Her funeral two days later drew 400 people, including many of her Hollywood colleagues.

According to her friend and co-star Patsy Kelly, Roberti died from a heart attack while bending to tie her shoelace. In an interview with Leonard Maltin for Film Fan Monthly, Kelly said, "As a child, her father was in the circus, and he used to throw her on bareback, and we never knew it had affected her heart, and one day – boom!"

Roberti is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Filmography

References

1. ^ "Lyda Roberti - The Private Life and Times of Lyda Roberti". glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
2. Jablonski, Edward (1998). Harold Arlen: Rhythm, Rainbows, and Blues. UPNE. pp. 63–65. ISBN 978-1555533663. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
3. Robert Pecjak (later Robert Roberti; 1905–1996)
4. Edward Jablonski (September 1, 1998). Harold Arlen: Rhythm, Rainbows, and Blues. UPNE. pp. 63–. ISBN 978-1-55553-366-3.
5. "Lyda Roberti Weds Aviator At Yuma, Ariz". Reading Times. Pennsylvania, Reading. Associated Press. June 26, 1935. p. 9. Retrieved February 15, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
6. Crivello, Kirk (1988). Fallen Angels: The Lives and Untimely Deaths of Fourteen Hollywood Beauties. Citadel Press. p. 270. ISBN 0-8065-1096-X.
7. Maltin, Leonard. "FFM Interviews Patsy Kelly", March 1971, 3.
8. Ellenberger, Allan R. (2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland. p. 68. ISBN 978-0786409839. Retrieved August 24, 2018.

External links

• Lyda Roberti at IMDb
• Lyda Roberti at the Internet Broadway Database

• 1906 births
• 1938 deaths
• 20th-century American actresses
• American film actresses
• American people of German descent
• American people of Polish descent
• Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
• White Russian emigrants to the United States
• American vaudeville performers
• 20th-century American singers
• 20th-century American women singers
• Actresses from Warsaw