While working on the history of Albany’s airports, we were struck by the role celebrity played in bringing attention to the promise of air travel so early on. It wasn’t just the daring early aviators who captured the public’s attention – though many of them, with names largely now forgotten, figured in the early landings on Albany’s fields. In those early days, movie stars already figured prominently in promoting the glamour of air travel.
We wrote that silent film star Dorothy Dalton was one of the first to land at Quentin Roosevelt Memorial Field in Loudonville, in April 1919. Shortly after that, another star arrived who made a publicity splash that would seem extravagant even by modern standards. If Taylor Swift were to wander from merchant to merchant in downtown Albany, she might not get more attention than Hope Eden did back in 1919.
“Hope Eden To Do Her Shopping In Albany Stores,” the Argus proclaimed on Sept. 9, 1919. “Aviatrix-Actress-Mind Reader Plans Busy Time During Stay in City – Flys From Syracuse – Merchants Will Have Hard Time to Fill Need of Proctor Star.”
Hope Eden was a well-known, well-publicized vaudeville star when this headline appeared in The Albany Argus on Sept. 9, 1919. In an act with her husband, “Frescott, The Master Mind,” she would, by purported mental telepathy from Frescott, “describe articles presented by the audience, call off numbers of bank notes, answer unwritten questions and also announce the names of people asking the questions.”
John Benedict Buescher’s “Radio Psychics: Mind Reading and Fortune Telling in American Broadcasting” provides the only background we can find on the team of Frescott and Hope Eden. He writes that Hope Eden, born Evangeline Christina Cousins in Boston in 1892, was on a vaudeville bill with a song and dance routine when she met Norman Frescott (born Norman Reginald Scott in 1892), who had a mentalist act, in 1913; they married in Chicago just three weeks later. When Frescott’s partner Hugh Fraser left the act early in 1916, Eva took his place under the name Hope Eden. That they were married was not publicized, and she was frequently referred to in the press as “Miss Eden.” She was also referred to as “The Youngest Mind Reader in the World,” despite being at least 23 before the act even began.
In 1919, newspaper articles regularly referred to Frescott and Miss Eden as “the first theatrical artists to use the aeroplane instead of the train to make their ‘jumps'” from one city to the next. If their publicity agent was to be believed, the pair became interested in aviation when Lieut. Charles Delaney, formerly of the Royal Flying Corps, was flying passengers near their home on Freeport, Long Island.
“…Miss Eden decided that she would like to make a flight. Fearing that the excitement accompanying an aeroplane ride and Miss Eden’s psychic tendencies would not blend well, Frescott and Miss Eden’s physician tried to persuade her not to try it. She was persistent, however, and was soon seeing her home from the clouds. Frescott was next induced to try a flight and his accompanying enthusiasm was the means of Delaney becoming their instructor.”
Throughout the year, articles indicated that Miss Eden was flying to her engagements, though it was usually Delany who was doing the piloting at first. But make no mistake, Hope Eden became a qualified pilot and engaged in stunt piloting that ginned up even more publicity for the act. Buescher writes that Frescott usually traveled separately to provide the advance publicity.
And what publicity there was! Hope Eden was a huge star, initially for her “mind reading” tricks and daring flying escapades, but it grew so that nearly anything she did would generate ink. Buescher explains that what started as a stunt – Hope Eden driving blindfolded from store to store, guided by nothing but mental instructions from Frescott! – turned into no stunt at all, just Hope Eden going shopping. And she drew just as much press.
And so it was that when Hope Eden flew into Loudonville’s Quentin Roosevelt Memorial Field In September 1919, The Argus provided excruciating detail on the event. The “youngest mind reader in the world,” who was by now 27, flew in from Syracuse to keep her engagement at the Grand Theatre.
“After a fast ride from Syracuse, which Miss Eden said was the ‘bumpiest’ she had ever had, her plane appeared 6,000 feet above Quentin Roosevelt memorial field shortly before noon yesterday, and alighted a few seconds later, following a spin and dive that thrilled the group of Albanians who had come to welcome her.
Chic in her aviator’s costume and apparently as calm as though she had been taking a stroll, Miss Eden, ’20-year-old marvel’ stepped from her machine to greet those who had come to greet her.”
Then began the shopping tours. The level of planning and precision is astonishing – nearly every type of merchant in Albany had a chance to have Miss Eden “shop” in their store. “A schedule of the places she will visit and the time has been arranged and will be advertised today that Albanians may have an opportunity of seeing the aviatrix-actress offstage.”
We have to share the entire breathless itinerary, as it was printed in the Argus:
Miss Eden’s first visit will be to the Boulevard restaurant at 108 State street, where she will breakfast at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning. At 10 o’clock, she will walk across State street to the Marinello Beauty shop for a manicure and half an hour later will drop into Eyres flower store, 106 State street for a corsage bouquet. From there she will walk to the Annesley & company art gallery at 501 Broadway, arriving at 11 o’clock. After purchasing a water color she will go 15 minutes later to McClure and Cowles, 64 North Pearl street to listen to selections on one of their pianos. Because she is anxious to look over the fall styles in women’s clothes, Miss Eden will drop in at the Hyman and Hess shop, 75 State street at 11:45 o’clock and there conclude her tour for the morning.
To buy a lens for her camera Miss Eden plans to visit F. E. Colwell & company, dealers in photographic supplies, at 465 Broadway at 9:30 o’clock Thursday morning. At 10 o’clock she will be in the store of the Schroeder Electric company. Inc., 15 Steuben street to buy an electric fan.
Half an hour later Miss Eden will get a hat at the Gray shop, and at 11 o’clock will visit Miss Jennie R. King, 19 Steuben street, a dealer in corsets. Her last two visits Thursday morning will be to the store of Fearey & Son, shoe dealers, 23 North Pearl street, and at 11:30 o’clock to Henry J. Evans, optician. 78 North Pearl street, at 11:45 o’clock.
After going to the Albany Art union, 48 North Pearl street, at 9:30 o’clock Friday morning, Miss Eden will look over the typewriters at the Corona Distributing company, Inc., 51 State street, half an hour later. At 10:30 o’clock she will be at the store of Stetson Fisk, Inc., 42-44 State street, for stationery; Albany City Savings institution at 10:45 o’clock to open an account; Jackson’s confectionery store, 39 Maiden lane, at 11 o’clock, for chocolates; Babbitt & Co., 67 North Pearl street, at 11:15 o’clock to purchase a traveling bag, and at the Jennings jewelry store, 115 North Pearl street, at 11:30 o’clock.
Repeated references to Hope Eden as an “actress” seem to have been aspirational. Buescher writes that she and Frescott had a screen test for Loew’s in 1919, and the Pittsburgh Press wrote that “both photograph unusually well, especially Miss Eden, whose beauty is quite unusual.” But little or nothing seems to have come of that then; she later appeared in a single movie, “The Family Ford,” written by W.C. Fields.
The mind reading act went on for a number of years, with a real bump in attention in 1923 when they put on what was billed as vaudeville’s first mystery play, “The Merton Mystery,” which featured audience engagement in a style along the lines of modern murder mystery dinner theater.
In 1924, Frescott walked out on Miss Eden, and their act was over. “Norman Prescott and Hope Eden have come to a parting of ways,” Variety wrote, “with Constance Evans, dancer, supplanting Miss Eden. The new partners will continue with the same act.” Eden also tried to carry on but with little success. A 1931 New York Daily News article said she had been found “broke and dying.” Well, not quite – she lived on until 1970, but without any further show business success.
First to land in Troy
Hope Eden did have one more important credit, though, and one we didn’t know about when we recently wrote about Troy’s airport. On October 6, 1919, Hope Eden became the first “airplanist” to land a plane in the city of Troy. But put an asterisk on that record for a moment.
On that date, the Troy Times wrote:
“A woman airplanist wins the honor of being the first birdman or woman to make a successful landing in this city. The woman is Hope Eden, who, with Frescott, is the headliner all this week at Proctor’s Fourth Street Theatre.
She landed in Partridge’s pasture on Tibbits Avenue, east of Burdett Avenue, at exactly 1:14 p.m. this afternoon, having started the journey from Roosevelt Field at Mineola at 7:30 o’clock. The journey was thrilling and one of the most difficult and hazardous that Miss Eden has ever undertaken.”
Having taken off from Mineola at 7:30, there was rain, low visibility and wind, and a fueling stop at Poughkeepsie didn’t work out as planned as they were having trouble with the plane’s magneto. They landed 10 miles south of Poughkeepsie, were lucky enough to find a farmhouse with a telephone, and were able to call Birch aircraft in Albany, who dispatched S.M. Weisenborn with another plane. “I jumped into it and again we took the air. We had a worse time on this half of the journey than before. Always were we battling with the elements, and I want to say right here and now, Mr. Weisenborn is a wonderful driver. He kept things humming and it was due to his god aerial work that we reached here when we did. We did not get into any air pockets until we were over Troy, and then we had a bad time of it, but we managed to make it and we’re here.”
“At 11:06 the machine was sighted by the crowd over Prospect Park. It flew up through the city, scattering pamphlets, and then circled around the Armory site and started to make a landing, but the crowd was too great there so Weisenborn took another turn and came down in the Partridge field, which was empty for the moment. The crowd piled over and Miss Eden was helped out of her machine.”
Such was Hope Eden’s star power that, even though the Times clearly stated that Weisenborn was at the controls, they credited Hope Eden with the first successful landing.