Jim Bradshaw: Sharp-eyed clerk spotted reclusive actress

It was the talk of the town when the movie star Elissa Landi was spotted in Crowley on Feb. 3. 1936. She was trying to travel incognito and registered at the Egan Hotel as Mrs. Elizabeth Lawrence, That didn’t work. Mary Amelia Egan, the sharp-eyed desk clerk, recognized her.
Mary Amelia was on duty when the star and four others arrived at the hotel that Sunday evening. According to the Crowley Signal, when she asked Landis if she was the actress, she said she wasn’t, that she had been mistaken for the actress “many times,” and then “rushed up the stairs to her room.” But the jig was up when one of her companions said “under her breath” that “I didn’t think she’d be recognized.”
The actress was having a hard time trying to hide her identity. According to the Signal, “Miss Landi’s party was in New Orleans Saturday afternoon and night, seeing the city incognito … [but] was recognized when she presented a traveler’s check signed ‘Elissa Landi.’”
It was not a fib when Landi signed the register as Mrs. Elizabeth Lawrence. She could claim the last name because she was married to (but recently divorced from) John Cecil Lawrence. Elizabeth was also correct because she was born Elizabeth Marie Christine von Kuhnelt in Vienna, Austria. That also added a little spice to the conversation in Crowley. Her mother claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of Empress Elizabeth of Austria, which, if true, would have made Elissa a countess.
The actress never claimed the title, and renounced any claim to it when she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943. Several biographies say, however, that she maintained an “autocratic bearing,” which may be part of the reason she tried not to be recognized.
She had a sultry reputation as an actress. Most biographers say her biggest role was as Mercia, the female lead in Cecile B. DeMille’s 1932 film, “The Sign of the Cross. According to an on-line biography, “The epic drama about Roman emperor Nero was so controversial due to the provocative, lustful scenes that the Catholic Church established The Legion of Decency, which aimed to identify any questionable content depicted in films”
When she died, she was portrayed as “an artist of multiple facets, equally successful as a motion picture and stage star, as a novelist, as a linguist, as a pianist and as a singer,” talents which she “combined with a subtle blond beauty.”
The Egan was the preferred hotel for visiting VIPS in Crowley and the place where a traveling actress, incognito or otherwise, would choose to stay. When it was opened in 1914 it offered then-uncommon luxuries such as electric lights and hot and cold running water, and continued to be known as Crowley’s best for many years. Babe Ruth stayed there. So did Clark Gable. A local history proclaims that DeRoussel’s restaurant, on the ground floor of the hotel, “was the place to be for Crowley’s high-level businessmen and politicians, and it wasn’t uncommon that many would cross paths with men from Washington and other powerful, influential figures .., in the 1930s and 40s.”
Some of those figures may still be hanging around. The old hotel also once enjoyed the reputation as Crowley’s most haunted building.
It hadn’t gained that reputation when the Landi party spent just one, quiet night there. Mrs. C. A. Peck had a room immediately below the actress and said they made “very little noise.”
They also departed without noise or fanfare. The Signal reported that they “left the city about 9:30 Monday morning in two large autos. Both turned down West Second street, apparently on their way to the Pacific coast.”
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.