Mary Augusta "May" Yohé (April 6, 1866 – August 29, 1938) was an American musical theatre actress. She began her career in 1886 with the McCaull Comic Opera Company in New York and Chicago. After other performances in the United States, she quickly gained success on the London stage, beginning in 1893. There she created the title role in the hit show Little Christopher Columbus in 1894.
The same year, she married Lord Francis Hope, the owner of the Hope Diamond. After the wedding, she continued to perform in musical theatre in London's West End and then the U.S. After squandering their wealth, the two divorced in 1902, and she later married a series of other financially unsuccessful, but often adventurous, men. In the early 20th century, she performed in music hall and vaudeville on the West Coast and elsewhere in the U.S., but she was frequently in financial jeopardy. By 1924, she and her last husband, John Smuts, had settled in Boston, where she died in near poverty.
Early years
Yohé was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William W. and Elizabeth (nee Batcheller) Yohé. Her father, an American Civil War veteran, was either the son or nephew of Caleb Yohé, proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, where she was born. William Yohé inherited the hotel and was locally famous for the elaborate miniature village scenes he constructed on the hotel grounds, especially for his annual Christmas putz. Yohé's mother, a descendant of the Narragansett people, was a talented dressmaker. According to Yohé, her mother had a clientele in Philadelphia that included many famous theater people. As a young girl, Yohé entertained the hotel's guests by dancing and singing in the lobby and recounting childhood stories. What became of her father is unclear: in 1878, he applied for a U.S. passport, planning to travel to Brazil. According to family lore, he died in Colorado or Montana around 1885. At around the age of ten, Yohé was sent to Europe for a refined education, studying in Dresden and later at the Convent of the Sacré Coeur in Paris.
Career
Yohé began her career as a soprano, but within a short while her voice lowered into a contralto that was described as peculiar. She debuted as May Yohé (May derived from her initials) in January 1886 with the McCaull Comic Opera Company as Dilly Dimple in The Little Tycoon, a comic opera by Willard Spencer, presented at Temple Theatre in Philadelphia and in March of that year at the Standard Theatre in New York. In March 1887, she appeared in McCaull's Broadway production of Lorraine, composed by Rudolph Dellinger to a libretto by Oscar Walther, which was adapted in English by William J. Henderson. She then played in the same production at the Chicago Opera House. In that production, she sang the following song with much success:
The song remained popular in the Chicago area for several years. Later in 1887, with McCaull at the Chicago Opera House, she sang "Bid Me Good-By and Go" in the musical comedy Natural Gas by Henry Grattan Donnelly. Yohé's unique vocal quality attracted the attention of the manager of the Chicago Opera House, and she was engaged to play princess Zal-Am-Boo in Alfred Thompson's extravaganza Arabian Nights, which premiered on June 2, 1887. The following year, she appeared in The Crystal Slipper: or Prince Pretliwittz and Little Cinderella, also at the Chicago Opera House. In 1888, on the weekend that preceded the Fourth of July, Yohé travelled to Cleveland, Ohio in the company of Edward Shaw, the son of W. W. Shaw, a major stockholder in the Chicago Opera House. She missed at least two performances before returning. Shaw's young wife filed for divorce a week later. She subsequently toured in America and abroad with George Lederer's Players in the farce comedy U & I and as Celia Cliquot in Hoss and Hoss, both in 1891.