WHAT A COLORFUL LADY! Edna Sedgwick was a ballet dancer who danced in movies (click on the photo above),
then she married two prominent men.
As a child prodigy ballet dancer, Edna spent a portion of her teen years traveling Europe,
where she performed for many of the heads of state, the kings, queens, presidents amd prime ministers.
She later was featured in three movies by Universal Studios,
in 1937 "You're a Sweetheart" with Alice Faye, George Murphy and Ken Murray
and in 1938 "Red Barry" with Buster Crabbe and "Swing, Sister, Swing," again with Ken Murray.
In "You're a Sweetheart," she was featured as the solo dancer in a dance production number.
Sam Maceo, an Italian immigrant, was a barber in Galveston, Texas.
When prohibition struck, he and his brother Rosario, "Rose," saw the opportunity.
They went into rum-running, made a lot of money, bought restaurants in Galveston,
and became very well known. Newspaper indexes across the nation list many articles about Sam.
One of their restaurants was the Hollywood Dinner Club,
from which the first nation-wide big-band radio broadcasts were reportedly made.
Another was the famous Balinese Room (photo),
which was very interesting because it was on the end of a six hundred feet long pier.
When the cops came to raid the place, they had to run the length of the pier;
this gave the operators of the casino time to hide the gambling apparatus, escaping arrest.
Recently a play in which Sam and Rose and their wives are the main characters,
Galveston the Musical: Bootleg to the Balinese Room by Dr. Robert Wilkins and Mark York,
enjoyed a very successful short run at the Strand Theatre in Galveston.
Watch for it; they hope to take it to Broadway.
Those nightclubs/casinos hired big-name entertainers, both to attract large crowds justify them.
They certainly had the money to pay for them.
Edna travelled with some to Galveston and even performed in one or more of the Maceo brothers nightclubs.
She met Sam, and they were married.
A decade later he died on the operating table while undergoing relatively minor surgery.
Henry G Plitt was born in New York City.
He graduated in 1935 from Staunton Military Academy SMA Alumni Hall of Fame.
A Jew, he joined the army and was at Normandy one of the "pathfinders" of the 101st Airborne.
After the war he captured Nazi war criminals (more)
The news media loved that fact that a Jew had captured these Nazis, so he received much publicity, and in his words “things started to happen that changed the rest of my life.”
He later joined the U.S. Army Reserves and became a Brigadier General.
He founded Plitt Theaters, Inc, a large operator of movie theaters.
Children of Edna Sedgwick and Sam Maceo:
Sam Maceo Plitt
Edward Maceo Plitt
Sedgie Maceo Plitt
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| Sources:
1. Records of descendants/researchers of this family
a. Sam Maceo Plitt, son of Edna Sedgwick and Sam Maceo
2. Census records, any of those indicated
3. Rhode Island Births, 1636-1930
an Ancestry.com database
This record:
| Name | Parent 1 | Parent 2 | Birth Date |
| Harold E Sedgwick | George B Sedgwick | Ella M Sedgwick | 07 Jul 1891 |
| Edna M Sedgwick | Harold Sedgwick | Mary C Sedgwick | 30 Apr 1915 |
4. Bridgeport Telegram, The. Bridgeport, Connecticut, April 17, 1951 page 23
"Deaths Last Night, by the Associated Press:
"BALTIMORE: Sam Maceo, 57, Italian Immigrant boy who became a Galveston, Tex.,
night club owner and friend of many orchestra and film folk."
5. California Death Index, 1940-1997
an Ancestry.com database
6. Galveston Island of Chance
Frank E Chalfant, 1997, Treasures of Nostalgia, Houston, Texas
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