Blanche Hays Fagen

Blanche Hays Fagen
Blanche Hays, from the 1906 yearbook of Barnard College
Born
Blanche Florence Marks

(1884-12-12)December 12, 1884
New York, U.S.
DiedApril 1980(1980-04-00) (aged 95)
Fort Pierce, Florida, U.S.
Other nameBlanche Hays
OccupationsActress, activist, writer, businesswoman
Spouse(s)Arthur Garfield Hays
William H. Fagen
Children1, Lora Hays
RelativesRita Weiman (sister-in-law)
Jean Lenauer (son-in-law)

Blanche Florence Marks Hays Fagen (December 12, 1884[1] – April 1980) was an American actress, civil rights activist, journalist, and businesswoman. She was a member of the Provincetown Players.

Early life and education

Hays was born in New York City, the daughter of Samuel A. Marks and Frances E. Marks. She had an older brother, Maurice Marks, who became a playwright and married a screenwriter, Rita Weiman.[2] She graduated from Hunter College High School in 1899.[3] She graduated from Barnard College in 1906.[4] At Barnard she acted in student theatre productions,[5] and co-wrote and produced an operetta, Barnadesia, with classmate Edith Somborn Isaacs, as a fundraiser for a new dormitory.[6]

Career

In October 1920 Hays and two socialist activists tried to hold a street meeting in Mount Vernon, but they were denied a permit. They held the meeting anyway and were arrested. The charges were dismissed,[7] but they challenged the process by which their permit was denied. They took the case to the New York Supreme Court,[8] before losing in the appeals court in 1921.[9]

Hays was a member of the Provincetown Players.[10] She appeared in their New York productions of plays by Susan Glaspell, including Tickless Time in 1920,[11] and Inheritors and The Verge in 1921,[12] in casts with Margaret Wycherly, Ann Harding, James Light, Norma Millay, and Henry O'Neill.[13][14] She also performed in Savitri, or Love Conquers Death by Kedar Nath Das Gupta, at Cooper Union in 1921.[15] She acted in another Provincetown Players show in 1922.[16]

Before she divorced her first husband in 1924, she moved to Paris, where she was a close friend to Elsa Schiaparelli[17] and was a correspondent for several American publications, including Harper's Bazaar.[18] She studied art in Mexico in the studio of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in 1941.[18][19][20] During World War II she returned to the United States, and worked in a government censorship office.[21]

She moved to Florida with her second husband after the war, and they ran a smoked fish business together until they retired in 1961.[21] She ran an art gallery in Fort Pierce in the 1970s.[22] The Fort Pierce Arts League celebrated her 95th birthday in 1979, a few months before she died.[18]

Personal life and legacy

Marks married civil rights lawyer Arthur Garfield Hays in 1908.[23] They had a daughter, film editor Lora Hays Spindell.[24] She divorced Hays in 1924.[25] She remarried to William Hope Fagen and lived with him in Florida.[21] Her second husband died in 1968, and Fagen died in 1980, at the age of 95.[21][26] She gave an interview for Warren Beatty in 1979,[27][28] and was one of the "Witnesses" who appeared posthumously in his film Reds (1981).[29][30]

References

  1. ↑ Blanche Marks Hays, application for a United States passport dated May 23, 1922, via Ancestry.
  2. ↑ "Maurice Marks". The New York Times. November 4, 1952. p. 29. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-03-22.
  3. ↑ "Fifty-Five Graduates; Closing Exercises of the Training Department of Normal College". New-York Tribune. 1899-06-22. p. 7. Retrieved 2026-03-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Scenery Committee" (PDF). Barnard Bulletin. November 2, 1903. p. 1.
  5. ↑ Barnard College, Mortarboard (1906 yearbook): 79, 81, 83, 85, 134.
  6. ↑ Craig, Sophie (March 24, 2021). "'Barnardesia': The operetta that built Brooks Hall". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2026-03-23.
  7. ↑ "All Cases of Street Meetings Are Dismissed". Mount Vernon Argus. 1920-10-18. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-03-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Socialists' Cases Reach Supreme Court Today". Mount Vernon Argus. 1920-10-06. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-03-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Socialists Lose Free Speech Fight; Justice Keogh Sustains Mt. Vernon Ordinance Requiring a Permit; Finds No Discrimination, And Says if Permit Is Improperly Refused Remedy Lies in Mandamus". The New York Times. June 5, 1921. p. 7. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-03-22.
  10. ↑ "Ethical Society Greets Provincetown Players". Times Union. 1920-01-31. p. 9. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Stage Notes". The Brooklyn Daily Times. 1920-12-22. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "'The Verge' is on Edge of Dramatic Greatness". New-York Tribune. 1921-11-15. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Pollock, Arthur (1921-11-17). "The New Plays: 'The Verge'". Brooklyn Eagle. p. 7. Retrieved 2026-03-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "New Plays This Week". Brooklyn Eagle. 1921-03-20. p. 38. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Cosmopolitan Audience Charmed by Hindu Plays". Times Union. 1921-03-13. p. 18. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "New Plays This Week". Brooklyn Eagle. 1922-01-08. p. 45. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Stockley, Philippa. "All Fired Up". Bonham's Magazine.
  18. 1 2 3 Adler, Marjorie Silver (1982-01-24). "Before the Beatty film "Reds', she knew glamor and excitement in many worlds". Fort Pierce Tribune. pp. 57, 58. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Muray, Nickolas. "Group in San Angel, Mexico" (1941 photograph), Eastman Museum.
  20. ↑ Barbezat, Suzanne (2025-05-06). Frida Kahlo's Love Letters. Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-1-83600-154-6.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Wilder, Anne (1997-03-23). "Scraps of history; Baywood book gives a glimpse at the past". Fort Pierce Tribune. pp. C1, C3. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ "Beanie Backus Cards". The Stuart News. 1973-11-09. p. 10. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ "' Arghur Garfield Hays Dies at 73; Counsel to Civil Liberties Union; Noted Lawyer Who Served Many Without a Fee A/so Represented Corporations". The New York Times. December 15, 1954. p. 31. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-03-22.
  24. ↑ "Lora Hays Spindell, 99, film editor and professor". amNewYork. 2009-12-15. Retrieved 2026-03-22.
  25. ↑ Dowell, Chelsea (2016-12-15). "Village People: Arthur Garfield Hays - Village Preservation". Retrieved 2026-03-22.
  26. ↑ Jinks, Claire (1982-01-03). "A fitting memorial to Blanche Hays Fagen". Fort Pierce Tribune. p. 48. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ↑ Wilder, Anne (1982-01-16). "Blanche Fagen's star shines briefly in film, brightly in memory of folks who knew her". The Miami Herald. p. 111. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ↑ Wilder, Anne (1980-01-12). "Eat Your Heart Out, Jackie Onassis!". The Miami Herald. p. 105. Retrieved 2026-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ↑ Canby, Vincent (December 4, 1981). "The Screen: Beatty's 'Reds', with Diane Keaton". The New York Times. pp. C8.
  30. ↑ "Faces of Reds". The Times-Union. 1981-12-29. p. 17. Retrieved 2026-03-22 – via Newspapers.com.
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