Blanche Massey was a Gaiety Girl

Gaiety Girls

Gaiety Girls were the chorus girls in Edwardian musical comedies, beginning in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in the shows produced by George Edwardes. The popularity of this genre of musical theatre depended, in part, on the beautiful dancing corps of "Gaiety Girls" appearing onstage in...

 and actress best known for her stage appearances in London and the United States in the 1890s. Among her appearances in many productions with the George Edwardes

George Edwardes

George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....

 company, especially Edwardian musical comedies, she was perhaps most remembered for A Gaiety Girl

A Gaiety Girl

A Gaiety Girl is an English musical comedy in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall , Harry Greenbank and Sidney Jones . It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes, on 14 October 1893 and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C...

. She appeared in both the 1893 West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 production of that musical and also the 1894 Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production, playing Alma Somerset, the title role, in the latter.(19 September 1894). A Gaiety Girl Is Here, The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

She also appeared in other plays including A Run of Luck (1888), Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue

Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue

Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué is a burlesque written by A. C. Torr and Herbert F. Clark with music by Meyer Lutz. It is based on the Victor Hugo drama Ruy Blas. The piece was produced by George Edwardes. As with many of the Gaiety burlesques, the title is a pun...

(1889) (incorrectly listed as Blanche Massie),Vinent, W.T. Recollections of Fred Leslie, Volume 2, p. 100 (1894) Carmen up to Data

Carmen up to Data

Carmen up to Data is a musical burlesque with a score written by Meyer Lutz. The piece was a spoof of Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. The libretto was written by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt....

(1890), Cinder Ellen up too Late

Cinder Ellen up too Late

Cinder Ellen up too Late is a musical burlesque written by Frederick Hobson Leslie and W. T. Vincent, with music arranged by Meyer Lutz from compositions by Lionel Monckton, Sidney Jones, Walter Slaughter, Osmond Carr, Scott Gatti, Jacobi, Robertson, and Leopold Wenzel. Additional lyrics were...

(1891), The Geisha

The Geisha

The Geisha, a story of a tea house is an Edwardian Musical Comedy in two acts. The score was composed by Sidney Jones to a libretto by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton and James Philip....

(1896),Platt, Len. Joyce, race and Finnegans wake, p. 134 (2007) My Friend the Prince (1897), and Lady Madcap (1904).Photograph, The Photographic Times, p. 29 (January 1896)Photograph, Munsey's Magazine (August 1896)Photograph, Munsey's Magazine (November 1895)

Of A Gaiety Girl, the New York Times wrote after its Broadway debut in September 1894 that "Blanche Massey is only to be looked at, and few persons will ever tire of looking at her."

Massey was the daughter of Rose Massey

Rose Massey

Rose Massey was a 19th century stage actress.Massey first appeared at the Haymarket Theatre in London in July 1867, playing the role of Mary Meredith in Our American Cousin, but later gained attention in her 1871 performance as Fatima in Blue Beard at the Covent Garden Theatre.Pascoe, Charles, E....

, a well-known actress in her time, who died of consumption in 1883. Blanche Massey married actor George F. Tully (1876–1930), who was also an actor and appeared in a few silent films in the 1910s.Who's who in the theatre, p. 1030 (1930)Theatrical costume, masks, make-up and wigs: a bibliography and iconography, p. 488George Tully Entry, Internet Movie Database, Retrieved August 4, 2011

She died at age 51.