One of our more mysterious families, Sarah BROADHURST (#3 of 11) and James WOODWARD, has a bit more information thanks to Bill Hoke. Bill recalled two things about their daughter Frances Woodward: Frances was a Ziegfeld Girl and she married George Bau. From those two clues I was able to piece this story together.

Frances was born in 1908 in Dover, New Hampshire where her parents worked in a cotton mill and sometime after 1920, she moved to New York City. By opening night, 28 March 1927,  Frances was a dancing girl at the Majestic Theater (where the Phantom lives now) in a musical revue, “Rufus LeMaire’s Affairs.” In August of 1927 Frances was in the opening night cast of  ”Ziegfeld Follies of 1927″ at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street, where Disney’s Lion King reigned. The picture above on the left is of the Ziegfeld Girls around the time Frances was a member. Additional information is listed in Frances’ Internet Broadway Database listing: click here to view.

Frances must have been garnering attention as an actress because by 1932 when she fell off a horse and broke her arm in Baltimore the news made it into The New York Times:

Ed Wynn

In 1934 Frances Woodward marries and again she makes the New York Times:

Her husband Adrian Droeshout worked for the French Line Steamship Company.

So how does Charles Laughton and his hump work into this tale?

From other family obituaries we know that Frances’ parents moved at some point to Los Angeles and I think Frances and her husband moved there before 1943. The Internet Movie Database list Frances Woodward playing the role of Sue Mason in the Hopalong Cassidy adventure “Riders of the Deadline.” It is her only credit on IMDB.com.

Frances gets credit above Robert Mitchum!

The Internet Movie Database lists Adrian Droeshout playing uncredited bit parts in movies from 1944 – 1946. It’s the the war years. By 1949 Adrian returns to work for the French Line in their new Los Angeles office according to a New York Times article. In that article it states that Adrian had been working with the publicity department of Warner Brothers.

The Hump?

Also at Warner Brothers were Gordon Bau, the head of makeup department and his brother George Bau, renowned Hollywood makeup artist, who at one time headed its prosthetics laboratory. George developed a new foam rubber formula for a lightweight facial makeup and hump which Charles Laughton wore as Quasimodo in 1939′s Hunchback of Notre Dame.

So, where are we?

I haven’t found any record of a divorce for Frances and Adrian, but our cousin Bill Hoke is certain that Frances and George Bau visited the Adams Cabins as husband and wife. Were they? Does anyone else know any more information about these family members? Let me know if you do and thanks for reading all the way to the bottom on this one!

1. Sarah Alice (b abt 1901, Haslingden, Lancashire)
2. Frances (b 10 Mar 1908, Dover, NH)

1891 England Census. Sarah BROADHURST (9) lived at 2 Spadescroft (sp?) in the civil parish of Crompton, Lancashire. Her father, Richard BROADHURST, was a farm laborer and siblings Fanny (14) and Annie (12) were cotton mill workers. Crompton was a major cotton mill town. Also at home were her younger siblings; John Richard (8), Gertrude (4), Mary (3), Peter Ernest (2) and Nellie (1 month).

1901 England Census. Sarah is now Mrs. John James WOODWARD living in Haslingden, Lancashire at 465 Blackburn Road with her husband and 7 month old daughter, Sarah A. WOODWARD. The ecclesiastical parish is St John Stonefold. Sarah’s older sister, Fanny CROSSLEY nee Broadhurst and her husband Frank, live just around the corner at 2 Pilling Street. John James works as a cotton weaver and Sarah works in the cotton card room.

To America – 1907. Sarah’s husband John J. WOODWARD is aboard the Empress of Ireland which arrived into New Brunswick, Canada on 16 February 1907 in from Liverpool. Also on board were Frank CROSSLEY (31) and Violet CROSSLEY (likely Violet BROADHURST, 11) I don’t find Sarah listed on board but many of the pages of this manifest are illegible. Also on the manifest near John is James BROADHURST, he is an unknown Broadhurst at this time. Both John and James are headed to “Valleyfield.” There is a Valleyfield in Newfoundland.

1910 US Census. Sarah and James WOODWARD lived in Dover, New Hampshire at 130 Payne Street, now Henry Law Avenue along with their two children, Sarah A. (9) and Frances (7). Also living with them at the time of the census is John Richard BROADHURST, his wife Edith Mary, their son Harold and 53 year old Irish servant, Margaret Scanlon. James Woodward works as a laborer in a cotton mill and Sarah is a cotton mill “Carder.”

Back To America -1919. Sarah WOODWARD nee Broadhurst (39) makes a return trip to America aboard the S.S. Vauban. With her are daughters Alice (18) and  Frances (10). They sail from Liverpool on 28 May 1919 and arrive in New York on June 8^th. Sarah’s calling is listed as “clerk” and Alice’s as “textile.” Sarah’s contact in England is recorded as Uncle John WOODWARD, 29 Hollin Street, Blackburn. Sarah is headed to her husband, John J. BROADHURST at Oakland Ave in Methuen, Massachusetts. Sarah is noted as 5′-2″ with brown hair and blue eyes. She notes that she “doesn’t know” if she intends to become a US citizen and that she’d previously been in America from 1908 to 1916.

1920 US Census. The family of John (42), Sarah (38), Alice (19) and Frances (11) BROADHURST live at 8 Oakland Ave in Methuen, Massachusetts. The residence is rented. John is a laborer in a print works facility, Sarah’s a “card room hand” in a cotton mill and Alice is a cotton mill (looks like) “luller”.

A daughter back from France. Twenty-one year old, single daughter, Frances WOODWARD returns from France aboard the S.S. Leviathan. She leaves from Cherbourg, France on 02 June 1929 and arrives in New York on 08 June 1929. Her address is “95^th & West End Ave, New York, New York.”

What then? Not much else is known of this family at this time except that, according to other family obituaries, Sarah WOODWARD lived in New York City in 1951 and in California by 1962.

The deaths of Sarah and John James. The Social Security Death Index lists Sarah Broadhurst WOODWARD passing away on 14 November 1968 in Los Angeles, California. Sarah was 87. The same index records John James WOODWARD‘s death on 05 January 1970, also in Los Angeles. He was 92.