Georgia Lerch ~ The Alcoholic Chorus Girl

May 27, 2024

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Georgia Lerch was a chorus girl who sadly died young from alcoholism

She was born on August 14, 1906 in Gloversville, New York. Her father, John D. Lerch, was a wholesale cigar merchant. When she was a child her family moved to Brooklyn. Sadly her older brother John died in 1909. Georgia took dancing lessons and dreamed of being on the stage. At the age of seventeen she dropped out of school and was hired to be in George White’s Scandals. She became a popular chorus girl and stayed with the show for five seasons. A movie producer offered her a lucrative contract but she turned it down saying she preferred to be on the stage. Georgia started dating Dave Marx, founder of a toy company. They had an on-again off-again romance for several years. In 1930 she chosen to be one of the Goldwyn Girls and appeared in the musical Whoopee.

This would be her only film role. Sadly she was involved in a serious car accident in December of 1935. She was pinned under her car for ten hours after she lost control and drove over a cliff. By this time her career was over and she had developed a serious drinking problem. On April 28, 1937 she married Ted Brown, an aeronautics school operator. The couple split up just a year later. Georgia claimed that he hit her and was often intoxicated. Then in 1941 she married Howard Davis, a farmer. Tragically on January 20, 1942 she died from acute peritonitis caused by her alcoholism. She was only thirty-five years old. Georgia was cremated and her remains are at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.

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