Myrna Darby was a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl whose obsession with exercise led to her tragic
early death
She was born on April 10, 1908 Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Her father, Daniel Darby, worked for a railroad company. Myrna attended business school and briefly worked as a stenographer. She made her stage debut in a Pittsburgh production of Abie's Irish Rose. At the age of seventeen she moved to New York City and won a beauty contest run by a newspaper. Florenz Ziegfeld saw her and hired her to be in his 1926 Broadway show No Foolin. The following year she appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies. With her blonde hair and voluptuous figure she quickly became a popular showgirl. Many people said she was the most beautiful woman ever to appear in the Follies. Myrna posed semi-nude for photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston and appeared in ads for Lucky Strike cigarettes. Unfortunately she struggled with her weight and began obsessively exercising every day to stay thin. In 1927 she fell in love with a married pianist named George A. Walsh. When George's wife found out about the affair she filed for divorce and accused Myrna of stealing her husband.
The story caused a scandal and some newspapers labeled her a "home wrecker". She desperately wanted to marry George and was devastated when he reconciled with his wife. Myrna appeared on Broadway in Whoopee and Rio Rita. During the Spring of 1929 she became engaged to British millionaire. He lavished her with expensive gifts including an ermine coat. Sadly he broke her heart by marrying another woman. While vacationing in Europe in July of 1929 she suffered a severe sunburn. Over the next two months her health declined and she was hospitalized with a tonsil infection. Tragically on September 26, 1929 she died at the young age of twenty-one. Her doctor said she had died from an inflammation of the heart caused by over-exercising. Myrna was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York. After her death it was revealed that Larry Fay, an admirer she had only met once, had paid all her hospital bills.
