Judith Evelyn

Judith Evelyn with Vincent Price in a scene from her first Broadway hit, “Angel Street.” Photo credit: vincentpricenut2.com

Meet the Character Judith Evelyn: An Act of Survival, Part 4

by Thomas Sanger • Meet the Character, Thomas C. Sanger • Leave a Comment

Two weeks after being rescued in the North Atlantic from the overturned bow section of their wrecked lifeboat, Canadians Judith Evelyn and her former fiancé, Andrew Allan, boarded another ship in Glasgow, Scotland, hoping to return home. (See Judith Evelyn: An Act of Survival, Part 3, April 2, 2015.)

Evelyn, a stage actor, and Allan, a writer and radio producer, had been aboard the British passenger liner Athenia when a German submarine attacked the ship Sept. 3, 1939. This time they were sailing on an American passenger ship, the Orizaba.

The U.S. government chartered the ship to bring home American survivors of the Athenia tragedy. One reason the Canadians found space on the American ship may have been because Orizaba would sail without a naval escort, in spite of the recently declared war between England and Germany. The United States was a neutral country and the U.S. government believed an escort was unnecessary. Many American survivors protested when they learned there would be no escort and several refused Read More

This overturned lifeboat is smaller but similar in design to the hull on which Judith Evelyn and five others survived for several hours in rising seas. Photo credit: pixgood.com

Judith Evelyn: An Act of Survival, Part 3

by Thomas Sanger • Meet the Character, SS Athenia, Thomas C. Sanger • Leave a Comment

In the early morning hours of Monday, Sept. 4, 1939, Judith Evelyn found herself adrift in the Atlantic Ocean on the overturned bow section of her wrecked lifeboat. The burgeoning stage actress had been returning to Canada when her ship, the British liner Athenia, was torpedoed by a German submarine only hours after England and Germany declared war (see blog post March 15, 2015, Judith Evelyn, Part 2).

Evelyn escaped the sinking ship along with her former fiancé, Andrew Allan, and his father, the Reverend William Allan. After several hours in the lifeboat, they were in the process of being rescued when the propeller of the would-be rescue ship inadvertently chopped their boat to pieces, tossing all aboard into the sea. Read More

Cover illustration for a 1958 book about the ATHENIA torpedoing depicts the tragedy that befell Judith Evelyn's lifeboat. Photo Credit: Ebay

Meet the Character Judith Evelyn: An Act of Survival, Part 2

by Thomas Sanger • Meet the Character, SS Athenia • Leave a Comment

In the early afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 3, 1939, Judith Evelyn experienced a grim premonition. A Canadian stage actress, Evelyn was returning home aboard the British passenger liner Athenia. She had just learned that England and Germany declared war, and when she saw Athenia’s crewmen provisioning the ship’s lifeboats, the thought came to her that, “We shan’t be out of this without being the lifeboats.”

Evelyn had made a last-minute decision to join her fiancé, Andrew Allan, and his father, William Allan, a Presbyterian minister, on the voyage home after she and Andrew had spent more than a year pursuing their careers in London (see blog post March 1, 2015, Judith Evelyn, Part 1). Read More

Canadian Actress Judith Evelyn Photo credit: famousdude.com

Judith Evelyn: An Act of Survival, Part 1

by Thomas Sanger • Meet the Character, SS Athenia • Leave a Comment

Judith Evelyn, a 30-year-old Canadian stage actress, boarded the British passenger liner Athenia with a sense of foreboding the morning of Sept. 1, 1939, in Glasgow, Scotland. That same morning the German army invaded Poland, and England launched a nationwide emergency evacuation of schoolchildren from cities likely to become targets if Britain went to war.

The circumstances appeared bleak for this bright and ambitious actress from Canada’s Prairie Provinces who had pushed her career from humble beginnings to unexpected heights.

Judith Evelyn was born Evelyn Morris in Seneca, South Dakota, but grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, with a step-father who was a successful stage actor. Young Evelyn fell in love with acting, working with her step-father in the Chautauqua shows of rural Manitoba and Saskatchewan. When she changed her name from Evelyn Morris to Judith Evelyn there was no doubt she intended to make acting a career. Read More