She studied with Jean Périer of the Opéra-Comique in Paris, and her grand opera debut occurred when she portrayed Marguerite in a production of Faust with the Vienna Opera on October 19, 1923. Lewis performed in Europe from 1923 through 1925. She also performed in the 19 editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. Her schedule of singing in the Follies' midnight show gave her time during the day to study French and Italian and to study music under William Thorner. She became the Ziegfeld Follies' leading singer in 1921. Lewis joined the chorus of The Greenwich Village Follies of 1920, and by the time the show opened, she had been named its prima donna. Al Christie saw her in those performances and signed her to appear in his film comedies. She left that job and returned to San Francisco, where she joined the Fanchon and Marco vaudeville company. She also worked in a town in southern California as one of a group of women who sat in circles singing songs, with oil workers throwing money at them. It stranded her in San Francisco, and she began singing in a cabaret there. In 1919, Lewis joined a traveling company of the show Reckless Eve. She also took music, including lessons on a pipe organ, and became the organist at Second Baptist church. During that time she went to Little Rock High School. and Carrie Auten, who had children about Lewis's age. In 1912, Lewis ran away from the Fitch home and, until 1915 she lived with H. "She thought I was headed straight for the devil," Lewis said later. Her foster mother frequently caught her dancing and punished her each time. She was also "thoroughly whipped" for playing jazz music on the piano. She danced with no music in her room even though "dancing was strictly forbidden". Her father spanked her when he felt that she had not practiced enough. As an adult, Lewis said that she received "a good musical education" in "a strict Methodist home". Fitch.) He was a Methodist minister and a music teacher who taught her to play piano. Her foster parents were William and Anna Fitch. Lewis gained a new home after she was found outside a church while she waited to meet a friend when the service ended. After the children's father died in 1899, their mother was unable to care for them and put them in an orphanage. Lewis was born Mary Kidd, the daughter of Charles Kidd and Hattie Lewis, in Hot Springs, Arkansas or Dallas, Texas.
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