Bentley was born in Philadelphia[1] or Brooklyn,[2] and raised Brooklyn.[3] She said that she began dancing when a doctor recommended more exercise.[4] She trained at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School,[5][6] as the "favorite pupil" of ballet teacher Malvina Cavallazzi.[1]
Career
Sheet music from La La Lucille (1919)
Bentley was a professional dancer from her teen years.[5][7][8] Her roles on the New York stage included appearances in Chin-Chin (1914–1915),[9][10]The Riviera Girl (1917),[11]Oh, My Dear! (1918)[12] and La La Lucille (1919).[13] She was premiere danseuse at the New York Hippodrome in 1915, when she appeared in Hip-Hip-Hooray.[14] She contributed a recipe for "welsh rarebit au gratin" to a charity cookbook compiled by Mabel Rowland during World War I.[15] She modeled a dress made of net flouncing for a garment industry magazine in 1916.[16] She toured in La La Lucille in 1919 and 1920.[17][18]
Boston artist Louis Kronberg made a pastel portrait of Bentley in 1913.[19] Of her performance as "Mademoiselle Victorine" in the musical La La Lucille, Dorothy Parker wrote that "The comedy introduces a charming new dancer, Marjorie Bentley—you can stand even another bedroom farce for the sake of seeing her."[20]
↑ Parker, Dorothy (August 1919). "The First Shows of Summer". Vanity Fair.
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