Irene Castle

Irene Castle and her husband Vernon Castle (born Vernon Blyth) were the best known ballroom dancers of the early 20th C. Beginning about 1914 they operated several clubs and studios in the NYC area, toured the country dancing, and were able to charge as much as a thousand dollars an hour for lessons. They appeared in an Irving Berlin musical ("Watch Your Step") and in the film "The Whirl Of Life" as themselves. Irene appeared in a number of films alone, notably the WWI drama "Patria". Vernon (as a military flying instructor) was killed in an airplane accident shortly before the war's end. Irene later married Robert Treman, an Ithaca NY businessman who stole her money and lost it on the stock market. In 1923 she married Frederic McLaughlin, a man sixteen years older than her. She married him for his money, divorcing him when he proved to be possessive and physically violent. Her fourth and final husband was George Enzinger an advertising executive from Chicago. She spent the later years of her life championing animal rights.