FILM STAR'S CRASH TO DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1935, Page 25

FILM STAR'S CRASH TO DEATH

Miss Betty Hamilton, lovely American film star, striking figure in London stage, film, and society circles, crashed to her death from the window of a New York hotel recently. She was broken hearted because of an unhappy love affair1. For some days she had been hysterical and overwrought. A nurse had been with her night and day, says the "Daily Mail."

On the day of the tragedy she sent the nurse out of the room. When the woman returned she found her charge, tears streaming down her face, poised on the window ledge. She rushed forward to pull her back—too late. Betty Hamilton fell five storeys and landed on the roof of a building below.

A few hours later Mr. George E. Hamilton, a wealthy business leader of Chicago, called at the New York morgue for the body of his daughter. So ended the story of a girl who appeared to have a big career before her, and who had created attention in two cities. She was not yet twenty-one years old. The man to whom she was engaged was Mr. Alfred Levy, owner of a chain of American, radio stations. They, were

passionately devoted to pach other, and for a time radiantly happy. Then came a. lovers' quarrel. The engagement ended abruptly. Miss Hamilton was in despair. When an attractive film contract was offered her, she refused it. "I have not the heart for it," she declared. "I do not feel that I could make a film for months to come."

She acted in a number of British films, the most important of which were "The Private life of Henry VIII" and "Don Juan." She was one of the original "Les Girls" on the Continent, and danced in cabarets in West End hotels. She was noted for her daring and striking dresses. Once, at a London film premiere, she created a minor sensation by appearing in a silver dress with a close-fitting silver wing on her head.

Her acquaintances numbered hundreds, many of them people well known to the public. "She was a dazzling and in.some ways bewildering personality," said a friend in London. "She could have married over here—and married brilliantly—several times." ,