Biography
Born Evelyn Houstellier on 18 March 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and passing away on 22 February 1975 in California, USA, the soprano possessed both vocal command and a compelling stage presence. She entered Broadway for the first time in Stepping Stones during 1923. Throughout the remainder of the decade she took leading parts in Princess Flavia in 1925, The Desert Song in 1926, and My Maryland in 1927. In Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II’s The Desert Song her opposite was Robert Halliday, whom she later wed. The couple next shared the stage in Romberg and Hammerstein’s The New Moon of 1928, performing the numbers “Wanting You” and “Lover, Come Back To Me.” Additional joint appearances followed in Princess Charming in 1930 and, across the Atlantic, Waltzes From Vienna in London in 1931. Returning to New York, Herbert took a role in the unsuccessful Melody of 1933 and then joined a 1934 revival of Bitter Sweet. In 1935 she and Halliday appeared together in the motion picture Desert Harmonies. At that point she stepped away from performing. Halliday continued to accept occasional engagements through the 1930s, yet his prospects diminished; after Three Wishes For Jamie in 1952 he likewise withdrew. The pair settled on a California ranch they called New Moon, where they spent the following two decades in a secluded existence that echoed the romantic narratives they had enacted. Their deaths occurred within months of each other in 1975.