Carmen Regina Revnes (née Attkisson; December 23, 1896https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4123470_00326?pId=63013007 — April 14, 1929https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1616/images/31070_171172-00691?pId=183230 ), known professionally as Sybil Carmen, was an American actress, dancer, and Ziegfeld girl.
Early life Sybil Carmen was born Carmen Regina Attkisson on December 23, 1896 in Parkersburg, West Virginia,"Mrs. Maurice Revnes" Pittsburgh Press (April 18, 1929): 6. via Newspapers.com and was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Russell Attkisson and Agnes Gertrude Attkisson (née Haggerty, 1875–1952)."Sybil Carmen Dies in Paris" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 18, 1929): 2. via Newspapers.com She had two brothers, Charles and Edgar, and one sister, Dagmar. She moved to New York as a young woman to pursue a career as a dancer.Burns Mantle, "What's What in the Theatre" Green Book Magazine (August 1917): 218.
Career
Carmen appeared on Broadway in two productions by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. She was a principal performer in the 1915 Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic as a "balloon girl", sharing the bill with The Dolly Sisters, Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor, and Olive Thomas; and she returned as a principal player in the Ziegfeld Girls of 1920, on a bill with Fanny Brice, W. C. Fields, and Lillian Lorraine.Cynthia Brideson, Sara Brideson, Ziegfeld and His Follies: A Biography of Broadway's Greatest Producer (University Press of Kentucky 2015): 446–447. "The Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic" MCNY Blog: New York Stories (July 1, 2014).Burns Mantle, ed., The Best Plays of 1919–1920: And the Year Book of the Drama in America (Small, Maynard 1920): 436. In 1918 she was in a similar rooftop revue show at the Century Grove."Century Roof Girls at Upton Cheer 'Yip, Yip, Yaphank' Stars" The Evening World (August 2, 1918): 3. via Newspapers.com She acted in two silent films, A Romance of the Underworld (1918)"Keeney Ready for Next Picture" Dramatic Mirror (March 23, 1918): 53. and Experience (1921),"Movies and Movie People" Baltimore Sun (September 6, 1921): 11. via Newspapers.com both of which are now lost.
Personal life Sybil Carmen married writer and film executive Maurice Sydney Revnes on September 8, 1919;"Sybil Carmen Married Man Once Rejected" Pittsburgh Press (September 13, 1919): 3. via Newspapers.com in 1926 they moved to France where he represented Pathé Studios. They had two children, a son Richard (1923–1990) and a daughter Carmen (born 1921)."Carmen A. Revnes Lt. Simon Berlin Wed at Camp Polk" The Times (May 30, 1943): 32. via Newspapers.com"RCL President Revnes Dies" Cruise Travel (September/October 1990): 45. On April 14, 1929 at 7:30 P.M., Sybil Carmen died of pneumonia at 8 Rue Quentin-Bauchart in Paris."Sybil Carmen Dead; Former 'Follies' Actress Stricken Suddenly in Paris" New York Times (April 17, 1929): 22. She was cremated on April 20, 1929, and her ashes were scattered in New York City.
References
External links
Publicity photographs of Sybil Carmen in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.