Rida Johnson Young

Young was born in Baltimore, Maryland. On February 28, 1875. She was an actress early in her career with both the Viola Allen and E. H. Sothern Broadway (New York) companies before working for the music publisher Isidore Witmark. As a playwright, her first work, Lord Byron, was produced in 1900 by actor-producer James Young, to whom she was married from 1904 to 1910.  Her musical works include Naughty Marietta (1910, with music by Victor Herbert) The Red Petticoat(1912, Jerome Kern’s first full score for Broadway), The Isle o' Dreams (1913, with music by Ernest R. Ball), Maytime(1917, with music by Sigmund Romberg) and The Dream Girl (1924, Victor Herbert’s final score).  In 1926, at the age of 51, Young died in Stamford, Connecticut.