Stella Razeto

Biography

San Francisco footlights first knew her as Stella Razeto, a teenage recruit in Florence Roberts’ powerhouse troupe. The Golden Gate fog had barely lifted before she traded California curtains for Manhattan marquees, whipping up her own vaudeville bill, “Stella Razeto and Company,” that kept Broadway sidewalks buzzing. A brutal bout of sickness yanked her from the spotlight; she resurfaced months later, script still warm, inside the Majestic Company, trading lines nightly alongside Mabel Trunnelle and Herbert Prior. When the Majestic run dimmed, she slipped across to Chicago’s Selig Polyscope lot, stepped in front of a crank camera—and found both a new art form and, between takes, the man she would marry, director Edward LeSaint.