Singer.  Evangeline Hemming, known as Eva Benson when she starred on the British stage during the 1920s and 30s.  She was born  in Birmingham, England.  She began her stage career at the age of 5 and was billed as the “Princess of Pantomime” at London’s Palladium and Lyceum theaters.  By the age of 16, hailed as a musical prodigy, she was performing as a singer at Queen’s Hall in London.  She starred in such musical extravaganzas as “The Cart and the Fiddle,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” and “The Honeymoon Girl.”  Her performance of the “Queen of Hearts” was the 1st pantomime that Queen Elizabeth attended as a princess.  The king and queen were seated in the royal box. On December 30, 1933, she married Albert Hemming, MD, who was also from Birmingham, and retired from the stage after 23 years.  They went to northern Bengal in India where she assisted her husband in his practice on a jungle tea plantation.  Three years later, they returned to England where Dr Hemming practiced medicine and their son, Anthony was born in 1938. In 1939, RKO Studios invited them to Hollywood.  Dr Hemming’s knowledge of tropical diseases and London hospitals was needed for the technical direction of the film “Vigil in the Night,” in which Miss Benson had a small part. (bio by: Aunt Nub)