She moved from Terre Haute, Indiana to New York City in 1905 hoping to make it big as an actress. It is said that in 1906 she was walking down a hotel staircase one evening wearing a backless gown. Producer Edward Edelston saw this ‘beauty’ and cast her as a Gibson Girl in ‘The Belle of Mayfield’ on Broadway. Perfecting her song and dance routines, Suratt teamed up with vaudeville comic Billy Gould for which Oscar Hammerstein paid her $2500 a week. Meanwhile, she secured a femme fatale image in several Broadway comedies. Cosmopolitan featured her as the ‘Belle of the Boulevards’ in 1910. The New York Dramatic Mirror called her ‘Vaudeville’s greatest star.’ Suratt’s popularity engendered a syndicated beauty and skin care column. In 1915, Jerry Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn cast Suratt in the title role in ‘The Immigrant’, her first silent movie. Later that same year, Fox Studios outbid Paramount for her services, converting her into a lustful ‘Vamp’ She made a dozen popular films before returning to the New York vaudeville scene. During the world war, she quietly donated $500 a week to the American Red Cross and was generous to other charities. He popularity endured through the Twenties.  Family links:  Spouse:  Fletcher   Norton (1877 – 1941)* *Calculated relationship