as George Moore, Ivor Novello, Michael Arlen, Sybil Thorndike and Rebecca West. She sent her great-nieces a collection of autographs that looked like the Milky Way." Mrs Aria's sister Julia Frankau "was wont to say, 'Unless Eliza receives each morning four letters from leading actresses which commence "Dearest" she looks unhappy.'" "All celebrated people," commented Pamela Frankau, "were called 'Darling' by Aunt Eliza, and in her presence at least greeted one another by the same title. So much so that, leaving Buckingham Gate on one occasion, the copywriter said to a taxi-driver during controversy, 'I did hail you first, darling.'" Later life Eliza Aria went with actor Frank Vosper to attend the London opening night of the stage play Grand Hotel, and died at the Adelphi Theatre just before the curtain went up – "'Which is odd because I have often heard her say she would like to die in a theatre.'" References Publications The May Book: compiled by Mrs Aria in aid of Charing Cross Hospital, Macmillan 1901 Mrs Aria. Woman and the Motor Car: being the autobiography of an automobilist, Sidney Appleton 1906 Mrs Aria. Costume - Fanciful, Historical, and Theatrical, Macmillan 1906 Mrs Aria. My Sentimental Self, Chapman and Hall 1922 Further reading Frankau, Pamela. I Find Four People, Ivor Nicholson and Watson 1935 Frankau, Gilbert. Self-Portrait, Hutchinson 1940 Richards, Jeffrey. Sir Henry Irving: A Victorian Actor and his World, Hambledon and London 2005 External links Davis and the Wilde family Gossip columnists 1866 births 1931 deaths English Jews Date of birth missing Place of birth missing Date of death missing