#sam forrest

Sam Forrest and Mary Ryan rest together in Woodlawn’s Dahlia plot, though Mary’s grave is unmarked.  Mary ordered this beautiful monument and Sam’s footstone when he passed away in 1944.  She followed him in 1948.

The son of Jewish parents who emigrated to the U.S. from Poland, Sam Forrest staged many of theatre legend George M. Cohan’s productions. They had a decades' long association based simply on a verbal agreement with Cohan and Cohan's partner Sam Harris according to Forrest’s 1939 book of recollections,  “Variety of Miscellanea.”

Sam’s book was dedicated to his wife, Irish-American stage actress Mary Ryan, who is pictured above in the 1918 Broadway play “The Little Teacher” which Sam staged (and George M. Cohan and Sam Harris produced.)  All four of them—Forrest, Ryan, Cohan and Harris are buried in Woodlawn!

Sam and Mary must have had a long and very happy marriage, if his book dedication is anything to go by:

Mary Ryan’s Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ryan_(actress;_1885-1948)

Sam Forrest’s Internet Broadway Database page: