The Mystery around Hylands' Death

There has been some debate about the circumstances of Fred Hylands' death, and it's not just because of the the location in which it happened, it was also that not much was documented where he was, and around the time of it. 

That's Hylands(at right) just months before he went off to England with Wilbur Held, and Marie. 

Hylands had paired with minstrel/popular singer Wilbur Held in 1912, as a vaudeville duo and song team, and in 1912 and early 1913, they were a very popular act, and sometimes performing with Marie Hylands, it made them even more of an entertaining act.  They were so popular, that they were contracted to tour in England in mid-1913. In June of that year, the three of them sailed off to England, only knowing of being contracted for a few weeks. They were such a hit to the English, that their contract was extended to as long as two years(yikes! The beginning of WWI would have come their way if they stayed that long!). They were doing all the performances they were scheduled to do for just less than four months, playing from London, out to towns near Liverpool. 

That was where Fred's last performance was, in an oceanside town a little east of Lancaster. It was in the small county of  Barrow-In-Furness, where Hylands died on October 14, 1913. The circumstances of this were not detailed very much at all, and this is where the mystery lies. What exactly killed him? And what happened beforehand that had him sent to the hospital? It might have been something like him just passing out after a performance, or something else? That must have been an intriguing story, whatever it was that actually happened.

Whatever it was, Marie and Wilbur must have been there the whole time, even though after Hylands died, the two of them went to do a few more performances. She must have been right there at his bedside when he died, and probably couldn't bare doing the rest of the tour without him. After getting some mourning clothes, and doing a few more performances with Wilbur, she and Wilbur finally came back to New York, where Widowed Marie set up Fred's funeral. The funeral and service was held by the White Rats Actors' union, so Marie probably didn't have to do very much planning. 

Whenever I think of this, I think of a cold November morning in New York, with a march of about two hundred engulfed in black, silently making their way to a cemetery. I see Marie, Wilbur, J. Grant Gibson, Etta Hylands, and a few more carrying Fred's coffin. Some of his surviving recording friends from back at Columbia probably attended his funeral as well. 

*If anyone knows any more details about Hylands' death, please comment on this post!*

I hope you enjoyed this!