Julia Wainwright Robbins was born in 1897, the daughter of Julian W. Robbins and Sarah Guthrie (née Jewett) Robbins (1862–1939). Her grandfather Hugh Judge Jewett was president of the Erie Railroad and a congressman from Ohio.[1]
Career
Julia Robbins performed on stage as a debutante in charity entertainments.[2] Films she appeared in included The Wonderful Thing (1921) with Norma Talmadge, The Man Who Found Himself (1925), and Camille (1926). During World War I, she lent her image and name to an American Red Cross campaign for the employment of disabled veterans.[3]
Her fashion business, named Julia Hoyt Modes, designed dresses and coats sold in department stores across the United States. She wrote syndicated articles about etiquette and fashion.[6][7] In 1924, she wrote a series of reports from a European trip for the Bridgeport Post.[8]
Personal life
A portrait of Julia Hoyt by Neysa McMein, on the cover of Woman's Home Companion in 1921.
Julia Robbins was married three times, first to lawyer Lydig Hoyt in 1914, as his second wife, when she was 17 years old.[13] They had two children who died in infancy,[14] and divorced in 1924.[15] She later wed actor Louis Calhern in 1927, the same year they co-starred in The Dark on Broadway; she divorced him in 1932. In 1935, she wed motion picture executive Aquila C. Giles.[14]
Hoyt had several health problems in the late 1930s, including pneumonia while at sea in 1935,[16] and a lasting chest infection that necessitated the removal of ribs.[17] Julia Hoyt Giles died in 1955 from a heart attack at age 58.[18]
