She left Kansas City around the age of 15 and toured the midwestern U.S. with the Dubinsky Brothers' traveling theater show as a dancer.In 1922, she had her first starring role, in the play Rain by John Colton and Clemence Randolph, based on a short story by Somerset Maugham.In this, her favorite role,[citation needed] Eagels played Sadie Thompson, a free-wheeling and promiscuous spirit who confronts a fire-and-brimstone preacher on a South Pacific island.In 1926, Eagels was offered the part of Roxie Hart in Maurine Dallas Watkins's play Chicago, but she walked out during rehearsals.After missing a few performances due to ptomaine poisoning, Eagels returned to the cast in July 1927 for an Empire Theater show.She appeared opposite John Gilbert in the MGM film Man, Woman and Sin (1927), directed by Monta Bell.In 1928, after failing to appear for a performance of Her Cardboard Lover in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Eagels was banned from the stage for 18 months by Actors Equity.[10] In August 1925, Eagels married Edward Harris "Ted" Coy, a former football star at Yale University who became a stockbroker.
Eagels with George Arliss in the Broadway play
Hamilton
, 1917
Eagels featured in
The Bellman
, Volume 23, July 7, 1917