She met composer Paul Rubens, who offered her a part in Dear Little Denmark at the Prince of Wales Theatre (1909), where she made her theatrical début.

She achieved a great success with her performance in Ivan Caryll's Edwardian musical comedy, The Pink Lady (1911).

The setting of the operetta is in London and Paris, and Dawn played a young American girl pursued by a nobleman, who desires her fortune.

She plays the violin during a scene where she runs away to Paris and makes her musical debut before an appreciative audience.

[7] She emerged from retirement in June 1948 to appear on stage with her daughter Hazel Dawn Jr. in a revival of Ruth Gordon’s play Years Ago at the Casino Theatre in Newport, Rhode Island.

[citation needed] In My Lady Incog (1916), Dawn played a female detective in a movie that is a mystery film, comedy, and a romance.

Her daughter had a career as an actor and singer on film, television and Broadway under the name Hazel Dawn Jr.[9] Many public records confuse the two.

[5][10] Following Gruwell's death in 1941, Dawn worked in the casting department of J. Walter Thompson advertising agency.

[citation needed] Dawn made a claim for $4,643 against the London Theatre Company, which filed for bankruptcy in August 1915.

[11] A 14-year-old Adele Astaire saw Dawn's performance in The Pink Lady and idolized her, thinking her to be "the most lovely, graceful creature" she had seen.