Elsie Janis Performer, Director, Producer, Composer, Writer, Lyricist
Born 16 Mar 1889 Columbus, Ohio USA
Died 26 Feb 1956 Los Angeles, California USA
Also known as: Elsie Beerbower (Birthname)
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Elsie Janis Performer, Director, Producer, Composer, Writer, Lyricist Born 16 March 1889 Delaware (near Columbus) Ohio USA
Died 25 Feb 1956 Beverley Hills, Los Angeles, California USA
Real Name Elsie Janis Bierbower
Married Gilbert Wilson (actor) 1932.
Elsie Janis, whose real name was Elsie Janis Bierbower, was born in the small town of Delaware (near Columbus), Franklin County, Ohio on March 16th, 1889. She was the daughter of John E. Bierbower and his wife Jane Elizabeth (Cockrell), her parents being of German and Scotch/Irish ancestry respectively. Her great-uncle was Senator Francis Marion Cockrell of Missouri.
From an early age Elsie displayed a talent for mimicry, entertaining her friends and family with her impressions of railway trains and animals. That led to her entertaining at various events and activities at Dr. Washington Gladden�s First Congregational Church, where her parents were regular attenders. As she grew older she expanded her repertoire to include imitations of celebrities she had seen in Vaudeville.
At the age of eight, her parents took her to see James O'Neill, the well-known Irish/American actor-manager who was then playing in Columbus with his travelling company. O'Neill was immediately taken with the precocious child and readily accepted her into his company. Her first part was that of the boy Cain in "The Charity Ball," in which she made her first stage appearance on Christmas Eve, 1897, at Columbus. She then accompanied O'Neill on tour accompanied by her mother as manager and chaperone. The following year she joined the Cincinnati stock with whom she appeared in productions of "Little Lord Fauntleroy", "East Lynne", and "The Galley Slave".
Through her great-uncle, Elsie's family were well-known to that of former Congressman and Governor of Ohio William McKinley, who were also based in Columbus. In 1897, McKinley was elected President of the United States, leading to Elsie being invited, at christmas, 1899, to entertain at the White House to an audience including the President and his family, members of the cabinet, and her great uncle. Elsie gave a one-child revue of her best impressions and so impressed the President that he declared she was wasted on the dramatic stage and belonged in Vaudeville.
With such a towering endorsement, an interview was arranged with Edward E. Rice, then producing summer evening concerts at the Casino Theatre Roof Garden in New York. Again, Rice was so impressed he hired her on the spot and his faith was rewarded when she made an instant success as "Little Elsie". For the next three years she was a regular on the Vaudeville circuit, where she was often described by reveiwers as a miniature version of Cissie Loftus, the most acclaimed mimic of the day.
In 1904 she secured her success when she made a great hit playing Fifi Fricott in "The Belle of New York" at Washington, and the following year created a such a furore with her topical imitations of popular artistes in "When We Were Forty-One" at the New York Theatre Roof Garden that she was retained to head their summer players. So it was that at age fourteen she was already a headline star!
A string of hits followed, both on and off Broadway in parts including Dorothy Willets in "The Vanderbilt Cup", Joan Talbot in "The Hoyden", Cynthia Bright in "The Fair Co-Ed", Princess Kalora in "The Slim Princess" and Cinderella in the "The Lady of the Slipper." During this period, in May, 1911, aged twenty-one, she played Martha Farnum in a self-penned play entitled "A Star For A Night".
In 1914 Elsie made her first European appearance when she debuted as Kitty Gordon in "The Passing Show" (Revue) at the Palace Theatre, London, on 20th April. Again she scored a huge success, instantly capturing a new continent. When war broke out in August of that year, despite hailing from a then non-combatant nation, Elsie still gave up much of her time entertaining the wounded in Britain and France.
During the War years Elsie alternated between London and New York until America committed itself to the war in April 1917. From then until the wars end she concentrated her efforts on selling war bonds and entertaining the wounded when she was not entertaining the troops within shelling distance of the front lines. Her efforts earned her the popular nickname of "the darling of the doughboys" (as the American soldiers were known) and an honorary Captaincy in the Army. Her efforts were equally appreciated by the British and French, who, on her first return to that country in 1923, presented her with the Medaille Louis Le Grand.
After the war she returned to America in a patriotic revue celebrating victory entitled "Hullo America". She brought back with her a fourteen year-old boy named Michael Cardl, an orphan who had tricked the military authorities over his age and fought in the front lines in France before Elsie fdiscovered him. Elsie put up a bond of $5000 to complete the boy's education and assure his future.
By now an international star, Elsie raised and toured with her own revue company in "Elsie Janis and Her Gang", billed in Paris as "La Revue de Elsie Janis". In 1920 she took the lease of the Queen's Theatre in London where she opened in December with "It's All Wrong", which she had written and co-composed.
From then on her career was assured and her services much in demand. She made several phonograph recordings and movie appearances, the latter including the short "Behind the Lines" , in which she reprised her wartime exploits entertaining troops from the back of a truck. She wrote over fifty songs for herself and others, several playscripts for stage and film, and numerous books, magazine articles and poems.
When not on tour Janis resided with her mother at one of her two private residences. Her summer home was a large house on the east side of High Street in Columbus, the city in which she had been raised. This house, situated just across the street from what was Ohio State University's "Ohio Field", the precursor to Ohio Stadium, she had named "Eljan". Her main home, however, was the Phillipse Mansion Manor House, a large colonial house with extensive grounds on the banks of the Hudson River in New York, which she had purchased in August, 1915. The house was beleived to be the oldest in the state of New York and had once been the home of the infamous pirate Captain Kidd!
By 1929, her mother, who had until then been her constant companion and become one of show business�s most famous stage mothers, was ailing, and Elsie decided henceforth to give up stage work to concentrate on writing and watch over her. Around this time she co-wrote, with director Edmund Goulding, the love song "Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere" for Gloria Swanson's talking movie debut in "The Trespasser" (1929) and was composer and production manager for the big production musical revue movie "Paramount on Parade" (1930).
Jennie died in 1930 but Elsie was not alone for log. Two years later she met and married film actor Gilbert Wilson, who was sixteen years her junior. She sold 'ElJan', setting up home with Wilson at her Phillipse Manor abode, and devoted much of her time and efforts over the next few years towards developing her husband's acting career - although he never rose above movie 'bit' parts. In 1934, Elsie became the first female announcer on the NBC radio network.
In 1935 she and her husband were both hurt in an automobile accident when their car, which her husband was driving, collided with a stopped truck. Elsie sustained serious injuries, including a broken collar bone, but thankfully made a full recovery.
In 1939 she returned to the stage to give a number of series of Sunday night performances of songs and imitations at The Music Box in New York before making her final at the 44th Street Theatre in "Frank Fay Vaudeville". Her final movie appearance was in "Women in War" co-starring Wendy Barrie and Peter Cushing.
Elsie then retired to a mansion in Beverley Hills, where she died peacefully on February 25th, 1956. She is buried beside her mother at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California and is memorialised by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6776 Hollywood Blvd.
Elsie Janis Entertainer -Born March 16, 1889 in Columbus, Ohio, USA
Died February 26, 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA
Birth Name Elsie Bierbower
Nickname Little Elsie
Mini Bio (1) Actress, songwriter ("Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere"), production supervisor and author. She performed in vaudeville as a child (known onstage as "Little Elsie") and appeared in the Broadway musicals "The Vanderbilt Cup", "The Hoyden", "The Fair Co-ed", "The Slim Princess", and "The Lady of the Slipper". She was a charter member of ASCAP in 1914 and made her London debut the same year, and was the first American to entertain the Allied Expeditionary Forces in World War I. She wrote and produced the musical "Elsie Janis and Her Gang", with ex-servicemen. She starred in 6 silent films from 1915-1919. After making her Paris debut in 1921, she gave concerts in the USA from 1923 into 1925, eventually re-entering the film industry. Her chief musical collaborators included Jerome Kern and Edmund Goulding, and her other popular-song compositions include "Any Time's the Time to Fall in Love", "I'm True to the Navy Now", "Live and Love Today", "Molly-O-Mine", "From the Valley", "Your Eyes", "Some Sort of Somebody", "Oh, Give Me Time for Tenderness", and "A Little Love".
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Hup234!
Spouse (1) Gilbert Wilson (31 December 1931 - ?) (separated)
Trivia (3) 1. Co-wrote with Jack King the song "I'm True To The Navy" sung by Clara Bow in "Paramount On Parade" (1930). 2. Starred in a "Talkie" short performing for the troops on location in "Behind The Lines' (1926), one year before "The Jazz Singer" (1927), which was generally accepted as the first full length feature with sound. 3. She entertained troops during World War I so tirelessly that she became known as "The Sweetheart of the AEF.".
Personal Quotes (1) Mother had been quite a good friend of Mrs. William McKinley during the time that she was the Governor's Lady in Ohio. The fact that she had become the First Lady of the land did not affect her memory, and so we were 'bidden' to the White House. Once inside any house, irrespective of color, there was no escape from my precocity. I recited and sang for the president and his charming chatelaine in the Blue Room! I sang, 'Break the News to Mother'. The president, suiting his action to the lyric, told mine that I was predestined to be a star, and kissed me on the brow. I turned to Mother and said,'You kiss me too. I may never be kissed in the White House again'.
