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> Exhibitions > Elsie Janis > Elsie Janis, Writer
Elsie
Janis, Writer
Janis
began writing very early in her career, not only songs and scripts,
but individual poems as well as the collection, Poems Now and
Then. In 1911 she published A Star for a Night: A Story of
Stage Life, a novel adapted from her play of the same name. She
published her first autobiography in 1919, The Big Show: My Six
Months with the American Expeditionary Forces and followed up in
1932 with So Far, So Good!. Beginning in the 1930s, as she
moved from performing to writing and production, Janis wrote a
number of articles for various magazines, drawing from her
friendships and working relationships with many stars such as John
Barrymore and Helen Hayes.
Janis’s earliest published song, “I’d Rather
Love What I Cannot Have, Than Have What I Cannot Love,” marked the
addition of songwriter to her growing credits.
She wrote songs for herself and her productions as well as
music not specifically related to the shows in which she was
appearing. Because of her growing body of work, including the popular
vaudeville song “Anti Rag-Time Girl” (1912), Janis joined a
distinguished group of writers and publishers to become a charter
member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
(ASCAP) founded by Victor Herbert in 1914.
Janis enjoyed collaborations with some of the most important
songwriters of her day including Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern.
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Book cover. Janis, Elsie. A Star for a Night: A Story of Stage Life.
New York: William Rickey& Company, 1911. |
| Title page. Janis, Elsie. A Star for a Night: A Story of Stage Life.
New York: William Rickey& Company, 1911. |
Click to Enlarge
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Cast list. Janis, Elsie. A Star for a Night: A Story of Stage Life.
New York: William Rickey& Company, 1911. |
| Photograph from the play taken for the book. Janis,
Elsie. A Star
for a Night: A Story of Stage Life.
New York: William Rickey& Company, 1911. |
Click to Enlarge
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Sheet music cover.
“Anti Rag-Time Girl.”
Words and music by Elsie Janis.
New York: Remick, 1913.
From the Elsie Janis Collection of the Laura M. Mueller
British and American Theatre and Film Collections. |
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