Checklist
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST AND CASE CAPTIONS FOR ‘SOME SORT OF SOMEBODY’: OHIOAN ELSIE JANIS ON THE STAGE AND IN THE TRENCHES
Physical exhibition shown in The Philip Sills Exhibit Hall, The William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library, The Ohio State University Libraries, 6 January – 14 April 2003.
Throughout Ohio’s history, the performing arts in many forms have enriched the lives of its citizens, and Ohioans have worked in the performing arts in numerous capacities. The Ohio State University Libraries’ collections document many professionals in the performing arts, native-born or with strong Ohio connections, such as the playwriting team of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee; actors from the touring Harmount Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company, and more recently Eileen Heckart, Robert Post, and Gigi Rice; critics Marianne Evett, Michael Grossberg, E. B. Radcliffe, and Sam Wilson; opera singer Ruby Elzy; entertainment writer Earl Wilson; playwrights Tom Eyen, Ed Graczyk, Adrienne Kennedy, and Don Nigro; James Thurber whose writings included theatrical work; choreographers Bebe Miller and Randy Skinner; comedian/writers Richard Lewis and Bruce Vilanch; designers Mathias Armbruster who founded the Armbruster Scenic Studio in 1875, and Toni-Leslie James, to mention only a few. In celebration of the Bicentennial of the State of Ohio, this exhibition honors one Ohioan, Elsie Janis – child actor, vaudevillian, stage and film performer, writer, director, song-writer – to represent the many performing artists with Ohio ties.
Elsie Janis (1889-1956), born Elsie Jane Bierbower to Jennie and John Bierbower in Columbus, first entertained at the age of 2 1/2 in various church activities at Dr. Washington Gladden’s First Congregational Church at the northwest corner of Broad and Third. Janis’s career in the performing arts was long and varied – from her childhood when she began doing imitations of celebrities, to vaudeville, to her starring roles on the stages of New York, London, and Paris, to the battlefield where she entertained troops in France and England during World War I, to Hollywood where she acted, wrote for film, and supervised productions. From her teen years on, Janis wrote songs for herself and for others as well as a number of books, magazine articles, and poems. Janis’s mother Jennie was, until her death in 1930, Elsie’s constant companion and manager, and was known as one of show business’s most infamous stage mothers.
While her career took her away from Columbus, Janis always had a fondness for Ohio and Columbus. The El-Jan Shack, the house that she herself owned was on the northeast corner of 18th Avenue and High Street across from The Ohio State University campus and, at that time in the early 1920s, the athletic field. She signed her first contract as an adult with the great producer Charles Dillingham on the porch of the El-Jan Shack. Janis came back many summers to rest from her hectic professional stage and travel schedules, and to visit with relatives. Janis was always proud to be an Ohioan. As she often shouted to the troops she entertained in France in 1918, “Do I come from Ohio? By Damn Yes!”
“Elsie Janis” in The American Stage of To-day: Biographies and Photographs of One Hundred Leading Actors and Actresses. Introduction by William Winter. New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1910.
Little Elsie Becomes Elsie Janis: from singing for Governor and Mrs. William McKinley to Broadway
Janis’s debut on a professional stage came in 1896 at age seven when she appeared at Columbus’s Southern Theatre in East Lynne. During her childhood years, Janis entertained Governor William McKinley and Mrs. McKinley at the Neil House, singing such songs as “Break the News to Mother,” a favorite of the Governor’s. Following his election to the presidency of the United States, the McKinleys remembered Janis, bringing her to sing in the Blue Room of the White House for Christmas 1899.
Janis’s New York debut was delayed by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a child protection agency that actively enforced child labor laws. Janis’s mother found other bookings for her, alternating vaudeville with summer park theatres, and with touring productions such as The Fortune Tellers by Victor Herbert. An important opportunity came in 1905 when Janis replaced Anna Held for the tour of Florenz Ziegfeld’s The Little Duchess. During this tour, Janis turned sixteen and was offered her first Broadway script, The Vanderbilt Cup. That success was followed by another – The Hoyden (1907) – setting Elsie Janis on her way to fame and salaries that could have brought her fortune had her mother been a better manager.
Photographs of Elsie Janis alone and one photograph with her mother. Photographers include the Baker Art Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, and the Otto Sarony Co.
Sheet music: “Break the News to Mother” with words and music by Charles K. Harris (Milwaukee: Harris, 1897). Sung by Janis as a child to Governor and Mrs. William McKinley.
The Little Duchess
Janis replaced Anna Held in the tour of this Florenz Ziegfeld production.
Sheet music: “My June-Time Rose” with words by John W. Kemble, music by Lester W. Keith (New York: Witmark, 1914).
The Vanderbilt Cup
Postcards: Janis in The Vanderbilt Cup
Sheet music: “My House Boat Beau” with words by Raymond W. Peck, music by Robert Hood Bowers (New York: Remick, 1906).
The Hoyden
Sheet music: “Graetchen” with words and music by John L. Golden (New York: Remick, 1907); “You Want Someone to Love You” with words by Harry Williams, music by Egbert Van Alstyne (New York: Remick, 1908).
Postcard: Janis in The Hoyden.
Elsie in New York and on the Road: starring in The Fair Co-Ed, The Slim Princess, and The Lady of the Slipper
According to the Columbus Citizen (21 October 1908), “The Fair Co-Ed is the best vehicle Elsie Janis ever had…Elsie makes her first appearance in a red cape and a student cap, and satirizes Portia’s merry speech in defending a ‘conned’ student. In the second act she makes a stunning ‘boy’ masquerading as a naval lieutenant. In the third act… a football song is wonderfully well done and is predicted to make a hit with the O.S.U. contingent. Miss Janis appears more graceful and to better advantage as a dancer than ever before.” Popular in New York as well as Columbus, The Fair Co-Ed led to her next success, The Slim Princess, produced for Janis by the great producer Charles Dillingham. The Slim Princess was a landmark for Janis as the first show that featured her as a composer/lyricist, including her song “For the Lord’s Sake, Play a Waltz” which she also recorded. The Lady of the Slipper in which Janis starred with Dave Montgomery and Fred Stone (arguably the most popular music comedy team of their time) marked the beginning of Janis’s acquaintance with composer Victor Herbert.
Photograph of Janis
Magazine cover illustration of Janis: The Theatre (December 1909: 106).
The Fair Co-Ed
Magazine article: “Scenes in Geo. Ade’s New Comedy The Fair Co-Ed at the Knickerbocker. Act I. The Gathering of the College Boys; Act II. Cynthia (Elsie Janis) finds a fight on her hands.” The Theatre (March 1909: 93).
Sheet music: “Leave It to the Boys in the Navy” with words by George Ade, music by Gustav Luders (New York: Witmark, 1908).
Program: cover advertising Janis in The Fair Co-Ed, the Southern Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, 1910.
The Slim Princess
Sheet music: “Let Me Live and Stay in Dixieland” with words and music by Elizabeth Brice and Charles King (New York: Snyder, 1910); “For the Lord’s Sake Play a Waltz” with words and music by Elsie Janis (New York: Harms & Francis, 1912); “Bless Your Ever Loving Little Heart” with words by Stanley Murphy, music by Henry I. Marshall (New York: Witmark, 1912).
Program: cover advertising Janis in The Slim Princess, the Hartman Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, 1912.
The Lady of the Slipper
Sheet music: “Like a Real, Real Man” with words by James O’Dea, music by Victor Herbert (1912).
Souvenir program: The Lady of the Slipper.
Program: The Lady of the Slipper, the Hartman Theatre, 1914.
Elsie Janis: songwriter, charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
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.
Photographs of Janis
Sheet music:
“I’d Rather Love What I Cannot Have Than Have What I Cannot Love” with words and music by Elsie Janis (New York: Remick, 1911). Janis’s earliest published song.
“Anti Rag-Time Girl” with words and music by Elsie Janis (New York: Remick, 1913).
“The Castle Walk Song” with words by Elsie Janis, music by Wm. E. MacQuinn (New York: Remick, 1914).
“Some Sort of Somebody” with words by Elsie Janis, music by Jerome Kern.
From Very Good Eddie (New York: T. B. Harms, and Francis, Day & Hunter, 1915); as sung by Mlle. Regine Flory and Nelson Keys in Alfred Butt’s Palace Theatre production Vanity Fair (London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1915); from Miss Information (New York: T. B. Harms and Francis, Day & Hunter, 1915).
“A Little Love (But Not for Me)” with words by Elsie Janis, music by Jerome Kern.
As sung by Janis in Miss Information (New York: T. B. Harms and Francis, Day & Hunter, 1915); as sung by Mlle. Regine Flory in Alfred Butt’s Palace Theatre production Vanity Fair (London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1915).
“I Never Knew.” Words by Elsie Janis, music by Irving Berlin (New York: Irving Berlin, Inc., 1919).
Elsie Before and After the War: The Passing Show, It’s All Wrong, Elsie Janis and Her Gang
Janis made her debut in London in April 1914 where she became a hit in the first of Alfred Butt’s series of revues, The Passing Show, at the Palace Theatre. She had a huge success with “Florrie Was a Flapper” which she considered the best song ever written for her. In London she renewed her acquaintance with actor Basil Hallam with whom she appeared in The Passing Show of 1914 and 1915. These trips to England were a heady time: professionally because her performances were extremely successful; personally because of the growing affection she and Hallam (who died in uniform in 1916) shared; and politically because she was caught up in the European war effort. Following the war, Janis maintained her commitment to the fighting men to whom she had become so attached. Charles Dillingham agreed to produce Elsie Janis and Her Gang, a revue which Janis created for returned out-of-work soldiers, some of whom she had entertained during the war. Even though she was told no one wanted to hear about the war any more, the Gang was a success, due, according to Janis, to “the boys [who] were the real thing and the public realised it from the moment they stuck their heads through the curtain….”
The Passing Show of 1914 (Palace Theatre, London)
Sheet music: “Florrie the Flapper” sung by Elsie Janis. Words by Arthur Wimperis, music by Herman Finck (London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1914); “I’ve Got Everything I Want But You” sung by Elsie Janis and Basil Hallam. Words and music by Marion Sunshine, Charles Wilmott and Henry I. Marshall (London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1914).
The Passing Show of 1915 (Palace Theatre, London).
Sheet music: “The Same Old Song” duet sung by Elsie Janis and Basil Hallam. Words by Arthur Wimperis and Hartley Carrick, music by Herman Finck (London: Hawkes & Son, 1915).
Program: It’s All Wrong: A Musical Complaint (Queen’s Theatre, London, 1920). Book, lyrics, some music, direction by Elsie Janis who also performed.
Elsie Janis and Her Gang
Sheet music: “The Bonus Blues.” Words by Elsie Janis, music by Carey Morgan and Arthur Swanstrom (Irving Berlin, Inc., 1922); “I’ve Waited All My Life.” Words and music by Elsie Janis. (Irving Berlin Inc, 1922); “Apres la Guerre.” Words and music by B. C. Hilliam. (M. Witmark & Sons, 1917); “Just a Little After Taps.” Words by Richard Fechheimer, music by William Kernell. (London: Chappell & Co., Ltd., 1918).
Theatre Magazine cover and photographic features on Elsie Janis (March 1917, July 1919, May 1922)
Elsie after the Gang
The period following the war and after Elsie Janis and Her Gang was hard for Janis. Her assessment in her autobiography So Far, So Good! was, “[T]he war was my high spot and I think there is only one real peak in each life!” The experience of entertaining the troops had been exhilarating, and she still found the excitement when veterans were in her civilian audiences. As the years went by, however, the veterans were fewer and fewer, and the excitement much less. In addition to Elsie Janis and Her Gang, she appeared in The Follies of 1921 and Puzzles of 1925. She returned to London and Paris periodically through the 1920s for It’s All Wrongwhich Janis wrote, directed and acted in, and revues (Elsie Janis at Home, La Revue d’Elsie Janis). As her stage appearances became less frequent, Janis continued writing and songwriting, and moved into production supervision with such shows as New Faces of 1934. Her final Broadway appearance was Frank Fay’s Show in 1939 with Eva Le Gallienne, whom, as a young actress, Janis had mentored.
Photograph of Janis with pearls
Miss 1917
Sheet music: “The Land Where the Good Songs Go” sung by Elsie Janis. Words by P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton, music by Jerome Kern (New York: T. B. Harms Co., 1917.
The Follies of 1921
Sheet music: “All the World Is Wonderful” with words by Elsie Janis, music by W. B. Kernell (London: Chappell & Co., Ltd., 1921).
Autograph: Elsie Janis
Elsie and the Movies: actor, writer, director, songwriter
Janis did film work in the early years of the medium beginning with The Caprices of Kitty, Betty in Search of a Thrill, Nearly a Lady, and Twas Ever Thus, writing the screenplays and acting in all four (Bosworth Studios, 1915). After her return to the United States following the war, Janis did several films for Selznick Pictures, including A Regular Girl (1919) for which she wrote the screenplay, co-wrote the title song, and acted. Janis recognized that she performed best with a live audience, and in later years her work was behind the scenes rather than in front of the camera. She wrote screen treatments and songs for films, as well as served as production supervisor for such projects as Paramount on Parade. Her film music writing included such songs as “Love Your Spell is Everywhere,” originally sung by Gloria Swanson and later recorded by Peggy Lee, and “Oh Give Me Time for Tenderness” sung by Vera Van for the Bette Davis film Dark Victory.
Nearly a Lady, The Caprices of Kitty; and Betty in Search of a Thrill
Magazine: Paramount Magazine, March 1915.
Paramount Pictures advertisement: in The Saturday Evening Post, 7 August 1915: 40.
Paramount Pictures advertisement: in The Ladies’ Home Journal, September 1915: 46.
A Regular Girl, Louis Selznick Pictures (1919)
Sheet music: “A Regular Girl.” Words by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, music by Elsie Janis (New York: Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co., 1919)
Button: Booster American Legion and Elsie Janis in A Regular Girl.
Lobby cards: “Selznick presents Elsie Janis in A Regular Girl.” On loan from the Richard E. Teichert Collection, The Cartoon Research Library, The Ohio State University Libraries.
The Imp
Selznick Pictures advertisement for The Imp in Monsieur Beaucaire program (New Amsterdam Theatre, 1919).
Elsie Janis: Inspiration, Author
While she is little remembered today, Janis was one of the most popular stars of her time as can be seen by the number of works dedicated to her. Most honored Janis the public performer, but “Don’t Wait Too Long” was written by Irving Berlin to Janis after she turned down another proposal of marriage from one of her many admirers. Janis was perhaps most proud of the recognition that came to her for her war work, especially from veterans.
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.
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Sheet music dedications: “The Girl You Can’t Forget” sung by the stars of Vod’vil. Words and music by W. R. Williams (Chicago:
Will Rossiter, 1906); “If You Were I, and I Were You.” Words and music by Daniel Orin Hubbard (Columbus, Ohio: D. O. Hubbard, 1908); “Was That Somebody You?” Words, author unknown, music by Francesa Porter Ross (New York: Fraser Ross Company, 1922); “Don’t Wait Too Long” by Irving Berlin (New York: Irving Berlin, Inc., 1925).
Loving cup presented to Janis by the American Legion, Detroit, Michigan, 1923
Janis Real Human Hair Net. Double Cap. Lazarus. Named in Janis’s honor
Books by Janis:
The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces. New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1919.
Love Letters of an Actress. New York; London: D. Appleton and Company, 1913. On loan from Rare Books and Manuscripts, The Ohio State University Libraries.
Poems Now and Then: Dedicated to My Friends. [Colorado Springs: Gowdy Printing & Engraving Co., 190-].
A Star for a Night: A Story of Stage Life; with pictures from the play taken especially for the book. New York: William Rickey & Company, 1911.
Elsie Janis: songs she sang as “Sweetheart of the A.E.F”
Janis’s involvement in World War I began in 1914 in London where she watched England’s young men march off singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” Back in the States, she created a vaudeville act that doubled as a recruiting tool – she created imitations of stars who were all singing patriotic songs – Eddie Foy, Sarah Bernhardt, Will Rogers, Ethel Barrymore, ending with George M. Cohan doing “Over There.” Following the U.S. entry into the war, Janis left for France where she entertained American, British, French, and Canadian troops from truck backs and table tops, on the road, in camps and hospitals, in mud and rain. She sang multiple shows a day, always trying to reach more men far from home with her customary greeting, “Are we downhearted? No!” A highlight for Janis was finding troops from Ohio who welcomed her with the Ohio State University yell “Wah hoo, Wah hoo, Rip, Zip, Bazoo, I yell like Hell, O.S.U.” The men of the American Expeditionary Forces, from privates to generals including Pershing, were indeed heartened by Janis’s funny, gutsy, touching, patriotic act, and named her “Sweetheart of the A.E.F.”
Sheet music:
“It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary.” Words and music by Jack Judge and Harry Williams (New York: Chappell & Co., Ltd., 1914)
“It’s a Long Way to Dear Old Broadway.” Words and music by Ernest Breuer (New York: Leo. Feist Inc., 1918)
“The Jazz Band” from Hullo America! Words by Elsie Janis, music by Elsie Janis and Dan Kildare. (London: Ascherberg, Hopwoods & Crew Ltd. B. Feldman & Co., 1918). Postcard of Janis in Hullo America. With back cover listing other Hullo America! songs.
“Over There” with cover by Norman Rockwell. Words and music by George M. Cohan (New York: Leo. Feist Inc., 1917)
“When Yankee Doodle Learns to ‘Parlez Vous Fran�ais.’” Words by Will. Hart, music by Ed. Nelson (New York: A. J. Strasny Music Co., 1917)
“Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl and Leave the Rest to Me.” Words by Lew Brown, music by Albert Von Tilzer (New York: Broadway Music Corp., 1917)
“Just a Little Touch of Paris.” Words by Richard Fechheimer, music by W. B. Kernell (New York: T. B. Harms and Francis, Day & Hunter, 1919)
“Ooh La La I’m Having a Wonderful Time.” Words by Bud Green, music by Ed. Nelson (New York: A. J. Stasny Music Co., 1918)
“I Don’t Want to Get Well.” Words by Harry Pease and Howard Johnson, music by Harry Jentes (New York: Leo. Feist Inc., 1917)
“Are We Downhearted? No! No! No!” Sheet music: Words by Ray Sherwood, music by Will Donaldson (New York. F. B. Haviland Pub. Co., 1917) with postcard: “Are we downhearted? No, We’re too busy training.”
“Just a Little After Taps.” Words by Richard Fechheimer, music by William Kernell (London: Chappell & Co. Ltd., 1918) with postcard of Janis in helmet.
Theatre Magazine photographic feature on Elsie Janis (January 1920)
The contents of this exhibition are drawn from the Elsie Janis Collection of the Laura M. Mueller British and American Theatre and Film Collections, with additional materials from the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, the Cartoon Research Library, and Rare Books and Manuscripts.
The Theatre Research Institute is grateful to Ms. Mueller for the use of her research notes and draft manuscript for her biography of Elsie Janis currently in progress. Historian, author, and collector Laura M. Mueller is a life-long resident of Columbus, having attended St. Joseph Academy and The Ohio State University. She has published articles in Films in Review, for publications of numerous organizations including the British Compact Collectors Society, the International Perfume Bottle Association, Remember That Song Sheet Music Organization, the Ohioana Library, and the Newberry Library, and was responsible for writing film notes for the outstanding Ohio Theatre Summer Classic Film Series. Her two-volume Encyclopedia of Compacts, Carryalls & Face Powder Boxes has been recognized as a major resource in this field and has enjoyed an international distribution. Ms. Mueller has published an article on Columbus’s Baker Art Gallery’s photographic history, and currently is working on 100 Years of Columbus Photographers. She has long been involved in the arts both professionally with the Ohio Arts Council and the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, and personally through her collecting interests which have included the Stratford Festival of Canada and British and American actors including Elsie Janis, Van Johnson, Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quayle and others. In addition, Ms. Mueller has built significant collections on Columbus history through postcards, sheet music, and photographs. Her collections reside in the Newberry Library, the Ohioana Library, the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and the Ohio State University Libraries.
The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute would like to acknowledge the following who have made contributions to the exhibition and to the development of the Janis collection: Harry Campbell, Lucy Caswell, Raimund Goerler, Sandy Marrone, Val Pennington, Donald J. Stubblebine, Shannon Tippie.
Nena Couch
Curator, The Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute
The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute
The Ohio State University
119 Thompson Library
1858 Neil Ave Mall
Columbus, OH 43210
614-292-6614
614-688-8417, fax
http://library.osu.edu/find/collections/theater-research-institute
