Elsie Janis, 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.” She wrote about her wartime experiences in The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces.
