The Big Show: My Six Months With the American Expeditionary Forces (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Big Show: My Six Months With the America...)
Excerpt from The Big Show: My Six Months With the American Expeditionary Forces
In August the great blow fell upon the world. Suddenly England was at war. The theaters still went on, people stood the shock wonderfully, and in a few days one hundred thousand of England's best had been spirited away and were landed in France - while we were still wondering when they would go! About ten per cent of my friends went with them, some never to return, but to make his tory and cover themselves with glory that can never be forgotten.
It was not surprising that, arriving home in America in October, 1914, with Tipperary ring ing in my ears and visions of hundreds of brave men singing as they marched away, I should have been a bit disappointed in the neutral attitude of most of my friends. Having seen the Americans, as I have, in France since then, I don't believe they know the meaning of the word neutral. They were not that - they were loyal.
Their President said be neutral, and they wera loyal to him.
After three months in America we sailed again for England - January 30, 1915 - Ou the Lusitania, the time when the submarine lay in wait for her, and that wonderful man Captain Paddy Dow set us out in the middle of a hurricane until dawn and then came in flying the American flag. Exit subs. In consternation and some speed.
I played again at the Palace, and now began my first real taste of war. The wounded were com ing home in thousands; the camps were full; and I spent every spare moment I had, and some I did not have, singing in hospitals and camps. It was then I learned what a little amusing story or a song can mean to a'man before he goes into a fight or after he has got his.
In July, 1915, my dear friend and fellow-player Basil Hallam heard the call of his country more than the cheers and applause of the public, and he enlisted or rather insisted, as he had been turned down as unfit several times.
I did not want to continue without him, so again we went to America. In the meantime the Lusitania had been sunk and America was growing restive in spots.
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Elsie Janis was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and screenwriter.
Background
Janis was born Elsie Jane Bierbower, on March 16, 1889, in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of John Eleazer Bierbower and Jane Elizabeth Cockrell. Urged on by her mother, "Little Elsie, " as she was called, began entertaining friends of the family at the age of four with recitations and imitations.
Education
Janis was educated privately, chiefly by her mother - the archetypal stage mother - who devoted the rest of her life to her daughter's career.
Career
Janis made her professional debut in Columbus on December 24, 1897, as Cain in The Charity Ball. The following year she appeared with the local stock company in Little Lord Fauntleroy, East Lynne, and The Gallery Slave. Under her mother's guidance she appeared at the Casino Theater Roof Garden in New York City in 1900, but even Jenny Bierbower was no match for the protective Gerry Society, which carefully restricted child performers in New York. For the next three years Little Elsie toured in vaudeville with her program of impersonations. Adopting the stage name of Elsie Janis (derived from her middle name), she next appeared in the road companies of two successful musicals, The Belle of New York and The Fortune Teller. She returned to New York in When We Were Forty-One (1905), her first real success. Her talents as a mimic, singer, and dancer won her the leading role in the musical comedy The Vanderbilt Cup (1906). Its success led to other starring roles in The Fair Co-ed (1909), The Slim Princess (1911), and the melodrama A Star for a Night (1911), written by herself, all produced by Charles B. Dillingham, her manager for many years. A London engagement in The Passing Show of 1914 opened a new phase in her career. The versatile, dark-haired girl with the flashing smile and boundless energy captivated British theatergoers. Inevitably, Hollywood made her an offer. Under contract as a performer and scenario writer, in 1914-1915 Janis appeared in four undistinguished films, The Caprices of Kitty, Betty in Search of a Thrill, Nearly a Lady, and 'Twas Ever Thus. Her talents were obviously more suited to the stage, and she returned to London for the 1915 edition of The Passing Show. Subsequently she appeared in New York in Miss Information (1915), playing no less than six characters, and soon after embarked on a lengthy vaudeville tour. When the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, she devoted all her energy to the war effort. Passionately patriotic, she made more than 600 appearances in camp shows on the Western Front, earning the title Sweetheart of the A. E. F. She was made honorary commanding officer of the Ninety-fourth Flying Squadron. By then an international celebrity, Janis again conquered London in her revue Hullo, America! (1918). At the conclusion of the war she returned to New York in Elsie Janis and Her Gang (1919), the first of a series of entertainments based on her wartime experiences. Supported by a cast largely recruited from ex-servicemen, she contributed much of the material and dominated the performance. She sang, she danced, and her imitations were, as always, wickedly accurate. Unlike most mimics, she gave impressions of various celebrities as they might appear doing somewhat unlikely things - Ethel Barrymore, for example, singing "Yes, We Have No Bananas. " London subsequently enjoyed this entertainment, and even Paris succumbed to La Revue d'Elsie Janis (1921), which daringly included her impression of "Swanee" as it might have been sung by Sarah Bernhardt. Through much of the 1920's she continued to appear in her own revues. Janis also contributed light pieces to the Saturday Evening Post and Liberty, and even attempted a comic strip. Her energy was seemingly inexhaustible. An established headliner in vaudeville, she periodically toured the country from coast to coast. In 1927, making a rare appearance in a more conventional musical show, she played the lead in a West Coast production of the Gershwins' Oh, Kay! But as memories of World War I began to fade, her popularity declined. From 1930 on she spent most of her time in Beverly Hills and served as a writer and production supervisor on three early talkies: Paramount on Parade, Close Harmony, and Madam Satan. With the onset of the Great Depression, her troubles began. She lost much of her fortune in a Beverly Hills bank failure. In 1935 she was seriously injured in an auto accident, and subsequent heavy expenses forced her to auction off her historic Tarrytown estate, Philipse Manor. She and her husband drifted apart, and an attempt at a comeback in vaudeville in 1939 failed to revive public interest. Her final professional appearance was in a film, Women in War (1940). Janis spent her last years in retirement in Hollywood, where she died on February 26, 1956.
Seasoned professionals such as Maurice Chevalier, who appeared with her in London, praised Janis as a perfectionist and tireless worker.
Connections
On December 31, 1931, one year after the death of her mother, Janis married Gilbert Wilson, a would-be actor sixteen years her junior. They had no children.