Elsie Janis
Birth nameElsie Bierbower
Birth dateMarch 16, 1889
Birth placeMarion, Ohio, U.S.
Death dateFebruary 26, 1956 (aged 66)
Death placeBeverly Hills, California, U.S.
Other namesLittle Elsie
OccupationActress (stage and screen) · singer · songwriter · screenwriter · radio announcer
Years active1894–1940
SpouseGilbert Wilson (m.1932)

Elsie Janis (born Elsie Bierbower, March 16, 1889 – February 26, 1956) was an American actress of stage and screen, singer, songwriter, screenwriter and radio announcer. Entertaining the troops during World War I immortalized her as "the sweetheart of the AEF" (American Expeditionary Force).

Early life

Elsie Bierbower was born in Marion, Ohio, the daughter of Josephine Janis and John Eleazer Bierbower. She had a brother, Percy John.[citation needed]

Stage

Bierbower debuted on stage in 1896 in a production of East Lynne at Columbus's Southern Theatre.[1] By age 11, she was a headliner on the vaudeville circuit, performing under the name Little Elsie. As she matured, using the stage name Elsie Janis, she began perfecting her comedic skills.[citation needed]

Acclaimed by American and British critics,[citation needed] Janis was a headliner on Broadway and London. On Broadway, she starred in a number of successful shows, including The Vanderbilt Cup (1906), The Hoyden (1907), The Slim Princess (1911), and The Century Girl (1916).

Elsie performed at the grand opening of the Brown Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky on October 5, 1925.

Film, screenwriting and music

Janis also enjoyed a career as a Hollywood actress, screenwriter, production manager and composer. She was co-credited alongside Gene Markey for writing the original story for Close Harmony (1929) and as composer and production manager for Paramount on Parade (1930). She and director Edmund Goulding wrote the song "Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere" for Gloria Swanson for her talkie debut film The Trespasser (1929). Janis's song "Oh, Give Me Time for Tenderness" was featured in the Bette Davis movie Dark Victory (1939), also directed by Goulding.

Life with Basil Hallam

Before he entered service for World War I, English actor-singer Basil Hallam fell in love with Janis, with whom he had starred in The Passing Show of 1915.[2] They set up home in the city of Liverpool, England.[3] The couple never married; Hallam was killed in the Battle of the Somme in August 1916 while serving with the Royal Flying Corps.[4][5]

World War I

Janis advocated for British and American soldiers fighting in World War I. She raised funds for Liberty Bonds. Accompanied by her mother, Janis also took her act on the road, entertaining troops stationed near the front lines – one of the first popular American artists to do so in a war fought on foreign soil. Ten days after the armistice, she recorded for His Master's Voiceseveral numbers from her revue Hullo, America, including "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl".[6] She wrote about her wartime experiences in The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces (published in 1919), and recreated these in Behind the Lines, a 1926 Vitaphone musical short.

A musical about this period of her life called Elsie Janis and the Boys, written by Carol J. Crittenden and composer John T. Prestianni, premiered under the direction of Charles A. Wallace as part of the Rotunda Theatre Series in the Wortley-Peabody Theater in Dallas, Texas on August 15, 2014.

Radio announcer

In 1934, Janis became the first female announcer on the NBC radio network.[7]

Children

Janis wanted to have children of her own.[8][9] She became a foster mother to a 14-year-old Italian war veteran and orphan, Michael Cardi, in 1919.[10][11]

Later life

Janis maintained her private home “ElJan” on the east side of High Street in Columbus, Ohio. The home was across the street from what was Ohio State University's Ohio Field, the precursor to Ohio Stadium. Janis sold the house following her mother's death.

In 1932, Janis married Gilbert Wilson, who was 16 years her junior, which caused some scandal.[12] There is some evidence it might have been a bearded relationship.[13][14] The couple lived in the historic Philipsburg Manor House in Sleepy Hollow, New York[15] (the village was called North Tarrytown at the time), until they were seriously injured in an automobile accident in the area.[16] Following the accident, Janis moved to the Los Angeles area of California, where she lived until her death. Her final film was the 1940 Women in War.

Elsie Janis died in 1956 at her home in Beverly Hills, California, aged 66, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Legacy

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Elsie Janis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6776 Hollywood Blvd.

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ "Elsie Janis, Stage Star | Elsie Janis". Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  2. ^ Howard, William F. "The Sweetheart of the A.E.F." Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, New York Archives magazine, Winter 2005, Volume 4, Number 3, accessed 1 November 2012
  3. ^ "Echoes of the Day", Liverpool Echo, 25 August 1916, p. 3
  4. ^ Pollard, A. C. The Royal Air Force London 1938 p.106
  5. ^ "Today we remember: Basil Hallam - Remembered". Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  6. ^ Rust, Brian, introduction to facsimile reprint of HMV catalogues 1914-18, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, ISBN 0-7153-6842-7
  7. ^ "Elsie Janis Is First NBC Woman Announcer". Radio World. December 29, 1934. p. 22. Retrieved 20 August 2016.[dead link]
  8. ^ Janis, Elsie (Nov 24, 1935). "After 'Time Out For Love' Elsie Janis Resumes Career". The Hartford Courant.
  9. ^ "Elsie janis, 42, secretly marries; husband is 26". Chicago Daily Tribune. 14 Jan 1932.
  10. ^ "ELSIE JANIS ADOPTS BOY". Indianapolis Star. Jul 13, 1919.
  11. ^ "Youthful hero of war adopted by elsie janis". Detroit Free Press. 3 July 1919.
  12. ^ Janis, Elsie (December 1, 1935). "Tale of altar gamble told by elsie janis". Los Angeles Times
  13. ^ Beard, Deanna (2014). "A doughgirl with the doughboys: Elsie janis, "the regular girl," and the performance of gender in world war I entertainment". Theatre History Studies. 33: 56–70. doi:10.1353/ths.2014.0012. S2CID 190736702
  14. ^ The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 2007.
  15. ^ "MISS JANIS TO SELL GOODS TOMORROW; Actress to Open Auction of Her Belongings at Historic Philipse Manor Home". The New York Times. September 6, 1936. Retrieved December 30, 2025.
  16. ^ "Elsie Janis and Husband Injured When Their Auto Runs Into Truck; Actress in Grasslands Hospital With Broken Collar Bone and Possibly Fractured Skull". The New York Times. July 25, 1935. Retrieved December 30, 2025.