Janis, Elsie (1889–1956)

American actress, musical comedy star, and author. Born Elsie Bierbower in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, on March 16, 1889; died at her Beverly Hills home on February 25, 1956; buried beside her motherat Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California; daughter of John E. Bierbower and Jane Elizabeth (Cockrell) Bierbower; married Gilbert Wilson (an actor), in 1931.

Elsie Janis was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1889. Guided firmly by her mother Jane Bierbower , Janis first trod the boards at age eight, making her Columbus debut as the boy Cain in The Charity Ball. The following year, she appeared in Cincinnati stock company productions of Little Lord Fauntleroy, East Lynne, and The Galley Slave. Under the management of E.E. Rice, Janis was off to New York in 1900, working the vaudeville stage at the Casino Theater Roof Garden as "Little Elsie"; she followed that with a three-year tour. Her first substantial hit came in 1905, when she appeared at the New York Theater Roof Garden in When We Were Forty-One, in which her imitations of popular actors of the day created a furor.

In 1906, Janis starred on Broadway as Dorothy Willetts in The Vanderbilt Cup, which had a seasonal run and subsequent tour. The following year, she was again successful playing Joan Talbot in The Hoyden at the Knickerbocker Theater. She was also seen as Cynthia Bright in The Fair Co-Ed (1908), as Princess Kalora in The Slim Princess (1909), and as Cinderella in The Lady of the Slipper (1912). Her London debut came in 1914, when she portrayed Kitty O'Hara in The Passing Show at the Palace. Again, she met with phenomenal success.

During World War I, the 18-year-old Janis toured the trenches of France for some months, becoming known as the "sweetheart of the American Expeditionary Force" as she entertained the troops. In New York, she starred in Miss Information (1915), The Century Girl (1916), Miss 1917 (1919), Elsie Janis and her Gang (1922), and Puzzles of 1925 and Oh, Kay! (1925). She also took her La Revue de Elsie Janis to the Apollo in Paris (1921). By then, she had long been an international celebrity.

In 1939, Elsie Janis made her farewell stage appearance in Frank Fay's vaudeville Laugh Time; she also gave a series of Sunday night performances of songs and impersonations. The multitalented Janis appeared in silent and talkie films, composed over 50 songs, penned the screenplay for Close Harmony, starred in her own revues and plays A Star for a Night (1911) and It's All Wrong (1920), for which she was also co-composer, staged New Faces of 1934, and wrote several books (Love Letters of an Actress, If I Know What I Mean, as well as her autobiography

So Far So Good, 1932). Her only marriage, which ended in separation, came at age 42 to actor Gilbert Wilson.