Julian Eltinge

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Advert (1917)

Julian Eltinge , born William Julian Dalton (born May 14, 1881 in Newtonville , Massachusetts , †  March 7, 1941 ) was an American actor .

Life

Eltinge in the role as The Fascinating Widow

Eltinge was born in Newtonville , Massachusetts in 1881 . He grew up in Butte , Montana , where his father worked in the mining industry. Little background is known about his early years. In Boston he got a job at the Tremont Theater with the Boston Cadets Review , where he played a female role. At that time, young men often played women's roles in male organizations. Eltinge first appeared on Broadway for the musical comedy Mr Wix of Wickham , which opened on September 19, 1904 at the Bijou Theater in New York City . The show was produced by EE Rice and the music was composed by Jerome David Kern , among others . The show was a flop, but it helped kick-start Eltinge's career. Eltinge began as an actor to take on roles in the theater genre Vaudeville . Compared to the many female roles that existed in the theater at that time and in which men portrayed women in caricature (including Bert Savoy and George Fortesque ), Eltinge presented an illusion of an acting woman without caricature. Among other things, Eltinge played the role of a Gibson girl The Sampson Girl . In 1906 Eltinge made a London debut at the Palace Theater and gave a private performance in London to the British King Edward VII . In 1907 Eltinge made his debut at the Alhambra Theater in New York City. In the following two years, 1908 and 1909, Eltinge toured the United States with a minstrel show . Eltinge's fame was now so great that he published his own fashion magazine Eltinge Magazine for women .

In 1911 Eltinge opened his most famous role and theater show The Fascinating Widow at the Liberty Theater in New York City. After 56 appearances in New York City, he toured the United States with this show for several years. Theater producer Albert H. Woods named a theater after him in honor of Eltinge , the Eltinge Theater on 42nd Street , which the architect Thomas W. Lamb had designed. This theater existed until 1943 and was then a cinema.

After his role in The Fascinating Widow , Eltinge starred in two other successful comedies: The Crinoline Girl , which opened in 1914, and the comedy Cousin Lucy , which began in 1915. In 1914 Eltinge first appeared in front of the film camera in these two roles at the beginning of the silent film era . He also made a brief appearance in the silent film How Molly Malone Made Good . His first film success, however, came in 1917 with the film The Countess Charming , in which he played a double role.

Eltinge moved to Hollywood in 1917 , where he starred in three films in 1917 and 1918. He then wrote a play for a vaudeville theater company, The Julian Eltinge Players , with which he appeared in 1918 at the Palace Theater in New York City. In 1919 he appeared in a vaudeville role, the stage of which was designed by the French artist Erté . By 1920 Eltinge was well off financially; he lived in a comfortable apartment in southern California , the Villa Capistrano . His star as an actor shone even stronger when he appeared in the 1920 film An Adventuress with Rudolph Valentino and in the 1918 film The Isle of Love with Rudolf Valentino and Virginia Rappe . Eltinge then began touring again in the theater genre until 1927 and two more films, Madame Behave and The Fascinating Widow, followed in 1925.

In the 1930s Eltinge's professional career went downhill. The Vaudeville theater genre was now no longer popular in the United States and the world economic crisis had a negative impact on Eltinges career out. Eltinge had to perform in night clubs. In 1941 Eltinge died in New York City due to an intracerebral haemorrhage . The exact circumstances of death are described as mysterious.

Eltinge and a woman he named as his wife on a trip to Japan.

About Eltinge there was speculation in society about its sexual orientation . There have been various rumors of alleged homosexuality . Eltinge himself denied these speculations and appeared with strong masculine gestures in his private life, in which he smoked cigars, fought bargains and appeared in public with women, although he never married. Many colleagues, such as Milton Berle among others, assumed homosexuality at Eltinge. In contrast, actress Ruth Gordon stated in an article in the New York Times about Eltinge: Eltinge as virile as anybody virle .

In 1925, Buster Keaton paid tribute to Eltinge in the film Seven Chances .

Quote about Eltinge

My heart is simply melting at the thought of Julian Eltinge;
His alter ego, Vesta Tilley , too.
Since our language is so dexterous, let us call them ambi-sexterous -
Why hasn't this occurred before to you?
Dorothy Parker , "A Musical Comedy Thought" - Vanity Fair , June 1916

Works (selection)

  • Maid to Order , 1931
  • Madame Behave , Jack Mitchell / 'Madame Behave', 1925
  • The Fascinating Widow , 1925
  • To Adventuress , 1920, Clifford Townsend
    • The Isle of Love
  • The Widow's Might , 1918, Dick Tavish
  • Princess Martini , 1918
  • War relief , 1918
  • The Clever Mrs. Carfax , 1917, Temple Trask / Mrs. Carfax
  • The Countess Charming , 1917, Stanley Jordan / Countess Raffelski
  • Her Grace, the Vampire , 1917
  • The Isle of Love , 1916
  • Cousin Lucy , 1914
  • Crinoline Girl , 1914

literature

  • Martin Banham , The Cambridge Guide to Theater . Cambridge University Press, New York, 1992
  • Ken Bloom , Broadway: An Encyclopedic Guide to the History, People and Places of Times Square , Facts on File, New York, 1991
  • Gerald Bordman and Thomas Hischak, The Oxford Companion to American Theater , 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, New York, 2004
  • Anthony Slide , The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville , Greenwood Press, Westport, 1994
  • Robert Toll , On with the Show! The First Century of Show Business in America , Oxford University Press, New York, 1976

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Eltinge, Julian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dalton, William Julian (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Newtonville , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1941