Louis Davids

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Louis Davids (1919)
Davids and his sister Heintje
De little man
Margie Morris (1918)
Monument of Mathieu Ficheroux in Rotterdam in memory of David (2008)

Louis Davids , actually Simon David , (born December 19, 1883 in Rotterdam ; died July 1, 1939 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch cabaret and revue artist . During his almost 50-year career, he also worked in the genres of variety , operetta and popular theater . He has appeared in around 20 films, appeared on the radio and recorded numerous records. He is considered to be one of the most important people in the history of Dutch cabaret .

biography

Family and young years

Louis Davids was born in Rotterdam to Francina Terveen (1858-1927) and the comedian and innkeeper Levie David (1857-1906) into a poor Jewish family. He had two sisters - Rebecca and Henriette , later known as Heintje - and a brother, Hartog, called Hakkie ; two other children were stillborn and a sibling died as an infant. His parents performed comic duets at fairs, and Louis was eight years old on stage, with his brother Hakkie accompanying him on the piano. From 1894 the father let the eleven-year-old Louis and his eight-year-old sister Rika perform as a duo, which had engagements all over the Netherlands. They also appeared in large theaters, before Queen Wilhelmina and in Belgium and Germany. In 1907 they recorded songs on vinyl.

After an argument with his father - allegedly Louis refused to go around with his hat and collect money after street appearances - he went to England as an assistant to a magician . There he fell out with his employer and came back to the Netherlands after a year, but benefited from the experience he had gained in England. Under this impression and with the support of his sister, he wanted to break free from the show milieu : “Louis Davids was talented, but without his perseverance and enormous workforce he would probably never have made it [...]. From an early age he wanted to achieve something in his profession, and he rose from the annual markets to revue and cabaret of international renown. "

Rise to star

With the theater director Frits van Haarlem, Louis Davids conceived his first successful revue Koning 'kZiezoowat in Amsterdam at the Theater Carré , from which a short film was also made. In 1907 his sister Rika married the Jewish illusionist Joachim Lifshitz (1873–1915), artist name John Weil , who came from Jarosław , and accompanied him on a tour to England. At the father's request, the brother - albeit reluctantly at first - accepted his sister Heintje, who had a particularly funny talent, as her successor. The siblings toured Germany and England together. During these years Davids began to take part in operettas and silent films.

In 1906 David's married Rebecca Kokernoot, with whom he had a daughter, Francina. In 1913, Davids left his wife to live with the musician Margie Morris , whom he had met in England. They formed the duo He, She and the piano , for which Margie usually drew as a composer . A well-known piece from this period is De jantjes , which was performed in the Hollandsche Schouwburg and whose story was published as a silent film in 1922 and as a sound film in 1934 . In addition to comic songs, the two supplemented their repertoire with Levenslied , a Dutch genre for sentimental music. In 1915, Margie Morris and Louis Davids had a son, Louis Jr. During the First World War , Davids directed the Eerste Nederlandse Mobilisatie Cabaret for eight months , which performed in front of soldiers in Gorinchem .

In 1919 Louis Davids, Margie Morris and Heintje made a two-year tour together through the Dutch East Indies . After returning to the Netherlands, Morris left Davids because he was having an affair with the operetta artist Tilly van der Does. From then on she refused to talk about David's. After the split, Louis Jr. given to foster parents who later adopted him.

After Margie's departure, Louis Davids and Tilly van der Does also formed a duo for a while, although they were less successful. From 1922 to 1926, David's director of the Casino-Theater in Rotterdam, a job he didn't like because he felt too bound. In 1929 he appeared in the revue Lach en vergeet (Laugh and forget) with the song De kleine man , which was probably his most popular. "His song about the 'little man' in a cheap ready-to-wear suit and Bata shoes, a starving man who always pays the bill in the end while some are 'sitting in high chairs', could rival the national anthem in popularity."

In this and other revues Johannes Heesters was on stage with Davids, as well as in the operetta Im Weißen Rößl in front of a sold-out house. Regardless of his origin from Rotterdam, Davids was a popular interpreter of folk songs from the Amsterdam district of Jordaan : "Where Louis Davids performed in the twenties, the audience cheered and sang his refrains out loud."

Theater director in Scheveningen and death

In 1931 Louis Davids took over the management of the Kurhaus cabaret in Scheveningen . He initially performed under the direction of Max van Gelder and then brought a new program to the stage every two weeks in which he participated as a conférencier and cabaret artist. He invited artists from home and abroad such as the ping-pong ensemble or Rudolf Nelson’s cabaret . He pioneered the careers of a number of well-known artists including Wim Kan , Corry Vonk, and Wim Sonneveld . Perhaps the most original contribution to Dutch cabaret is his appearances as de man in het blauwe pak (the man in the blue suit) in the 1930s, “with his hands in his pockets, on an empty stage (only with one pianist), his Songs […] and delighted the audience with his dry humor or his subdued melancholy, his quick-witted improvisation and his sharp-tongued reaction to current events ”.

Most of the songs that Louis Davids performed were written by Jacques van Tol , with whom Davids worked from the late 1920s until his death. Davids acquired the texts including the copyrights and it was agreed that van Tol should remain anonymous as the author. For this Davids paid him several times the normal fee. It was not known until the 1960s that most of David's texts were by Van Tol. Jacques van Tol had been a member of the National Socialist NSB (for which he had been sentenced to three years imprisonment after the end of the war) and had hosted an anti-Semitic radio program under the name Paulus de Ruiter during the occupation of the Netherlands by the German Wehrmacht . The fact that the “best text writer in the Netherlands” worked for well-known artists again after the war, including David's sister Heintje as well as Ria Valk and Corry Brokken , was unknown to the public for a long time.

Fellow artist Sylvain Poons said of Louis Davids:

“He was an incredibly self-centered man. Maybe he was unsure too, but he never let us know. He wasn't easy to deal with. He hardly had any friends either. Of course, he was admired for good reason. He died at the height of his fame after being seriously ill for ten years. He was popular almost without limits. This was mainly due to the beautiful songs that Jacques van Tol had written for him and that Louis Davids took over for himself for many years carefree and without shame. "

The David expert Harry van Gunsteren confirmed this judgment: “Louis Davids was an unpleasant man. [...]. He was liked by the audience, but not by his colleagues. They hated little Louis. "

In 1937 Davids had to give up his work at the Kurhaus Scheveningen because of his asthma , which he had been suffering from since his youth. He had a few more appearances in 1939, which he began with the “cryptic remark”: “In the morning when I get up, the first thing I do is look out the window to see if I'm already abroad.” He died in 1939 at the age of 55 years. His remains were cremated and the urn was buried in the columbarium of the crematorium at the Westerveld cemetery in Driehuis . Later his sister Heintje Davids and her husband Philip Pinkhof were buried next to him.

Fate of the family

Davids did not have a good relationship with his two children. His son Louis Jr. was adopted by his foster parents, survived the war and emigrated to Australia. His daughter Francina married a South African and moved to Cape Town with her mother Rebecca before the war . Since Rebecca Davids had refused to get a divorce, she and Davids remained married until his death.

Louis Davids' brother Hakkie, his wife Sophia and his sister Rica were murdered in the Sobibor extermination camp in 1943 . His sister Heintje was the only one from his family of origin who survived the Holocaust.

Honors and memories

In 1937 Louis Davids was made a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau .

In 1938 the municipality of Rotterdam donated the Louis Davidsring , a prize for small artists. In 1983, near the house where he was born, a monument to Louis Davids in the form of a huge broken record was inaugurated with the inscription: “Ik hoop dat als ik er niet meer zal zijn, mijn liedjes steeds in herinnering zullen blijven” (“I hope that mine Songs will always be remembered when I am no longer. ”). The broken LP is also supposed to symbolize the past of the quarter with a lot of Jewish life. It had to be dismantled in 2007 and returned to its old location in a restored condition in 2016.

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Louis Davids, the musical De Zoon van Louis Davids with songs by Louis Davids, Margie Morris and Jacques van Tol was performed in the Fortis Circustheater in Scheveningen in 1983 .

Streets are named after Louis Davids in several Dutch cities, such as Amsterdam, Scheveningen, Rijswijk , Zandvoort and Almere . There is also a Louis Davidsstraat in Scheveningen , on which an entire residential complex bears the name Louis Davids Carré .

Filmography

(in various functions)

  • Koning 'Kziezoowat in Amsterdam (1906)
  • The disastrous fate (1915)
  • Amerikaansche meisjes (1918)
  • De duivel in Amsterdam (1919)
  • Schakels (1920)
  • Menschenwee (1921)
  • De jantjes (1922)
  • Bleeke Bet (1923)
  • Orange Hein (1925)
  • Hollandsch Hollywood (1933)
  • De jantjes (1934)
  • Op stap (1935)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Een leven lang theater: Louis Davids. In: eenlevenlangtheater.nl. July 22, 2002, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Nicolette Mout: David, Simon (1883-1939). In: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland. resources.huygens.knaw.nl, November 12, 2013, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Een leven lang theater: Biography. In: eenlevenlangtheater.nl. July 22, 2002, accessed June 6, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Louis Davids. In: joodserfgoedrotterdam.nl. September 9, 2019, accessed June 5, 2020 (Dutch).
  5. ^ Edward Portnoy: Entertainers. In: yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved June 6, 2020 .
  6. ^ David, Hendrika (1888-1975). In: resources.huygens.knaw.nl. August 1, 2013, accessed February 13, 2020 (Dutch).
  7. ↑ Beuys, Leben mit dem Feind , p. 35.
  8. ↑ a b c d e Een leven lang theater: De niehelft van Margie. In: eenlevenlangtheater.nl. July 22, 2002, accessed June 6, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Een leven lang theater: De theater director. In: eenlevenlangtheater.nl. July 22, 2002, accessed June 6, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Beuys, Leben mit dem Feind , p. 44.
  11. ↑ Beuys, Leben mit dem Feind , pp. 44/45.
  12. ↑ Beyus, Life with the Enemy , p. 34.
  13. ↑ Jacques van Tol. In: dedokwerker.nl. Retrieved June 6, 2020 .
  14. ^ Een leven lang theater: Een avond met Wim Sonneveld. In: eenlevenlangtheater.nl. July 22, 2002, accessed June 6, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Monique Marreveld: Tekstschrijver Van Tol kon helaas alle genres aan . In: Nieuw Israelietisch weekblad . May 22, 1992.
  16. ^ Louis Davids (pseudoniem van Simon David). In: joodsamsterdam.nl. September 13, 2019, accessed June 5, 2020 (Dutch).
  17. ^ Een leven lang theater: Volgens Davids expert Harry van Gunsteren. In: eenlevenlangtheater.nl. July 22, 2002, accessed June 9, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Beuys, Leben mit dem Feind , p. 67.
  19. ^ Louis Davids: Repertoire - Cabaret - 1923-1938. In: TheaterEncyclopedie. Retrieved June 7, 2020 (Dutch).
  20. ↑ Jacques Klöters: Voorwaarts leven, ACHTERWAARTS begrijpen. Singel Uitgeverijen, 2016, ISBN 9038802196 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  21. ↑ Hartog David. In: joodsmonument.nl. Retrieved June 6, 2020 .
  22. ↑ a b c Louis Davids. In: Joods Biographical Woordenboek. Retrieved June 6, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Louis David's monument. In: bkor.nl. Retrieved June 6, 2020 .
  24. ^ Louis Davids and the Jewish past of Rotterdam. In: cbkrotterdam.nl. August 27, 2017, accessed June 6, 2020 (Dutch).
  25. ↑ De Zoon van Louis Davids. In: musical.nl. Retrieved June 8, 2020 .
  26. ↑ Een leven lang theater: De zoon van Louis Davids. In: eenlevenlangtheater.nl. July 22, 2002, accessed June 8, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Davids, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch cabaret artist and revue artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Rotterdam
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1939
Place of death Amsterdam