Julian Eltinge, Famous Feminine Impersonator (1917) 🇺🇸
Another distinguished name has been added to the list of Famous Players-Lasky stars with the engagement of Julian Eltinge, the internationally celebrated impersonator of feminine roles.
Arrangements have just been concluded between Mr. Eltinge and Jesse L. Lasky for this popular actor to make his motion-picture debut under the new selective booking arrangement which is to go into effect on August 5th.
Julian Eltinge has just completed his second season in the successful comedy, Cousin Lucy, in which he has toured the country. He has traveled all over Europe in his various successful plays after completing wonderfully lucrative seasons in New York. His fame is further perpetuated by the erection of the Eltinge Theater in New York — an honor which is accorded to few actors.
Mr. Eltinge is the one man who has been able to appear in feminine characterizations upon the stage without losing a certain measure of respect either from members of his own, or of the opposite sex. The fact that he is just “Bill” Eltinge to his legion of friends and that he refuses to discuss feminine fashions even for much-coveted publicity, are indicative of the caliber of the man. He weighs 175 pounds, and is accomplished with his fists as he is with his ankles. He is forced to keep continuously in training because any lapse would render it impossible for him to wear the complicated and distinctly confining gear which is part of the feminine foibles which he presents upon the stage.
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A Page from Mary Garden’s Diary
(written in Paris in May, 1917)
For a week I have been witnessing sights that I never believed could happen even in volatile France. I have been privileged to watch the French people’s demonstration in behalf of the United States, their new ally in the war.
I have heard “The Star-Spangled Banner” played on every conceivable occasion; by musicians who know our national air and by many others who obviously did not know it; I have heard it hummed and sung and whistled to the accompaniment of applause and cheers.
“Dixie” challenges the Parisian ear almost as quickly as it does our good Yankees in America. This favorite air of the South is frantically applauded daily by French auditors, who accept it as one of our national airs, rather than a musical contribution of one of the sections of our nation. “Suwanee River” and Sousa’s marches are other airs now immensely popular in Paris.
When the United States Senate, long past midnight, passed the war resolution at Washington, Paris thrilled instantly, for the radio brought the news in a few minutes and the French nation realized that her sister republic overseas had cast the die in behalf of human liberty.
The most intense interest is taken here in the plan to bring American troops to France — for France, when it wishes to be, is the most sentimental of nations, and will glory in a national gratuity or exchange of soldiers after one hundred and forty odd years to show that the memory of Lafayette and Rochambeau’s services still persists in the western world.
It may not be generally known in the United States that there are 50,000 Americans already in the ranks of the allies at the battle-front. A large portion of these Americans are, of course, in the Red Cross and ambulance services. Scores of American scientists and physicians are here laboring for stricken humanity, but the remainder of the males are either in the infantry, artillery or aviation divisions subject to the will of the entente.
Between the nights when I sing here at the Comique and the time that I must take for rest between performances, I still find time to give attention to the hospital.
On several occasions since my return here in the middle of March, I have intended writing of an odd work that many women, myself among them, commissioned themselves to do. France rightly and correctly persists in giving its fighting soldiers respites and furloughs. Men who have been under heavy fire at the front are withdrawn and have the opportunity to steady their nerves before going back into battle.
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Collection: Photoplay Magazine, August 1917
(The Photo-Play Journal for August, 1917)