Nitta-Jo was the stage name for French singer and performer Fanny Dafflon born in Paris on October 7, 1880. [1] [2] [3] Also known as Fanny Durnell (spouse name). [4] Mistakenly named Jeanne Daflon or Jeanne Dufflin in various publications. [5]
Nitta-Jo was the stage name for French singer and performer Fanny Dafflon born in Paris on October 7, 1880. [1] [2] [3] Also known as Fanny Durnell (spouse name). [4] Mistakenly named Jeanne Daflon or Jeanne Dufflin in various publications. [5]
She was the daughter of a Swiss accountant and a French dressmaker. [1] It was said that she made her stage debut at the age of 9, [6] but another account states that as a child from Montmartre "she used to deliver hats from a shop on the Rue de la Paix on her bicycle[,] and when she grew up she became a salesgirl. ...A well known singing teacher became interested in her voice and gave her lessons and, in due course of time, she became a concert singer." [7]
She was married in 1913 in Romania [8] [9] to Charles Elwood Durnell, nicknamed "Boots", a noted American horse owner and trainer who was in charge of the racing stables of the Romanian politician Alexandru Marghiloman. [7] The couple lived in Romania until the country entered the Great War, then they relocated to Russia, where Durnell also raced horses. [10]
They had one son, Bertrand Charles Durnell, born on September 4, 1918, in New York shortly after they arrived in the United States. [5] [9] Charles E. Durnell died February 16, 1949, in Arcadia, California. [11]
Nitta-Jo was the godmother of the son of French composer Mimi Recagno. [12] She died after 1946. [5]
She performed as a gigolette and was known in French as La Gigolette Parisienne. [13] [7]
In Romania, Nitta Jo was said to have made herself "a national heroine" with her jibes against government policies. [14]
She rebuffed a government order to cease singing the French national song, La Marseillaise, while she was living there in 1916 because it was a violation of the nation's neutrality during wartime. "Did that gag Nitta Jo?" asked foreign correspondent Robert Mountsier in a column. "It did not. She immediately began singing a song, each verse of which set forth to the enjoyment of her audience the weak spots in Roumanian neutrality." Each verse ended with the words, sung to several bars of the French song, "La Marseillaise est défendue" (the Marseillaise is defended). [15]
She left Romania during the war to go to Russia, "until the chaotic conditions there made any form of amusement impossible," according to an article in The Buffalo Enquirer, which continued: "The reign of terror of the Bolsheviks forced her after witnessing innumerable uprisings and massacres to escape through Siberia to Japan[,] where she sailed to America." [6]
In Russia, she and her husband were "confined to their apartments for eight days during the revolutionary fighting," the Reno (Nevada) Evening Gazette reported after an interview. They arrived in the United States via Manchuria, Japan, Victoria (British Columbia) and San Francisco where they stayed at the Palace Hotel. [16] [9] [17] [18]
Her first North American tour began in September 1918 at the Princess Theatre in Montreal, where she sang two weeks. [19] In October she moved on to New York City, with debuts at the Riverside and at The Palace theaters where she is said to be "a real 'find' for vaudeville." [20] She also appeared in Buffalo; the Evening News said she "has created a furore and has been acclaimed the greatest artiste imported in years," [21] and in Rochester. [22] She ended the 1919 tour in Washington D.C. [23]
In April 1920, she sang at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco, and the next month she was at the Orpheum in Los Angeles. Argonaut critic Josephine Hart Phelps said of her: "She fairly flashed temperament, and her whole being became a happy exuberance of rhythm." She and her husband were said to "have a beautiful home in France, to which they will return at the close of Nita-Jo's present engagement." [24]
Her tracks on stage are lost after a tour in La Ciotat in November 1938. [25] In April 1939, she joined the Automobile-Club de Nice. [26]
76 recordings are known to date.
A character named "Nita Jo" is played by Ollie Kirby in the 1923 silent drama film The Apache Dancer .
ComteJean Bruno Wladimir François-de-Paule Lefèvre d'Ormesson was a French writer and novelist. He authored forty books, was the director of Le Figaro from 1974 to 1977, as well as the dean of the Académie Française, to which he was elected in 1973, until his death, in addition to his service as president of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies within UNESCO (1992–1997).
Rosy Armen is a French singer of Armenian descent. She is a multilingual singer, with most songs in French and Armenian, but also in other languages such as English, German, Spanish, and Italian.
Gilles Marchal, born Gilles Pastre, was a French songwriter and singer who reached the height of his career during the 1970s.
Gaston Ghrenassia , known by his stage name Enrico Macias, is a French singer, songwriter and musician of Algerian Jewish descent.
Isabelle Antena is a French singer and songwriter, and founder of the electro-samba group Antena.
Fabienne Thibeault is a French Canadian singer. She is particularly known for her role in Starmania. Thibeault has released numerous albums over her career. She has been the recipient of two Félix Awards.
Raymond Berthiaume was a Canadian jazz singer, musician, producer and composer from Quebec, Canada.
Line Renaud is a French singer, actress and AIDS activist.
Irène Joachim was a French soprano, and later a vocal teacher.
Michel Droit was a French novelist and journalist. He was the father of the photographer Éric Droit (1954–2007).
Cassiopée is a francophone Canadian singer and entertainer. Since 2011, she has played the lead female character Lia in Cirque du Soleil show, Zarkana. She also plays three of the four other female parts in the production.
René Plaissetty (1889–1955) was an American film director.
Daniel Bevilacqua, better known by the stage name Christophe, was a French singer and songwriter. He was born in the Paris suburb of Juvisy-sur-Orge, to an Italian father.
Madeleine Chapsal was a French writer and the daughter of Robert Chapsal, son of the politician Fernand Chapsal, and of Marcelle Chaumont, who made dresses for Madeleine Vionnet.
Milly Mathis was a French actress who appeared in more than 100 films during her career. Born on September 8, 1901, as Emilienne Pauline Tomasini in Marseilles, France, she made her film debut with a small, uncredited role in the 1927 German film, Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney. Most of her parts would be in featured or supporting roles. Her final performance would be in a featured role in French film, Business (1960). She was also an occasional performer on France's legitimate stage. She died on March 30, 1965, in Salon-de-Provence, France, and was buried in the Cimetière Saint-Pierre in Marseilles.
Marie Cavadia (1901–1970) was a Romanian writer of Greek ethnicity, who wrote in French, and lived and worked in France and Egypt. She is recognized as one of the main proponents of the Surrealist movement in Egypt, together with Georges Henein.
La Vie moderne: intégrale 1944–1959 is a 14-CD box set compilation of Léo Ferré studio and live albums recorded for Le Chant du Monde and Odeon Records between 1950 and 1958. The box set brings together for the first time nine historical albums, several 78s and 45s cuts, rarities and unreleased radio archives, with many alternative versions. Lyrics are not included. This is the first box set of a complete collection of works recorded by the artist.
Renée Claude was a Canadian actress and singer who was known as an interpretive singer, particularly of songs by Stéphane Venne, Michel Conte, Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré.
Alix André was a French romance novelist. Between 1942 and 1980, she wrote dozens of books, some of which were translated into several other languages or reprinted episodically in women's magazines. She was a recipient of the Prix de l'Académie des jeux floraux and the Montyon Prize. André died in 2000.
Josette Amiel has enjoyed a long career as a French ballerina, dance teacher and choreographer. After studying under Jeanne Schwarz, she made her debut at the Ballets des Champs-Élysées in 1948, then enjoyed four years with the Opéra-Comique. She joined the Paris Opera Ballet in 1952, becoming a danseuse étoile in 1958. Amiel is remembered not only for excelling in classical works but for creating modern roles, for example in Serge Lifar's Chemin de Lumières and Flemming Flindt's La Leçon. After leaving the Paris Opera in 1972, she continued to dance until 1980 when she retired from the stage to teach at the Paris Opera Ballet. From 1986, she directed Harald Lander's Études for presentations at several different ballet companies. Amiel was honoured as a commander of the Legion of Honour in 2012.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
