Nitta-Jo

Nitta-Jo (born in Paris on October 8, 1881, or 1887) was the stage name for French singer and performer Jeanne Daflon, also known as Fannie Daflon or Jeanne Nitta Dufflin or Fanny Dafflan.[1][2]

Nitta-Jo, 1918 or before

Personal life

She was the daughter of Philip Dafflon, general manager of the Le Bon Marché department store in Paris.[1] It was said that she made her stage debut at the age of 9,[3] 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."[2]

She was married around 1912[4] in Bucharest, Romania, to Charles E. Durnell, "an American horseman who was in charge of the racing stables of the Romanian Prime Minister."[2] Durnell's nickname was "Boots," and he was a noted horse owner and trainer who "handled the entries of the Queen of Rumania for seven years." The couple lived in Romania until the country entered the Great War, then they relocated to Russia, where Durnell also raced horses.[5]

They had one child, a boy, who was born in the United States shortly after they arrived.[4] Charles E. "Boots" Durnell died February 16, 1949, in Arcadia, California.[6][7]

Professional life

She performed as a gigolette and was known in French as La Gigolette Parisienne.[8][9][10]

In Romania and Russia

In Romania, Nitta Jo was said to have made herself "a national heroine" with her jibes against government policies.[11]

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).[12]

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."[13]

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 China, Victoria, British Columbia, and San Francisco, California, where they stayed at the Palace Hotel.[4][14][15]

In North America

In the United States, where she was publicized as a "character singer," she debuted at the Orpheum theater in New York City in 1919.[16] She was well received.[17] Her first North American tour began with appearances at the Princess Theatre in Montreal, Quebec, in September 1918. A writer in The Gazette praised her "natural elfishness and grotesquerie of person and manner."[18] In October she moved on to New York City, where the Herald said she was "a real 'find' for vaudeville."[19] She also appeared in Buffalo; the Evening News said she "has created a furore and has been acclaimed the greatest artiste imported in years," [20] and in Rochester.[21] She ended the 1919 tour in Washington, D.C.[22]

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."[23][24]

Filmography
  • Cendrillon de Paris (1930), as La Diseuse
  • The Fortune (1931 film) as Maryanne
  • Toine (1932), as Maud Florens (singer and love interest)
  • Paradis d'Afrique (African paradise)
  • Mon oncle de Marseille (My uncle from Marseille)[25]

Discography
  • "Mon homme Les Baisers"
  • Cocaine"[26]
  • "J'ai soif"
  • "Ta voix" (1930), from the film Cendrillon de Paris"
  • "Tango des roses" (1931)
  • Mystérieuse Nitta-Jo (Chanteuses réalistes), album
  • "Sahara"[27]

References
  1. "The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Current volume". J.T. White. February 23, 1930 – via Google Books.
  2. "Nitta-Jo and the Gigolettes of Montmartre," The Fort Wayne (Indiana) Sentinel, July 5, 1919, image 23
  3. "Shea's Theater," The Buffalo (New York) Enquirer, June 19, 1919, image 4
  4. "B.F. Keith's," Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, February 19, 1919, image 8
  5. Jerry, "Pages of Romance Never Chronicled More Eventful Career Than That of 'Boots' Durnell, Noted Racing Figure," Dayton (Ohio) Sunday News, February 23, 1919, image 35
  6. "Charles E. Durnell, Famed Horse Trainer, Dies in California, The Times-Record, Troy, New York, February 17, 1949, image 39
  7. "Durnell Services to Be Tomorrow," Monrovia (California) News-Post, February 17, 1949, image 1
  8. "Western Magazine". E.L. DeLestry. February 23, 1920 – via Google Books.
  9. "The Argonaut". Argonaut Publishing Company. February 23, 1920 – via Google Books.
  10. "National Glass Budget: Weekly Review of the American Glass Industry". National Glass Budget. February 20, 1919 – via Google Books.
  11. "Roumania Wins by Diplomacy Certainty of Big Gains in War," The Appleton (Wisconsin) Crescent, June 22, 1915, image 6
  12. Robert Mountsier, "'Neutrality of Roumania' Is a Matter of 'How Much Do You Bid?' Says Mountsier," The Pittsburgh Press, April 24, 1916, image 14
  13. "Shea's Theater, The Buffalo (New York) Enquirer, June 14, 1919, image 4
  14. "Notables at Hotels," The San Francisco Examiner, May 3, 1918, image 5
  15. "Race Horses Given Food Cards in Russia Now," May 18, 1918, image 2
  16. "The Independent". The Independent. February 20, 1919 – via Google Books.
  17. "The Argonaut". Argonaut Publishing Company. February 20, 1920 – via Google Books.
  18. "'The Kiss Burglar,' at His Majesty's," The Gazette, October 1, 1918, image 7
  19. "Lillian Russell Scores in Palace," October 29, 1918, image 7
  20. "Shea's Opens Monday," The Buffalo Enquirer, November 1, 1918, image 13
  21. "Paris Apache Is Heralded as New Stage Sensation," Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, December 1, December 1, 1918, image 25
  22. "B.F. Keith's," The Evening Star, December 31, 1918, image 10
  23. "The Orpheum," The Argonaut,April 10, 1920, pages 234 and 235
  24. "Famous Turfman Is a Visitor Here," Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1920, image29
  25. "Nitta Jô - Biographie". www.dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net.
  26. Willycat, Ringard. "NITTA JO - COCAINE". HORREURS MUSICALES.
  27. Bellman, Jonathan (February 23, 1998). The exotic in western music. Northeastern University Press. ISBN 9781555533205 – via Google Books.

Additional reading
  • "Nitta-Jô," dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes, biography, photos, video, audio (in French)
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