Friday, October 11, 2019

A Tribute to Elsa Lanchester

I have never seen a silver siren more enchanting than the young Elsa Lanchester. I have never seen a more amusing screen character as a wife or a nurse than Elsa. I have never seen any other actor who could compare to all of the wonderful facets of Ms. Lanchester's personality.



Though in an interview I'd like to share with you in this entry, it was clear she had no fondness for Isadora Duncan, I can forgive her this. Born into a moderately controversial family in 1902 (English socialists, radicals, anti-marriage, and at one point Elsa's mother was committed to an asylum by her grandfather to prove a rather angry point). Elsa's first dream in life was becoming a dancer, and she spent a couple of years at Isadora Duncan's Bellevue School before her education there was cut short by the approaching dangers of WW1. So she attended another school, and at the age of 12 was teaching dance to other girls for room and board.

When she was 18, Elsa made her stage debut and also founded the Children's Theater. Her early career was very colorful, as Elsa danced and sang onstage and in a night club she co-owned with Harold Scott. After a few small pictures with friends, she went on tour to Broadway and was eventually picked up by MGM in the golden age of studio contracts.


Elsa did not pick one or the other, nor did she take breaks. Throughout her life she did constant theatrical work, laboring over music revues and night club acts, while making her occasional film appearance. The Bride will always follow modern audiences in memory, even for those who have ye to see the film, because she was just that wonderful.


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