Nitta-Jo Explained

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]

Personal life

She was the daughter of a Swiss accountant and a French dressmaker. 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. 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. 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.

Professional life

She performed as a gigolette and was known in French as La Gigolette Parisienne.[13]

In Romania and Russia

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."

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] [17] [18]

In North America

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]

Discography

76 recordings are known to date.

Filmography

A character named "Nita Jo" is played by Ollie Kirby in the 1923 silent drama film The Apache Dancer.

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Paris birth registers (5th arrondissement), 1880, certificate No. 2669 (17/31) .
  2. Web site: Personal notice: Nitta-Jo . French National Library.
  3. Web site: Nitta-Jo - Biographie . dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.
  4. Book: The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Current, Vol A. . James T. White & Co . 1924 . 1st . New York . 116.
  5. Web site: Fourcade . Sylvain . 2023 . Nitta-Jo ou La Course d'une étoile .
  6. June 14, 1919 . Shea's Theater . The Buffalo Enquirer . 4.
  7. July 5, 1919 . Nitta-Jo and the Gigolettes of Montmartre . The Fort Wayne Sentinel . 23.
  8. Web site: New York Passenger and Crew Lists, Aug 31, 1925 (77/728), No. On List 25 (Fanny Durnell). . FamilySearch.
  9. Feb 19, 1919 . The Theater. B. F. Keith's . The Dayton Daily News . 8.
  10. Feb 23, 1919 . "Boots" Durnell Noted Racing Figure . Dayton Sunday News . 35.
  11. Feb 17, 1949 . 'Boots' Durnell, Trainer Of Derby Winner, Dies . St. Louis Post-Dispatch . 14.
  12. Dec 18, 1934 . On jazze!... . Artistica . 2.
  13. Nov 22, 1918 . Nitta-Jo Is a Gigolette . The Tacoma Daily Ledger . 4.
  14. June 22, 1915 . Roumania Wins by Diplomacy Certainty of Big Gains in War . The Appleton Crescent . 6.
  15. April 24, 1916 . "Neutrality" of Roumania... . The Pittsburgh Press . 14.
  16. May 6, 1918 . 'Boots' Durnell, Turfman, Here. Just Returned From War Zone. . The San Francisco Examiner . 10.
  17. May 3, 1918 . Notables at Hotels . The San Francisco Examiner . 5.
  18. May 19, 1918 . War Hard on Horse Racing . Los Angeles Sunday Times . 12.
  19. Oct 1, 1918 . Amusing Vaudeville. Mlle. Nitta-Jo Again Headliner at Princess . The Gazette, Montreal . 7.
  20. Oct 29, 1918 . Lillian Russel Scores In Palace . The Sun (New York Herald) . 7.
  21. Nov 1, 1918 . Shea's Theatre Reopens Monday . The Buffalo Commercial . 11.
  22. Dec 1, 1918 . Paris Apache Is Heralded as New Stage Sensation . Rochester Democrat and Chronicle . 25.
  23. Dec 31, 1918 . B. F. Keith's . The Evening Star . 10.
  24. May 12, 1920 . Famous Turfman Is A Visitor Here . The Los Angeles Times . 29.
  25. Nov 5, 1938 . La Ciotat, Les Flots Bleus Casino (advertisement) . Le Petit Provençal . 4.
  26. May 1, 1939 . List of new memberships. April 1939 . Automobile et Tourisme sur la Côte d'Azur . 14.
  27. Web site: March 1911 . Répertoire des disques Pathé double face 28 cm, Paris, Pathéphone (p. 212) . Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica.
  28. Web site: June 1912 . Répertoire des disques Pathé double face 28 cm, Paris, Pathéphone (p.186-187) . Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica.
  29. Web site: Sep 15, 1916 . The Talking Machine World (Record Bulletins for October 1916, p. 101) . Internet Archive.
  30. Web site: Nitta-Jo . Discogs.
  31. Web site: Disques Columbia. Catalogue Général 1933 (p. 193-194) . Internet Archive.
  32. Catalogue Général des disques Columbia, Columbia Paris, avril 1938, p. 302.

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