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Nitta-Jo

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Nitta-Jo was the stage name for French singer and performer Fanny Dafflon born in Paris on October 7, 1880.[1][2] Also known as Fanny Durnell (spouse name).[3] Mistakenly named Jeanne Daflon or Jeanne Dufflin in various publications.[4]

Nitta-Jo in 1926

Personal life edit

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,[5] 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."[6]

She was married in 1913 in Romania[7][8] 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.[6] The couple lived in Romania until the country entered the Great War, then they relocated to Russia, where Durnell also raced horses.[9]

They had one child, Bertrand Charles Durnell, born on September 4, 1918, in New York shortly after they arrived in the United States.[4][8] Charles E. Durnell died February 16, 1949, in Arcadia, California.[10]

Nitta-Jo was the godmother of the son of French composer Mimi Recagno.[11] She died after 1946.[4]

Professional life edit

 
Nitta-Jo, 1918 or before

She performed as a gigolette and was known in French as La Gigolette Parisienne.[12][6]

In Romania and Russia edit

In Romania, Nitta Jo was said to have made herself "a national heroine" with her jibes against government policies.[13]

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).[14]

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."[15]

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.[16] [8][17][18]

In North America edit

In the United States, where she was publicized as a "character singer," she debuted at the Orpheum theater in New York City in 1919.[19] She was well received.[20] 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."[21] In October she moved on to New York City, where the Herald said she was "a real 'find' for vaudeville."[22] She also appeared in Buffalo; the Evening News said she "has created a furore and has been acclaimed the greatest artiste imported in years," [23] and in Rochester.[24] She ended the 1919 tour in Washington, D.C.[25]

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."[26][27]

Her tracks on stage are lost after a tour in La Ciotat in November 1938.[28] In April 1939, she joined the Automobile-Club de Nice.[29]

Discography edit

76 recordings known to date.

  • 1910 (Pathé, Paris): Ah ! Mireille !, La Toquette, Ça sent toujours l’amour, Napolinette, Tire, tire, Ninette, La Bouss-Bouss-Mée, Marche d’amour, Grain de beauté, Vien a qui, Amour napolitain, Zyrka.[30]
  • 1912 (Pathé, Paris): Fioretta d’amore, La Tour pointue, Fille d’Espagne, You-You sous les bambous, Au chant des binious, Le Jeune Homme du métro.[31] Released by Pathé Records in the United States: Grain de beauté/Vien a qui (October 1916).[32]
  • 1914 (Polyphon, released in Bucharest): Tire tire Ninette/Le Téléphone des anges, Comme une cigarette/Une Petite Promenade.[33]
  • 1921 (Odeon, Barcelona): Mon homme/Les Baisers.
  • 1930 (Columbia, Paris): Ta voix/Sainte Catherine de Paris.
  • 1931 (Columbia, Paris): Tango des roses/Un rien !, Les Gueuses/Casablanca, paradis d’Afrique, La Fortune/Quand une femme dit : non !.
  • 1932 (Columbia, Paris): Les Gosses à personne/La Folle, Cocaïne/Du feu, Etre adoré de toi/Fleur de joie, Señorita/Belle Gitane.
  • 1933 (Columbia, Paris): Sous l’ombrelle/Aime-moi, C’est vous que j’aime/Ton regard, Roule/Mais non !, Fumée d’amour/Si tu me veux, L’Etudiant passe/Malgré toi.[34]
  • 1934 (Columbia, Paris): T’avoir à moi/Un homme qui passe, Caïn/Mon beau matelot.
  • 1935 (Columbia, Paris): Un air de tango/Chico, L’Horizon du cœur/C’est ton ombre, Munchita/La Fille du mal, Sahara/Ecoute l’amour, La Course folle/Un tout petit pied, Valsons, mon amour/L’Oiseau de nuit. Unreleased: L’Amour est une chanson.
  • 1936 (Columbia, Paris): Dis-moi que tu m’aimes/Je veux un p’tit homme, J’ai soif/Soirs de Grenade, Du vent dans les voiles/Mesdam’s répondez oui, Dans le caboulot/Sorcière.[35] Unreleased: Les Hommes, Maison close.

Filmography edit

  • Amorezati (The Lovers, 1915), with Georges Milton. Silent sketch comedy shot and released in Romania.[4]
  • Cendrillon de Paris (1930), as Madame Marthe (la diseuse). Sung in the film: Ta voix and Sainte Catherine de Paris.
  • The Fortune (La Fortune, 1931), as herself on stage. Sung in the film: Les Gueuses and La Fortune.
  • Toine (1932), as Maud Florens (singer and love interest). Sung in the film: Aime-moi and Du feu.

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

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Paris birth registers (5th arrondissement), 1880, certificate No. 2669 (17/31)".
  2. ^ "Nitta-Jô - Biographie". dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.
  3. ^ "The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Current volume". February 23, 1930.
  4. ^ a b c d Fourcade, Sylvain (2023). "Nitta-Jo ou La Course d'une étoile".
  5. ^ "Shea's Theater," The Buffalo (New York) Enquirer, June 19, 1919, image 4
  6. ^ a b c "Nitta-Jo and the Gigolettes of Montmartre". The Fort Wayne Sentinel: 23. July 5, 1919.
  7. ^ "New York Passenger and Crew Lists, Aug 31, 1925 (77/728), No. On List 25 (Fanny Durnell)". FamilySearch.
  8. ^ a b c "The Theater. B. F. Keith's". The Dayton Daily News: 8. February 19, 1919.
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ "Veteran Race Horse Trainer, Durnell, Dies". San Pedro News-Pilot: 17. February 17, 1949.
  11. ^ "On jazze!..." Artistica (Marseilles, weekly): 2. December 18, 1934.
  12. ^ "Nitta-Jo Is a Gigolette". The Tacoma Daily Ledger: 4. November 22, 1918.
  13. ^ "Roumania Wins by Diplomacy Certainty of Big Gains in War". The Appleton Crescent: 6. June 22, 1915.
  14. ^ ""Neutrality" of Roumania..." The Pittsburgh Press: 14. April 24, 1916.
  15. ^ "Shea's Theater, The Buffalo (New York) Enquirer, June 14, 1919, image 4
  16. ^ "'Boots' Durnell, Turfman, Here. Just Returned From War Zone". The San Francisco Examiner: 10. May 6, 1918.
  17. ^ "Notables at Hotels," The San Francisco Examiner, May 3, 1918, image 5
  18. ^ "War Hard on Horse Racing". Los Angeles Sunday Times: 12. May 19, 1918.
  19. ^ "The Independent". February 20, 1919 – via Google Books.
  20. ^ "The Argonaut". Argonaut Publishing Company. February 20, 1920 – via Google Books.
  21. ^ "'The Kiss Burglar,' at His Majesty's," The Gazette, October 1, 1918, image 7
  22. ^ "Lillian Russell Scores in Palace," October 29, 1918, image 7
  23. ^ "Shea's Opens Monday," The Buffalo Enquirer, November 1, 1918, image 13
  24. ^ "Paris Apache Is Heralded as New Stage Sensation". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: 25. December 1, 1918.
  25. ^ "B.F. Keith's," The Evening Star, December 31, 1918, image 10
  26. ^ "The Orpheum," The Argonaut,April 10, 1920, pages 234 and 235
  27. ^ "Famous Turfman Is a Visitor Here," Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1920, image29
  28. ^ "La Ciotat, Les Flots Bleus Casino (advertisement)". Le Petit Provençal: 4. November 5, 1938.
  29. ^ "List of new memberships. April 1939". Automobile et Tourisme sur la Côte d'Azur: 14. May 1, 1939.
  30. ^ "Répertoire des disques Pathé double face 28 cm, Paris, Pathéphone (p. 212)". Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica. March 1911.
  31. ^ "Répertoire des disques Pathé double face 28 cm, Paris, Pathéphone (p.186-187)". Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica. June 1912.
  32. ^ "The Talking Machine World (Record Bulletins for October 1916, p. 101)". Internet Archive. September 15, 1916.
  33. ^ "Nitta-Jo". Discogs.
  34. ^ "Disques Columbia. Catalogue Général 1933 (p. 193-194)". Internet Archive.
  35. ^ Catalogue Général des disques Columbia, Columbia Paris, avril 1938, p. 302.

Further reading edit

  • [1] "Nitta-Jô," dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes, biography (last paragraph), photos, video, audio (in French)
  • [2] "Nitta-Jo ou La Course d’une étoile. Tome 1 : Lumières", 554 pages, Sylvain Fourcade (Paris, August 2023), CoolLibri.com (in French)
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