Frances Williams

b. Frances Jellinek, 3 November 1901, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, d. 27 January 1959, NEW YORK, NY, USA. Performing from child years, at age 16 Williams toured with an acrobatic troupe. Among her 20s displays were Innocent Eye (1924) and, using the Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts (1925). Of the appearance Alexander Woollcott published: ‘… the high occasions had been just about the goings on of Groucho and Harpo, in addition to the performing and dancing of the startling girl called Frances Williams, who shuddered a damaging Charleston and vanished from view, her mind tossing just like a chrysanthemum, all platinum and agitation.’ Additional 20s shows had been The Cradle Music and Big Lake (both 1927), Martine (1928), THE GIRL From Alfaqueque and Katerina (both 1929), aswell as many editions of George White colored’s Scandals. Her 30s function included ONE GLASS OF Water and THE BRAND NEW Yorkers (both 1930), Everybody’s Welcome (1931, a musical humor with publication by Lambert Carroll, music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal), Gentlewoman, Existence Starts At 8:40 (music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Con. ‘Yip’ Harburg and Ira Gershwin) and Platinum Eagle Man (all 1934), Contact It EACH DAY (1936), and Casey Jones (1938). Many of Williams’ NY shows had been also staged at Washington, DC’s Country wide Theatre, included in this Three After Three (1940, by Man Bolton, music by Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, where Simone Simon and Jack port Whiting made an appearance) and Du Barry Was A FEMALE (1940, by Herbert Areas and Friend De Sylva, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, where Lahr starred). Her 40s NY displays included Walk With Music (1940), Allow’s Encounter It! (1941) and Shiny Lighting Of 1944 (1943). Her last NY appearance is at The Enchanted (1950). Among music Williams presented are, from THE BRAND NEW Yorkers, ‘The Great Indoors’ and ‘Consider Me BACK AGAIN TO Manhattan’, and, especially, from Everybody’s Welcome, Herman Hupfeld’s ‘As Period Runs By’. Williams produced a few information and film performances, none which catch her apparently startling stage existence. Among the movies, some only pants, are Broadway’s Queen Of Jazz (1927), Allow’s Stay One (1930), Broadway Thru A Keyhole (1933), Hollywood Party (1934), and Sneakers With Tempo (1937). Williams also made an appearance in vaudeville, including playing New York’s Palace Theater, and on tv, in Incident IN THE TORRENTIAL RAIN (1950), an bout of Fireside Theatre.