Hermine’s Midgets

This troupe of little people dates from the post-vaudeville period. They crossed the puddle from their homebase in Vienna for the 1939 World’s Fair and just stayed, touring the U.S. throughout the 1940s.

My friend David Geary’s dad worked as their press agent when they traveled with the World of Mirth shows in the late ’40s and early ’50s, and he reports hearing that they were a surly, cranky bunch, as compared with Jolly Irene, the Fat Lady. But, then, she was “Jolly”, after all, wasn’t she? He hung on to this souvenir magazine they sold at their shows. Here are a couple of images from it.

When live gigs dried up, the Hermine Troupe’s main bread and butter became film and tv. You can see members of the troupe in vehicles as diverse as Danny Kaye’s The Court Jester (1945), Robert Downey Sr’sPutney Swope (1969), and the psychedelic 1970s children’s show Lidsville.

For more on performing little people please check out Rose’s Royal Midgets and Other Little People in Vaudeville.