Of Harmer, Alter, Dormer, and Van Trump

This unusual post arises because I was amused to notice a few years ago that three unrelated female performers of the Victorian/Edwardian stage and screen shared a January 16 birthday and had similar names. The fourth one had a similar career, though her name is amusing for another reason, and we include her in the spirit of comedy that comes from interrupting a series, as with the the faux rock band The Mosquitoes on Gilligan’s Island (Bingo, Bango, Bongo, and Irving). The women we artificially group are Dolly Harmer (1867-1956), Lottie Alter (1871-1924), Daisy Dormer (1883-1947), and Jessalyn Van Trump (1887-1939). Harmer, Alter, Dormer, and Van Trump — quite a law firm!

Dolly Harmer (1867-1956)

Dolly Harmer was a second generation English music hall and pantomime performer. Her father was in the hall as a comedian. Her brothers were musicians, and she herself was a violinist. She started out on stage at age 13 and was Principal Boy in pantos for years. She was nearly 50 when her career entered a new phase, and she began playing the mother to Wee Georgie Wood in comedy sketches. The pair travelled the halls of the UK and Australia, and even American vaudeville for some 35 years.

Lottie Alter (1871-1924)

Charlotte “Lottie” Alter was a Wisconsin native, whose business won her entree into midwestern stock companies. In the 1890s she toured with the companies of Charles Frohman, Joseph Jefferson, and Henrietta Crosman, making her way to Broadway by the turn of the century, and even touring the U.K. and Australia after that, appearing in such plays as The Cricket on the Hearth, Charley’s Aunt, and Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. She appeared in four silent films: Advertising for a Wife and and An Arizona Romance (both 1910), The Eternal City (1916, with Pauline Frederick), and The Lottery Man (1916) with Thurlow Bergen, Elsie Esmond, and Oliver Hardy. In 1916 she made a tour of vaudeville with her own supporting company. In 1923 married actor Harry C. Bradley, best known for his character role in the original production of Abie’s Irish Rose. Alter died just about a year later, on Christmas Day 1924 (just over a century ago). She was only 53.

Daisy Dormer (1883-1947)

Born Kezia Beatrice Stockwell, Daisy Dormer was a waif-like singer in the English music hall. She started out at age six, and was known for performing such numbers as “I Wouldn’t Leave My Little Wooden Hut For You”, “After the Ball” and dozens of others. She also performed in pantomimes with the likes of Lupino Lane and his cousin Barry Lupino. She is known to have appeared in two films: Potted Pantomimes (1914), which featured Lillian Russell, and City of Beautiful Nonsense (1935). She was married to Albert Egbert of The Egbert Brothers.

Jessalyn Van Trump (1887-1939)

Jessalyn Van Trump’s window of stardom was short but prolific: she appeared in over 100 silent films, most of them between 1911 and 1915. Born in Ohio, Van Trump (known as “Toodles” to her friends) started out on stage with stock companies before landing the the title role in Alice’s Sacrifices with the Philadelphia based Lubin company at the age of 24. Later she worked at Rex, and Bison, which were later merged into Universal, She was known for appearing in westerns with J. Warren Kerrigan, and for some of her films with Wallace Reid. Lubin folded in 1916 and Van Trump’s career seemed to vanish with it. She only managed to secure occasional screen roles after this, most of them all. She’s an extra in Charlie Chaplin’s A Day’s Pleasure (1919), but she’s third billed behind Anne Cornwall and Lloyd Bacon in The Girl in the Rain (1920). She has tiny roles in two more silent comedies, Among Those Present (1921) with Harold Lloyd, and The Bargain Hunt (1928) with Raymond McKee. Van Trump was only 52 at the time of her death. Whether she was related to our 45th/47th President I doubt, but one thing I do know from the testimony of several of his genuine relatives: if they were cousins and she had been down and out in her final years? She needn’t have bothered asking him for help.

For more on vaudeville and music hall,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, for more on silent movies please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.