Ollie Fitch (14 September 1880 in Staunton – 1 July 1950 in The Hague) was an American-born Dutch singer, dancer and cabaret artist.
Early life Arlethia Gertrude Fitch, better known by her childhood nickname, Ollie, was born on September 14, 1880, in Stauton, Virginia to Elizabeth Davidsen and William Fitch. The couple also had an elder daughter, Pearl (born 1875/1877). Alethia's parents never seemed to have married, as 23-year-old Ms. Davidsen was listed in the 1880 US Census as a single mother, with housework listed as her source of income and residing at 138 Jackson Alley with her infant daughter, Arlethia.
In February 1892, shortly after the death of William Fitch, Ms. Davidsen and her daughters relocated north to Brooklyn, where her mother Ellen Davidsen and sister Mamie were living.
In 1900, the Davidsen household, according to the 1900 Census, were residing in the comfortable Fort Greene neighborhood at 435 Carlton Avenue. Ms. Davidsen was employed as a domestic for a local white family and 19-year-old Alethia, employed as a stenographer. Pearl, now 25 (or 23), lived in the nearby Clinton Hill neighborhood at 385 Clinton Avenue, where she was employed as a live-in servant for the Irish O'Flyn family.
Career
Florida Creole Girls (1902–1903) During the summer of 1901, French actress, Nina Diva, wife of the Austrian millionaire Baron Erlanger organized the Fencing Musketeers (also known as the Fencing Octoroons and Les Mousquetaires Noirs) consisting of eleven black women, which after two months of rehearsing, opened at New York's Circle Theater (October 26, 1901). The show consisted of lead performer, Jennie Scheper (born 1877 in Washington DC), who had come from the Sons of Ham show. There was also, Bidie Hall (born 1882 in Dunkirk, NY), Edith Adams (born 1876 in Indianapolis), Pearl Hobson (born 1879 in Lisbon, VA), Mattie Stafford (born 1870 in Norfolk, VA), Minnie Brown (born 1884 in Chicago, Il), William H. Ward (born 1876 in Salisbury, MO), Jennie Ward and of course, Ollie as well as two other unnamed women. In January 1902, the show played Boston's Howard Theater (January 12–18) and New York's Garden Terrace.
On February 5, 1902, the troupe departed from Philadelphia aboard the SS Belgenland, arriving 4–5 days later in Liverpool. By the time the show reached Europe, it had lost a member and was advertised as the 10 Fencing Musketeers Company. Early February through March, the toured across Germany, appearing in Bremen, Kiel and Hamburg. On April 14, while appearing in Copenhagen's Arenatheatret, the women applied for passports at the US Embassy. Later the women appeared in Stockholm's Svea-Teatern (May 1–5) and Budapest (June–July). On July 5, while appearing in the Hungarian capital, the furious women attacked their manager for not paying as a much as they were promised. The fighting became so severe that Hungarian police had to intervene.
Afterwards, the women reappeared that October in London, now managed by Geraldine de Grant, a German impresario who renamed them, Die 7 Florida Creols Girls sending them off to continue touring across the continent. The troupe later moved on to Düsseldorf's Apollotheater, Leipzig's Kristallpalast, Brussels, Amsterdam's Rembrandt Theater (November 24 – December 9) and Rotterdam's Casino Variete.
In January 1903, the troupe opened in Paris at the Casino de Paris (January 1 – February 23), where they were praised for their extraordinary demonstration of the Cakewalk. So popular were the women, that they were photographed at Studio Waléry, who distributed their photos as postcards for eager European and American tourists. During their sojourn in the French capital, the troupe quickly began to dissolve. Mattie Stafford quickly became a popular French attraction, Bidie Hall began her solo tour and Edith Hall probably returned to America. The remaining quartette, continued on with a month's engagement at Vienna's Ronacher Theater (March 7–31) and two weeks at Budapest's Municipal Orpheum Theater (Apr.1–15). In June, the troupe finally reached the vast expanses of Imperial Russia, appearing at a popular café-chantant in Moscow. Unfortunately, in Russia, every theater is under the power of the police. Nothing can be said or done against their wishes, and if the wish to stop any performance, why they stop it, and that is all that there is to it. The police saw their first performance and allowed them to go on. However, after their tenth performance, the police have stopped them, saying that the American cake-walk was too suggestive. On July 4, the American Consul, Samuel Smith, invited all the American performers who were in Moscow to a celebration on the grounds of the consulate. The program included, the Manhattan Quartette, Smith & Doretto, Weston of loop the Hoopology, Miss Walcott, the Florida Creole Girls Quartette and Harry Houdini (who wrote about the women in his diary).
Afterwards the troupe moved on to appear in St. Petersburg and Riga's Hagenstalna Wafaras Teatris (August 18–23). In October, the troupe were in London, appearing at the Royal Holborn Theatre before finally completely dissolving and the women joining Will Marion Cook's noted black musical comedy In Dahomey. Eventually, Minnie Brown returned to Germany and Jennie Scheper adopted the pseudonym, Madagascar Girl and departed for her own solo tour.
La Olliette (1904–1911) At the beginning of 1904, as the Russo-Japanese War raged, Ollie and Pearl Hobson returned to St. Petersburg to pursue their solo careers. On April 15, she visited St. Petersburg's American Embassy and applied for a new passport. Immediately afterwards, she began traversing across the Russian Empire as a popular American variety artist around music-halls between St. Petersburg, Odessa and Moscow. On January 22, 1905, a large public demonstration outside of the Tsar's palace escalated into the Bloody Sunday riots. Chaos quickly ensued across the Imperial capital and soon across the Russian Empire. Throughout 1905, serfs and radicals took to the streets and engaged in armed struggle with soldiers and the gendarmerie, sailors of the Potemkin battleship mutinied at the Black Sea port of Odessa. Tsar Nikolai badly misjudged the Russo-Japanese War in the Far East, which soon lost public support and exposed the many weaknesses of the Russian military and political institutions. Defeat at the hands of 'inferior' Asians served to speed up public unrest that was becoming so serious that the Tsar was forced to end the war with the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, 1905. To overcome the heartbreak due to the loss of the war, St. Petersburg was overcome with forced gaiety, which Ollie joined in.
Throughout the summer of 1906, violence raged throughout Russia, prompting many of the elite to flee to the comfort of their country homes. Soon, these same estates were being torched and pillaged nightly, sometimes entire villages would out for the looting. On the horizons, nobleman and their families could see the glow of fires and the cries of the savage mobs. Luckily, Ollie had escaped from the violence and chaos, traveling to Budapest in June with fellow African-American artist, Susie Taylor (born 1885 in NY), who had arrived in Europe sixteen months earlier with the "Georgia Pickaninnies". The women briefly traveled across the continent together before Susie decided to return home to America. That autumn, as Russia became isolated due to the sudden halt of telegraph and postal services, many other American expatriates began boarding trains and ships in the chaos back towards America, or at least other safer European countries.
On June 6, 1907, the 1905 Revolution was finally extinguished with brutal force. Although order was established, the issues that sparked the violence remained and fueled the peasants' desire for revenge. A tense atmosphere gripped the country. There was the constant presence of the strongly emerging left-wing movement which was bent on purging the decadence of Tsarist Russia. This was, of course, the infant Bolshevik movement, but despite this business was booming again. After the revolution, a small suffragette movement swelled across Russia. The emancipation of women brought a shift in Russian society, billowing Victorian gowns were thrown aside and replaced by fashionable unimpeding svelte dresses designed by designer Lamanova. Divorce laws were eased in response to feminine demands for freedom of choice in marriage. Throughout the summer, theaters and cabarets reopened, foreigners returned and entertainers resumed their tours through the major cities. Throughout the year, Black entertainers traveled to Russia in droves. With the exception of random artists touring Europe, very few black people have ever been to Russia, and very few of them have remained in it to live. All across the Russia, Black performers such as Belle Davis, Abbie Mitchell, Josephine Morcashani, the Black Troubadours, and the popular duo Johnson & Dean filled the musichalls with excitement every night. They treated each other cordially and invited each new fellow Negro performer into their hotel rooms for breakfasts consisting of neckbones and beans to feel more at home. In St. Petersburg, a confectioner exploited the popularity of Ragtime by issuing the latest Negro minstrel hits on records pressed into discs of hard baker's chocolate.
Days after the Revolution ended, Ollie returned to Russia and resumed touring along Russian theatrical circuits. On June 19, she was at St. Petersburg's Demidov Garden Amusement Park located on 35–39 Ofitserskiy Street (now 35–39 Decembrists Street), performing at the Farce Theatre. Established by businessman Alexander Demidov in 1864, the Amusement Park was a popular family-oriented attraction that offered pantomimes, fireworks, operettas and non-stop cabaret performances.
In 1909, Ollie adopted the French influenced pseudonym, La Olliette and paired up with African-American entertainer, Joseph "Happy Joe" Williams forming the Kreolen Duett (Creole Duet). Together the pair toured across Germany, appearing at Hamburg's Kabarett Holle (November 1–6). The following year, the pair were appearing in Odessa's famous North Hotel, which had a beautiful open-air café chantant in the back gardens. Odessa was a polyglot city and a cosmopolitan city, and theatrical life there was in full swing. Its population numbered 630 thousand people, a third of whom were Jews and 30 thousand of whom were foreigners – Greeks, Armenians, Germans, Romanians, Italians and many others. With its wide, straight, shady streets and elegant stone houses, it would not be out of place anywhere in the Mediterranean. The city was an important trading center and, despite its distance from two capitals, it was never a quiet or provincial city. Trendy restaurants and hotels, gourmet shops, popular cafes and several theaters enjoyed the attention of many wealthy citizens. Sailors from exotic ports mixed up with the city robbers in noisy taverns next to the commercial port. On the outskirts of the city, the coast of the estuaries was littered with villas, looking at the sparkling sea surface. During their Ukrainian engagement, Ollie spent the majority of her time corresponding with Minnie Brown, who was residing in Moscow. In June 1910, the duo were in Turkey performing in the mysterious Ottoman city of Constantinople before William returned to his residence in London in September.
In 1911, Ollie appeared in Riga at the Olympia Theater (February 3–14) and Reval's Metropol Theater (March 5).
Miss Olita (1912–1913) Embarking upon a solo tour, by July 1912 she appearing in Hamburg with variety artist, George Mitchell, as seen on her passport that applied for on July 23 at the American Consulate.