Louise Alexander (born Jennie Louise Spalding; June 29/30, 1888 – October 29, 1958) was an American theatrical and social exhibition dancer between 1905 and 1916. She began as a chorus girl, soon became a pantomime dancer (Apache dance, temptress dance), then an exhibition social dancer in restaurants and on the vaudeville stage.
Early life Jennie Louise Spalding was born in Hartford, Kentucky on June 29 or 30, 1888. No birth certificate was issued. This press item gives the birth date as June 30, but in passport applications she gave her birth date as June 29, 1888. On her 1920 passport application was written "Impossible to secure birth certificate as no official record was kept in Hartford." Her mother was Nanna/Nannie/Nancy Alexander Spalding and her father was William L. Spalding. Until the age of 18 she lived in Kentucky, primarily in either Louisville, where her father worked, or Owensboro, where her grandparents lived. In late 1905 she moved to New York City and adopted the stage name Louise Alexander.
Career Chorus girl Between 1905 and 1908 Louise Alexander worked as a chorus girl in musicals on Broadway and on tour. Her parts frequently included speaking roles. She appeared in The Earl and the Girl, The Social Whirl,. Louise Alexander is listed among the "Manicures" and "Casino Girls". Ziegfeld Follies of 1907, Louise Alexander is named five times in the program. and Follies of 1908. Louise Alexander's presence in the show was also mentioned in various newspapers when reporting on her engagement and marriage to Lewis Strang.
Apache dancer
The French Apache dance came into theatrical prominence in July 1908 when it was danced by Mistinguett and Max Dearly in Revue de Moulin, presented at the Moulin Rouge in Paris.. Available at the British Newspaper Archive. In October 1908 the dance became a London hit when danced as "Danse des Apaches" by Beatrice Collier and Fred Farren as part of the Music Hall ballet A Day in Paris.. "'La Danse des Apaches' is the excitement of the moment. In Paris, where it was introduced into one of the many revues, it quickly became the rage. Its popularity has now spread to London, and in the new Empire ballet A Day in Paris it is one of the principal features." Available at the British Newspaper Archive. In America the first major Apache dance presentation was titled "The Underworld Dance", performed by Louise Alexander and Joseph C. Smith in the hit musical comedy-drama The Queen of the Moulin Rouge, which opened in New York on December 7, 1908.
Smith later wrote, "When I first tried the Apache dance with Louise Alexander her hair accidentally fell down, which greatly added to the effect of the thing...So I had big bone hairpins made, with weights to them. These she wore, and they would drop out and her hair would fall down during the dance."
A New York reviewer observed that the dance was "rather rough on a young woman who was maltreated by a sallow-faced brute until her lovely hair was hanging down her back."
Another reviewer wrote that the dance, "...is the most sensational thing in its line that New York has seen in many a day. A street tough throws his 'bundle' through the dance. How she endures the strain is a marvel."
Discussing the brutality of the dance, Louise Alexander reportedly told the New York Times, I do not even feel the hurts of his beating and choking me, not even when, in the final battle for supremacy between the love of the girl and the brutal instincts of the thug, he throws me actually and fearfully to the floor. It is all fine. Exhilarating, but such a terrific mental, physical, and nervous strain that I am absolutely exhausted after each performance. ...My partner in the dance tried several times to go through it with less realism, and I had to beg him to use all the seeming brutality demanded by the action. The Times referred to the Alexander/Smith Apache dance as "The first appearance of the idea in this country", but while The Queen of the Moulin Rouge was still in the rehearsal stage, earlier New York stage appearances of the Apache dance had been presented, including by Alice Eis with Burt French, and by Valeska Suratt with Billy Gould.
That New York production of The Queen of the Moulin Rouge was reported by a British publication as containing "a neck-breaking Apache dance...that for extraordinary and exaggerated movement far outdoes anything of its kind in London or Paris.". Includes a full-page photo of Smith and Alexander performing the dance. Available at the British Newspaper Archive.
The emergence of the Apache dance as a sensational highlight of the show led to favorable press items stating "Joseph C. Smith and Louise Alexander are already famous for what is termed, 'the most artistic character dance the stage has seen in years'."
Praise of the Apache dance was directed at Smith and Alexander, while criticism of the dance was directed at the producer and the theater: "...why an 'Apache dance' anyway? Why must we have paraded before us the relations of persons so degraded that their common appellations cannot be spoken in polite conversation?" or, "...the Apache dance...should not be permitted on any stage.""Seen on the Stage: Gossip". Vogue. December 28, 1911. p. 1066. Available at ProQuest.
After performing the dance within Queen of the Moulin Rouge for nearly three months, Smith and Alexander left the show to dance on the vaudeville circuit. They were replaced in The Queen of the Moulin Rouge by Mons. Molasso and Mlle. Corio, who had been recently performing the Apache dance on vaudeville. After observing their new vaudeville act the Variety reviewer wrote, "Smith and Alexander put up about the best thing that has been seen in the 'Apache' line. It is perhaps a little rough for some of the people with a nice sensitiveness, but it got over all right..."
A reviewer who watched their vaudeville act in Baltimore listed the seven dances they performed in the act: a mechanical doll dance, La Kio, Temptation, Shadow, Apache dance, and French two-step.
Temptress dancer The temptation dance, or vampire dance, was primarily inspired by the conclusion of the 1909 hit Broadway play A Fool There Was starring Robert Hilliard with Katharine Kaelred as the vamp. The vampire dance "follows the precedent of A Fool There Was faithfully." This was from a later review of the dance, when Smith was dancing with Adele Rowland. In that play's finale, Kaelred says "Before we part, kiss me, my fool!" Hilliard's character soon falls dead, at which point Kaelred laughs and tosses red rose petals on the corpse as the curtain falls.
When Smith and Alexander danced their vaudeville act in June 1909 in Baltimore, they had to eliminate the temptation dance after the first performance because the vaudeville theater owner deemed the dance "vulgar and suggestive".
In January 1910 Louise Alexander joined the cast of Ziegfeld's musical Miss Innocence starring Anna Held, then playing in Chicago. Louise Alexander's dance in that show was "The Dance of the Flirt", a temptation dance choreographed by Julian Mitchell. Meanwhile, Joseph C. Smith continued performing the Apache dance, now partnered with Adele Rowland, in The Flirting Princess. According to the Chicago Tribune reviewer, Louise Alexander presented a "wanton leer that is quite a work of art" and she was "a wonder at seductive crouches".
In June 1910 she was in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1910 where she danced the temptation dance again, now retitled "A Fool There Was", with Julian Mitchell as her dance partner. One reviewer considered the dance essentially a variant of the Apache dance, "but this time a foolish man was entranced in the hypnotic waltz and a knowing woman did the enchanting." This comparison to the Apache dance only referred to the theme of dominant control, not physical brutality.
Critic Channing Pollock wrote that the dance was "rendered notable chiefly by Miss Alexander's costume, consisting of a pearl necklace and a becoming spotlight."
In late 1911 she appeared in Peggy, an American adaptation of the successful London musical of the same name. It was reported that Louise Alexander had financed the production. Her supporting role prompted one reviewer to write, "...Miss Alexander becomes more daring. She sings more and dances much.". The producer was Thomas W. Ryley, who had produced the hits Queen of the Moulin Rouge and Florodora, and the stage director was Ned Wayburn, but Peggy was not a success.
Social exhibition dancer
In early 1914 she partnered with Clive Logan for social exhibition dancing in vaudeville, accompanied by a five-piece orchestra of black musicians. When their tour reached Chicago a reviewer wrote, "They accomplish various swoops and whirls most gracefully...Miss Alexander and her young man are composed, almost capricious at times, and if they are not blissful they are at least contented."
A Baltimore Sun reviewer wrote, ...There is only one 'star' dressing room on any stage, and electric signs are limited as to their capacity, and with such performers as Fanny Brice, Cathrine Countiss and Louise Alexander on one bill the troubles of a manager are evident. But in this case the patrons of the theatre benefit, for every one of these women, whose names are known wherever an electrical footlight glows in America, tries her best to win the greatest applause. Far be it from the writer, who is without steel armament impregnable to hatpins, to come out and boldly say that Miss So-and-So is the best on the bill...Miss Alexander is remembered for her creations of the Apache and Vampire dances, and she comes this time with dances "of the moment," which mean the Argentine tango, the hesitation waltz, the maxixe and the one-step. With her dancing partner, Clive Logan, she gives the best exhibition of dances seen here this season. What adds to their fascination is the orchestra, composed of five negroes who know how to play for the new dances...
In May 1914 she partnered with John (Jack) Jarrott who had formerly been dancing with Joan Sawyer. It was announced that Alexander and Jarrott would dance in the "Congress of the World's Greatest Dancers" held at a theater in Boston, after which they planned travel to London and Continental cities before returning to America in the late Fall. Regarding their dancing in Boston one reviewer wrote, ...Louise Alexander and John Jarrott, however, were the real features of the evening. Here was dancing that had the stamp of authority. Whatever the step, whatever the time, this couple showed remarkable pedal dexterity—if such an expression may be used—and absolute sense of rhythm. Their steps may have been more unusual than those of the rest, but the ease with which they were taken made them seem simplicity itself. To them, and particularly to Miss Alexander, dancing seemed as natural and as inevitable as walking.. The article includes a nice photo of Alexander and Jarrott dancing. Available at myheritage.com
Louise Alexander, John Jarrott, and the five-piece orchestra soon sailed from New York to a London booking at the Princes' Hotel and Restaurant in Piccadilly. Reportedly their dance performances at the Princes' during June and July 1914 were "packing the place nicely, and long before the theatres are out every table is taken.". Available at the British Newspaper Archive. While in London, Jarrott and Alexander also gave a dance exhibition at a party hosted by the Countess Lützow, wife of Count Francis Lützow.