lorenz
Ames (Jan 6. 1883 - Feb 11. 1958) |
Height: 5' 6" (1m 67)
Eyes:
brown
Marriages:
(1) Mary F Irons (Nov 26, 1908 in
Dubuque, Iowa - Apr 2. 1919, divorced)
(2)
Adelaide L. Ring
aka Adelaide Harland
aka Adelaide Winthrop
(Oct
2. 1919,
Philadelphia
- Oct 13, 1923, her death)
(3) Helen Jost(o) (Dec 31, 1923, Washington D.C. - Feb 10, 1930, divorced)
(4)
Alice O'Donnell (Jul 3, 1930 in Greenwich, Conn - aft. 1950 ?)
Son: Robert (mother Helen?) |
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Born as Florence Sebastian Kolb in Rochester,
New York on January 6. 1883*. His father Frank (Franz J.), a tailor, was German,
as was his mother Louisa L.
(aka "Louise") Weisenberger/ Weisenburg was born in Rochester,
Monroe. While in later years, after the WW's, Florenz indicated both parents were from the U.S.
,
according to an article in The New York Sun from 1925 Ames was born in
Germany. He parents were actually from Schifferstadt, Ludwigshafen, Palatinate,
Bavaria, Germany (his grandparents were French).
His siblings were Francis Thomas Kolb (1877 - 1878),
Frank Philip Kolb (1879-1960), Albert Benjamin
Kolb (1881-1969).**
His doting parents, apropos of nothing in particular, named
him "Florence." Not Florenz, mind you, but Florence.
Unfortunately for the future actor little boys and little girls in
Germany were at that time were similarly attired, and both wore long
curls. Therefore as a boy Ames was frequently mistaken for a girl, and
in school was seated with the girls. He objected about this to his
teacher, who promptly sent him home to his parents with B sharp note,
reprimanding them for raising a daughter who wanted to sit on the boys'
side of the room. It was not until his parents visited the school and
explained the situation to the teacher that the latter finally accepted
the fact that Ames was really a boy.
The other boys of the school of course found this to be a source of
intense delight and proceeded to make life miserable for this boy with a
girl's name. It was likely Ames’ unquestionably masculine talent as a
pugilist that finally put an end to his torment.
The climax to all of this occurred at graduation day, when the principal
of the school, who did not know the pupils individually, read the name
"Florence, Ames'' on the diploma, and called out for "Miss Ames" to step
forward.
"That settles it," said the boy's father, "We'll change 'Florence' to Florenza!'" And they did.
He acquired U.S. citizenship in
October 1890 and he worked in a drug store in 1900.
Aged 20 he started his stage
career ca 1903 as boy soprano in George Evan's gay production The Good Old
Summertime in Rochester.
Reportedly
he got his Broadway entree when a kind, "or unkind, I'm not sure
now," lady singer heard him sing a duet with his mother, a choir
singer, and gave him a letter of introduction to Julius Witmark, the New
York music publisher, which netted him a job as chorus boy. Without a
singing lesson to his name -even, Ames admitted, without much of a
singing voice - he kept this job a year.
Around 1906 the actor had a brief
experience of films which lasted just two weeks. The producer was a man
named Marion. His equipment consisted of one camera and a coil of rope.
The studio was a field on Long Island, and the rope was used to mark off
the stage. You had to keep inside the lines or you did not register.
Ames worked in three or four short films, playing Touchstone, with Lew
Cody as Jacques, in a compressed version of As You Like It. The
following week he was working for one day in a converted greenhouse,
which served as a studio in Astoria. An energetic director was yelling
to a group of players, and a woman offered to recommend the stage
comedian for a job, as there was a shortage of actors on the lot. "I
wouldn't take the job if he gave me a bonus," Ames replied. "I'm washed
up on this game. There's nothing to it." The energetic director was
Cecil B. de Mille.
On Nov 26. 1908 Florenz married to
Mary F. Irons, an actress, daughter of William H. Irons and Laura
Fleming in Dubuque, Iowa.
Florenz Ames actually started his acting career very
late. He began his
theatrical career as a singer and dancer in vaudeville, often performing
small scenes with his future wife Adelaide "Alice" Winthrop
(whilst still being married to Mary Irons).
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Below left: Young Florenz Ames, date unknown. |
The
musical play The Three Twins was performed in Chicago and New
York before going on tour in January 1910, the lead was played by Victor
Morley and Florenz Kolb joined in. Kolb played in a company which had
Grace Van Studdiford in the lead, in the comic opera A Bridal Trip
(Nov 1910) later renamed to The Paradise of Mahomet
(Herald Square, Jan 17 - Feb 4. 1911)
on Broadway where Kolb assisted Grace
Van Studdiford as the fun-making as Babouche (or Maboul), the much henpecked husband
he landed many a laugh to the production. It also enjoyed some
performances afterwards (Grand Opera House, San Antonio,
Apr 21. 22 1911 and Cort Theatre,N.Y. Nov 12. 1911). We
know Florenz and Adelaide performed with the Morton Opera and Musical
co. in Central Park, Allentown. (1910 - 1911)
Music was one of the most important features of musical comedy. In Nov
1912 Florenz Kolb headed his own company at the State Street
Theatre Trenton with The Girl of the Follies and he let musical director Alexander Spencer take charge of
the program.
During the summer of 1912 Florenz en Adelaide were in musical comedy
stock at The Shubert, Utica.
In May 1913 the couple was
reported as back from England where they played in the musical success
Everywife.
During the summer season of 1913 Albany had stock
musical comedies at The Colonial. Among the plays promised were: The
Belle of New York; Three Twins; Forty-five Minutes
from Broadway; Little Johnny Jones; Havana;
The Girl from Nowhere; The Man Who Owns Broadway; The
Telephone Girl; The Red Mill; The Isle of Spice;
Knight for a Day; Madame Sherry; The Yankee Prince;
The Chocolate Soldier; The Time, the Place and the Girl
and others. Director Lewis J. Morton secured for the company Madge
Caldwell and Miss May Emery as prima donnas. Winfred Young was the
tenor. Florence Betts, Adelaide Harland, Florenz Kolb (doubled
sometimes as stage director), Frank Shay,
Albert Busby, N.C. Merrick, and Gus Buell completing the cast.
In October 1913 Florenz Kolb and Adelaide Harland
returned to The Shubert, Utica to present their (unnamed) clever comedy,
singing, talking and dancing act.
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Above: Add for the act Addie Harland and Florenz Kolb in
The Orpheum (The Allentown Democrat, Jan 11. 1913)
Right: Florenz Kolb and Adelaide Harland garbed respectively as a Dutch
boy and girl introducing a musical satire called Evolution, 1860 -
1920. |
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Starting out as
early as 1913 as "Kolb and Harland", in 1914-15 this duo
presented a clever little satire entitled Evolution, 1860 - 1920
in which they showed the evolution of the dance, the minuet to the
polka. On April 7. 1914 Florenz was elected to membership of "The White
Rats Actors' Union". In October 1914, Florenz and Adelaide Harland asserted a
copyright against Rosie Dolly and Martine Brown. The latter did, for the
first time, their opening number a Dolly-Brown act in a colonial setting
and dressing. Kolb and Harland did exactly the same thing after their
opening act. According to witnesses identical but for Kolb and Harland
the act had been running for more than a year.
Eventually changed their act to "Florenz Ames and Adelaide
Winthrop" in 1916. Their first
prominent role was when he opened at the Cohan and Harris Theater,
Broadway on June 7, 1917 in
Hitchy-Koo. Under those names they had a thumbnail revue called
One Minute, Please (1918) and appeared in a magazine titled
Alice in Blunderland with Winthrop in the title role and Ames
playing other roles.
Caught in a Jamb was a amusing vehicle for
clever dancing, singing, dialogue and effective costumes. Florenz and
Adelaide performed this skit in Clunie-Orpheum, Sacramento as early as
March 6. 1917. In October 1919 the same "new" act got a good many laughs
in Keiths Colonial, Philadelphia and it was also performed in March 1920
at the Orpheum, San Francisco.
Oct 2. 1919 Florenz and Alice
(b. Feb 4. 1889) were married in
Philadelphia. Both had previously been married. Alice appears as
Adelaide M. Buchannan on the official documents, her husband died
earlier whilst Florenz was divorced earlier that same year on Apr 2. in
N.Y.C.
They appeared together in a revue on 44th Street
Theatre called Frivolities of 1920 (Jan 8. 1920
- Feb 28. 1920). The pair appeared in different
vaudeville runs as “Ames & Winthrop” and toured across the US performing
this revue from the end of 1920 through 1921.
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Above left: Add for "Florenz Kolb and Addie Harland,
former Central Park favorites, at Orpheum Next Week" (The
Allentown Democrat, Oct 16 .1915).
Above right: Florenz Ames and Adelaide Winthrop, in Alice in
Blunderland (Jan, 1921) which headlines the New Orpheum Bill. |
Above left: Alice ”Adelaide” Winthrop, a variety dancer
as she appeared in the title role of a revue called Alice in
Blunderland with her husband, Florenz Ames which brought laughs
with their snappy comedy impersonations of Russian and Indian life.
Above right: In 1923 he successfully teamed up with actor Eddie
Dowling's wife Ray Dooley. |
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The Billboard reported on March 10. 1923 that Florenz Ames left
the cast of Lady Butterfly, at the Globe Theater, New
York, we presume to care for a sick Adelaide. On October 13, 1923,
Adelaide passed away.
After his wife died Ames reappeared on Broadway in Lady Butterfly
(1923). By December 31st 1923 he was remarried to Helen Jost
in Washington D.C.
He did try to restart another
act. Not so lucky with Dorothy Gompert, after 6 weeks of rehearsing he
called it quits and she sued him for $800 the Municipal Court. After
which he successfully teamed up with actor Eddie Dowling's wife Ray
Dooley (picture above right) (1923).
In January 1924 Miss Ray Dooley and Mr. Florenz Ames were seen together
on B.F. Keiths vaudeville circuit in A Terpsichorean Dilemma
(written by Joe Cawthorne), advertised as "The Funniest Skit Ever".
Again appearing together in April 1924 in Nonsensicalities.
Whilst Florenz was appearing in Madame
Pompadour (Martin Beck Theatre, Nov
10. 1924
- Jan 17. 1925), under the
stage name Florenz Ames, he was ordered to appear in court. In
late November, his first wife brought an action to punish Florenz for
contempt of court due to his failure to pay her alimony. The court
granted the motion for his punishment, and Ames was ordered to pay up.
When the notice was served on Ames, he stated that before he would meet
its stipulation, he would go to Ludlow Street Jail. In the end, however,
it seems he was unwilling to forgo his engagement in Madame Pompadour.
In 1925 Florenz sold the vaudeville production rights to all vaudeville
acts and production scenes of "Ames and Winthrop" to Keith agents.
For the next thirty years of his career he
mainly performed as a singer and character
actor in Broadway musicals.
Chief comedian of the Municipal
Opera Company, St. Louis for a number of seasons he gave a talk "How
to create a humorous role" for the Town Club members on Jun 19.
1929.
Helen Kolb was granted an interlocutory decree of divorce in the N.Y.
Supreme Court. Mrs. Kolb alleged statutory offense with an unnamed woman
at Broadway hotel, Oct. 7 1929.
Florenz Ames returned in September
1930 after "quite a few successful production engagements" in a
skit, titled What's Not, assisted by Eulahia Young and Alice
O'Donnell.
In February-March of 1930
Florenz performed with Alice O'Donnell (b.1899) in The Count of Luxembourg on Broadway
and on July 3. 1930 Florenz married Alice,
his fourth wife. They made their home at 243 West End Avenue in
NYC.
He briefly rejoined Ray Dooley on
the East Coast in 1930.
The role with which he was most associated
during the thirties was that of the French Ambassador in Of Thee I
Sing which opened at the Music Box Theater in December 1931. He
toured in the part and played it again at the Imperial in 1933.
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Above: Florenz Ames, Polly Walker, Flight Lieut C.T.P.
Ulm, John Moore and Shirley Dale, taken during Lt. Ulm's visit to the
Walkers, ca. 1929 [picture] Probably taken in Melbourne/ C.J. Frazer.
Used by permission National Library of Australia 3930944. |
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During 1934 and 1935 he toured Australia. Sir Benjamin Fuller's
production of The Merry Malones, with Polly Walker re-creating her
original Broadway role opened in Melbourne. Amongst others (120!) the
cast included Florenz Ames, Alice O'Donnell (his wife), John Moore, Mss. Rene Maxwell,
Leal Douglas, Shirley Dale and Bob Caperon.
Back in New
York after his Australian tour (Apr 1936), Florenz
played for the first time in a straight play First Lady with
Jane Cowl in the feminine lead. A season in New York and then another on
the road.
He will be remembered for his role as the harassed furniture
manufacturer in the George M. Cohan revue I'd Rather be Right
(1939) and in Amphitheater roles in 1941, the most
popular of which was Colonel Popoff in the Chocolate Soldier.
In 1942 he joined the Boston
Comic Opera Company and appeared with the company in a number of Gilbert
and Sullivan operas both on Broadway and on tour. In 1944 they were
calling themselves The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Co. performing in the
Ambassador Theatre. H.M.S. Pinafore, Trial by Jury
and The Mikado proved most popular. The latter was still
performed on the road when Pearl Harbor happened. Baltimore and
Washington received the opera passively. However during a tour of the
West and mid-West, Pasadena, California, and Des Moines, Iowa refused to
allow The Mikado to be presented. This was despite the fact
that the company had substituted the word "gangsters" for the word
"gentlemen" in the line: "If you want to know who we are, we are
gentlemen of Japan."
In 1943 Ames was recorded to lament the decline of American theatre."Remember
that lovely theater that used to be across the street from Ford's? It's
a garage now." He referred to the Palace. "I played there long
ago. But its fate," he added, "may symbolize the future of the
American theater. I believe it does."
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Above left: Let 'Em Eat Cake
(1933) Musical comedy. William Gaxton, Florenz Ames,
Grace Worth.
Above right: Florenz Ames in Broadway production of
Mr. Big in New York (1941). |
Above left: Margaret Roy, Florenz Ames,
and Robert Pitkin in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta
The Pirates of Penzance (1943).
Above right: Kathleen Roche and Florenz Ames in Gilbert
& Sullivan's Yeoman of the Gard (1944). |