Janet Adair

Adair was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in about 1892. She worked as a stenographer[1][2] in that city until, during a party in 1910 to celebrate her eighteenth birthday, she reportedly accepted a dare to perform her character songs on stage.[1] She was quickly engaged by St. Louis theatre manager Dan Fishell,[2][3] and performed at moving picture theatres[1][4] and in vaudeville shows[5] in Missouri[1] and nearby states, including Kentucky,[6] Texas,[7] Michigan,[4] and Arkansas.[5] She performed with accompanists Hazel Hickey (until 1914)[8] and Emily or Emma Adelphi (later Mrs Jack Norworth)[9] (from 1916).[10][11] She toured nationally, and to Canada,[12] and frequently headlined variety shows.[8][13][14]

Reviewers described Adair as "one of those few who have the singular attraction of personality combined with voice and action .. truly a comedienne";[8] "Diminutive and childlike Miss Adair "puts over" her songs in a fashion that is irresistible";[7] "an excellent imitator";[15] "an irresistibly fascinating adorably clever young lady ... [with] the atmosphere about her that gets right over the footlights ... Some call it personality, and others call it pep; but whatever it is, she has it in carload lots."[14] Her songs, which she called "song definitions",[14] were described as "satires of various personages easily recognizable .. clever jabs at certain phases of domestic and social life".[16]

During 1919–1920, she appeared in the Shubert Gaieties of 1919.[17][18][19]

She was a contralto member of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's choir from August to December 1926.

Adair married vaudeville comedian James "Fat" Thompson in 1914.[20] In 1915, she was seriously ill after giving birth to a son who died within hours.[21] She married movie composer Louis Silvers in 1924.[22] She died on November 24, 1938 at the Santa Monica Hospital, California,[23][24] reportedly from an overdose of sleeping tablets taken after she had spent twelve hours preparing her home in Pacific Palisades for a quick flight from a forest fire that destroyed 600-800 properties.[25][26]

• Finders Keepers (1929; written by George Kelly)[27][28]
• The Flattering Word (1929; written by George Kelly)
• Here Comes the Bridesmaid (1928)[27][13]
• The Mikado (1926)
• The Crooked Dagger (1919)

• Bombo (1921-1922)[22][29][17]
• Shubert Gaieties of 1919 (1919–1920)[17][18]

• Janet Adair on IMDb