Today is the birthday of Jose Collins (Charlotte Josephine Collins, 1887-1958). The daughter of Lottie Collins, she was second generation English music hall royalty, which enabled her to make her onstage debut at age 13 in a routine with Sir Harry Lauder. When she was 17 she broke into the business in earnest, touring British and American music halls in a tour with Gaby Deslys. From 1911 through 1916 she was a star of American big time vaudeville and Broadway, appearing in such shows as Vera Violetta with Al Jolson (1911-1912), the Ziegfeld Follies of 1913 and the Passing Show of 1914. She returned to Britain in 1916, where she enjoyed another couple of decades of stage success, gradually going from musical comedy ingénue parts and music hall revue, to parts in straight dramas. She also appeared in about a dozen silent movies and one talkie. In England, her biggest stage success was The Maid of Mountains (1917) — the name became her professional nickname thereafter.
To find out about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
(Travalanche) 