Vera Michelena (June 16, 1885 – August 28, 1961) was an American actress, contralto prima donnaThe Advocate: America's Jewish Journal, Volume 38, December 25, 1909, p. 783 and dancer who appeared in light opera, musical comedy, vaudeville and silent film. She was perhaps best remembered for her starring roles in the musicals The Princess Chic, Flo Flo and The Waltz Dream, her rendition of the vampire dance in the musical Take It from Me and as a Ziegfeld Follies performer.
Early life Vera was born in New York City, the daughter of Fernando Michelena (1858–1921), a noted Venezuelan lyric tenor, and Frances Lenord (1867–1912),1900 US Census, San Francisco, Ca. - Patrick (Fernando) Michelena, 42, Venezuela, Frank (Frances) Michelena, 33, New York, Beatriz Michelena, 17, New York, Vera Michelena, 14, New York, Ancestry.comCalifornia, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, October 1942, Beartiz Michelena Middleton, parents, Fernando Michelena, Frances Lenord, Ancestry.com an operatic soprano and pianist.Mrs. Michelena Taken by Death in Gotham. San Francisco Call, Volume 112, Number 102, September 10, 1912, p. 5 Retrieved October 28, 2013 Her father was the son of Spanish parents who settled in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was born. Over much of her childhood, Michelena's parents toured with the Emma Abbott Grand Opera Company.Emma Abbott Grand Opera Company (advertisement). St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 01, 1885; p. 12, col. B As did her sister Beatriz Michelena, a famous actress during the silent film era, Vera received her musical education from her father.Achievement of Comic Opera Star Still Remains Fresh in Mind of Patriot. The San Francisco Call, February 16, 1902, p. 22Fernando Michelena Obituary. Pacific Coast Musical Review, Vol. 39, March 12, 1921, p. 195 Retrieved May 28, 2014 Briscoe, Johnson, 1908, p. 144. The Actors' Birthday Book, Vol. 2 Retrieved May 28, 2014Young Singer Climbs Fame's Ladder Fast. San Francisco Call, Volume 99, January 19, 1906, p. 9 Her half-sister, Teresa Michelena, was also an actress known as Donna Borrell. Vera Michelena attended school at a convent in San Miguel, California.
Both Vera and Beatriz were trained by their father in classical voice and drama studies, and they followed in his footsteps by beginning singing careers of their own. By mid-1904, with Vera busy pursuing her career in New York, Fernando Michelena settled in San Francisco, California to teach voice. There, he raised Beatriz and continued to train her, a soprano, in operatic vocal techniques. He passed his stage experience to his daughter: the way to move as another person, the way to make simple but authoritative gestures, and the way to build intensity over the span of a performance.Bell, 1984, p. 78 Her father in later life taught music and worked as a vocal coach, and at the time of his death, was serving as president of Arrillaga Musical College, San Francisco.Arrillaga Musical College Advertisement. Oakland Tribune, August 1, 1920, p. 15 Maria Antonia Field, a Californian writer, would later chronicle her time as a student of Michelena's father in her book, Five Years of Vocal Study under Fernando Michelena. Field, Maria Antonia. Five Years of Vocal Study under Fernando Michelena c. 1922, C.D.L. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
Theatre
Michelena made her professional theatrical debut in the fall of 1902 playing a minor role in a national tour of the Kirke La Shelle comic opera, The Princess Chic. On January 19, 1903, at the Columbia Theatre, San Francisco, she assumed the title role, The Princess Chic of Normandy, and continued in this capacity for the remainder of the season and throughout the next.Princess Chic Scores a Brilliant Success at the Columbia Theatre. San Francisco Call, January 20, 1903, p. 4 During the 1904–05 season, Michelena starred as Zaidee in the Harry B. Smith musical comedy, The Jewel of Asia.Stage Gossip. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, October 1, 1904, p. 10 She spent the following season in two road productions: The School Girl, an Edwardian musical comedy by Henry Hamilton, Paul Meredith Potter and Charles H. Taylor in which she played Lillian Leigh,Miss Vera Michelena. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, October 1, 1905, p. 17Hamilton, H., Potter, P., Taylor, C. H., 1902. The School Girl: A Musical Play Retrieved May 27, 2014 and The Yankee Consul, a musical comedy by Alfred George Robyn and Henry Blossom in which she played the role of Bonita.Amusements. The Minneapolis Journal (Minneapolis, Minn.), December 1, 1905, p. 16
Michelena made her New York debut in August 1906 at the Majestic Theatre, playing Princess Cholulu in the R.H. Burnside and Gustave Kerker musical comedy The Tourist. At the time, Michelena's popular rendition of the play's song "They Lived to Be Loved in Vain" drew special mention from a New York Times reviewer.A Mystic Maze Of Girls, Song, Color. New York Times, August 26, 1906, p. 9The Internet Broadway Database Retrieved May 28, 2014 Early in 1907 she appeared in Boston and Philadelphia as Ariella in The Snow Man.Vera Michelena, Majestic. Boston Sunday Post, March 31, 1907, p. 28 a musical comedy by Reginald De Koven and Hugh Stanislaus Stange that found little success when it opened on Broadway in November 1907 under the title The Girls of Holland.Plays Have Similar Names. New York Times, November 7, 1907, p. 5
On January 13, 1908, Michelena opened at the Casino Theatre in Funabashi, a musical comedy by Irvin S. Cobb and Safford Water that was inspired by a recent trip to Asia by the then American Secretary of War William H. Taft.Casino Theatre (advertisement). New York Times, January 4, 1908, p. 16This Weeks Offerings. New York Times, January 12, 1908, p. XI Shortly after Funabashi closed in early February after 32 performances, Michelena replaced Magda Dahl as Princess Helena in the operetta The Waltz Dream. Adapted for the English stage by Joseph W. Herbert from the original Viennese production by and , The Waltz Dream was staged at the old Broadway Theatre on West 41st Street and closed on May 2, 1908, after 111 performances.Button, J., Freeman, L., 1999, p. 79, Century House Pub., The Blue Book of Broadway MusicalsThe Waltz Dream, Internet Broadway Database Retrieved May 30, 2014
On June 11, 1908, Michelena sailed for England aboard the steamship for an engagement at London's Palace Theatre and a later side trip to France.Amusement Notes. New York Times, June 12, 1908, p.14 She returned early that September after enduring a storm-plagued Atlantic crossing aboard the ocean liner New York, to prepare for a fall road tour with the Harry B. Smith and Maurice Lévy (music) hit Broadway musical comedy, The Soul Kiss Three Liners Met Heavy Gales at Sea. New York Times, September 6, 1908, p. 10The Soul Kiss, Internet Broadway Database In the spring of 1910, Michelena played to record-breaking audiences at Chicago's LaSalle Theatre in the Mortimer Henry Singer farce musical The Flirting Princess.The Flirting Princess Sets New Chicago Record. Waterloo Times Tribune (Waterloo, Iowa), April 10, 1910, p. 13 In the play, she first performed The Vampire Dance with the dancer Joseph Smith, whose choreography drew its inspiration from the works of Philip Burne-Jones and Rudyard Kipling.Flirting Princess-April 27. Waterloo Times Tribune, April 17, 1910, p.12
On September 4, 1910, she appeared at the Grand Theatre, Chicago, in George Broadhurst's musical comedy, The Girl and the Drummer.At Chicago Theatres. The Goshen Democrat (Goshen, Indiana), August 10, 1910, p. 1 The next month at New York's Globe Theatre, she shared top billing with Sallie Fisher and Frank Daniels in The Girl on the Train, a musical comedy by Harry B. Smith from the original by Viktor Léon and Leo Fall.This Weeks Offerings. New York Times, October 2, 1910, p. 45 Michelena remained with the musical until it closed out its run at Boston's Colonial Theatre late in April 1911.Colonial Theatre. Boston Post April 22, 1911, p. 10 On November 2, 1911, Michelena starred in Alma, Where Do You Live?, the first production to play at the newly remodeled Bucklen Theatre in Elkhart, Indiana. Alma, Where Do You Live? by George V. Hobart and Jean Briquet had been one of the more popular Broadway musicals over the 1910–11 season.Alma, Where Do You Live? Goshen Democrat, October 24, 1911, p. 3 Michelena remained with Alma into the spring of 1912, and then she toured with Lew Fields' popular vaudeville extravaganza Hanky Panky.Under the Spotlight by Edward Harold Crosby. Boston Sunday Post, May 5, 1912, p. 37
Michelena was among the principal performers with the Ziegfeld Follies of 1914 during the musical revue's June to September run at the New Amsterdam Theatre, New York.Ziegfeld Follies and Passing Show. New York Times, May 31, 1914, p. X8Ziegfeld Follies of 1914, Internet Broadway Database Retrieved June 1, 2014 She played the title role in the Fred de Gresac and Silvio Hein 1917–18 hit musical comedy, Flo-Flo, over a six-month run at Broadway's Cort Theatre.Flo-Flo, Internet Broadway Database Retrieved June 1, 2014 In the spring of 1919, she appeared at the 44th Street Theatre for a run of almost 100 performances of Take It from Me, a musical comedy by Will R. Anderson and Will B. Johnstone. In the play, she played Queenie LaBelle, a cinema vampire, who in one popular scene performs "The Vampire Dance" with Vernon "Soup" Van Dyke (Fred Hildebrand). That November at Boston's Shubert Theatre, she began an eight-week run in the title role of Betty Be Good, a musical comedy from Harry B. Smith and Hugo Riesenfeld.Sam S. Shubert Theatre (advertisement). Boston Sunday Post, January 20, 1920 Michelena's last major Broadway appearance was as a principal performer with the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921.Theatre Magazine, Volume 29, May 1919, p. 293
Michelena began the 1922 fall season starring opposite Fred Hillebrand in a vaudeville musical revue called Hello Miss RadioShubert Park Theatre (advertisement). Bridgeport Telegram (Bridgeport, Connecticut), September 4, 1922, p. 6 and in 1924 they toured together in a vaudeville skit entitled All for Vera.B. F. Keith's Palace (advertisement). The New York Times, April 13, 1924, p. X3 In 1927, the two shared top billing touring in Listen Dearie, a musical comedy by Harold Atteridge and Gertrude Purcell.Shubert Theatre (advertisement). Bridgeport Telegram January 1, 1927, p. 5
Film
She starred in at least two silent films, both opposite her then husband Harry Spingler. Michelena played Helen Warner in Driftwood, a family drama produced in March 1916 by the Ocean Film Corporation. The film was adapted from the 1911 Owen Davis play by Anthony Paul Kelly and directed by Marshall Farnum, brother of Dustin Farnum. Michelena next appeared in The Devil's Playground, a social drama produced by Monmouth Films in 1917. The Devil's Playground was directed by Harry McRae Webster, who also shared the writing credits with Dallas Tyler.Vera Michelena, Internet Movie Database Retrieved June 5, 2014
Personal life