A taste of Elsa Lanchester: SHE'S ALIVE! 

​For more info: elsalanchestershow@gmail.com

Why Elsa?
Because she was utterly unique.
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born to Socialist, suffragist, atheist, pacifist, anti-vaccination, vegetarian parents in London, England, on October 28, 1902. Her mother, Edith Lanchester, was briefly institutionalized by her wealthy family for refusing to marry Elsa’s father, Shamus Sullivan, a factory worker. (The reason for Edith’s confinement? “Overeducation”!) 

Elsa’s education was spotty. At the age of eleven, she was chosen to study with Isadora Duncan in Paris. As WW1 approached, she returned to London and began teaching her own dance classes.  As a teen, Elsa co-founded the Cave of Harmony, a Bohemian nightclub where she performed one acts, parodied old music hall songs, and became the toast of avant-garde London.   Some of her fans included James Whale (the future director of “Bride of Frankenstein”), Evelyn Waugh, Tallulah Bankhead, John Gielgud, and HG Wells.  Wells wrote three silent films for Elsa, who was then hailed “the female Charlie Chaplin”. She was sculpted and painted by many artists of the time, celebrated in poetry, magazines, and gossip columns, and was soon cast in a West End stage play opposite the up-and-coming young actor, Charles Laughton. They fell in love, set up housekeeping in 1927, and married in 1929. Two years later, Laughton confessed to her that he  was gay—but they stayed married.  Around that time, Hollywood beckoned for Laughton, and didn’t know what to do with Elsa. Nevertheless, they appeared in several films together: THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY THE EIGHTH; REMBRANDT; THE BEACHCOMBER; TALES OF MANHATTAN; THE BIG CLOCK; and WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, for which they were both nominated for Academy Awards. 
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Despite two Academy Award nominations, Elsa was never a fan of acting.  She preferred singing, calling herself a "diseuse" rather than a "chanteuse".  She set out on her own, performing her eccentric song stylings, touring the United States, Canada, and England, and recording albums.  She became wildly popular at the Turnabout Theatre in Hollywood, where she performed Forman Brown songs with the famed Yale Puppeteers for over a decade. 
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After Charles Laughton’s death, she continued to appear in films, television, and cabaret, and wrote a vivid autobiography, ELSA LANCHESTER HERSELF.  She died in 1986.
 
Elsa’s autobiography was out of print until four years ago, when rabid Elsa fans persuaded Chicago Review Press to re-print it. Last year, the very first biography about her was published, ALWAYS THE BRIDE, by Victoria Worsley, and in 2025, an in-depth study, over fifteen years in the making, by MJ Simpson, called BRIDE OF THE HUNCHBACK, will be released.  Plans for a re-make of Elsa’s most famous film, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, have been whispered for years, there's a popular Elsa Lanchester Fans Facebook page--and her “Bride” image is now in demand--as a tattoo!
          Maybe the world is finally ready for Elsa, Herself.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mip0rpgtjLM
Charlotte talks about Elsa's voice and music, at Martha's Vineyard Playhouse, 2022
​​(Elsa Lanchester, TONIGHT! was developed through the generosity of MJ Bruder-Munafo and Paul Munafo at
​Martha's Vineyard Playhouse, 2022)

Graphics by the best: Mike Johnson