Cassandra (Cassie) Walmer (20 June 1888 – 11 October 1980) was a British singer, dancer and comedian who performed in music halls and variety theatres in Britain, Australia and New Zealand from the 1890s until 1947. After 1919 she appeared in a duo act with Frank O'Brian under the name of Janice Hart, co-creating several revues with him, including Birds of the Night. She made successful tours of Australia in 1906–7, 1913, 1928–30 and 1935, two of which also included New Zealand. She also appeared on BBC radio from 1944 until 1952.
Sean Mayes and Sarah Whitfield describe her as one of "three extraordinary Black women" active in the early 20th century, commenting that they "challenge preconceptions about what might be possible in the first decade of the twentieth century".
Early life
Cassie Walmer was born on 20 June 1888 at William Street, in the Regent's Park area of Camden, London, the youngest child of Stephanie (née Schmidt), a Black woman of French or German origin, in her second marriage to George C. Walmer, an African-American actor and musician who was born in the United States. Cassie had seven older siblings and half-siblings.
Her father was known for portraying Uncle Tom in adaptations of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Cassie joined him at the Theatre Royal, Leicester, as early as 1891. She was then aged three, and the event led to the family being investigated for breaching child labour legislation. She continued to appear as a child performer in music halls, even after her father's death in 1897, learning to sing, dance and perform in comedy acts.
Solo career
Walmer made her professional debut at twelve, and was already established in England by the early years of the 20th century. In 1905, for example, she appeared in London, across England and in Scotland. Her initial act involved singing and dancing; she later also started to perform singing impressions.
She first toured Australia and New Zealand in 1906–7, accompanied by her mother, after being recruited by the British-born Australian impresario, Harry Rickards. Sean Mayes and Sarah Whitfield comment that this was despite the then-current White Australia policy. Her earliest Australian appearance was a slot at the Melbourne Opera House on 11 August 1906; a reviewer in Punch described her as a "very clever artist and mimic". She appeared at the Tivoli in Sydney that September for a three-month season; the whole tour extended over a year and also took in Newcastle and Brisbane in Australia, and Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand. She sang English music-hall numbers (such as "Don't Tell the World Your Troubles", "Come Down, Joanna Brown, Come Down" and later "Anna Maria"), as well as American traditional songs (such as "You Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry"). Her voice at this point was described as a well-trained "deep, rich contralto" and "sweetly powerful". She was billed as a "champion buck dancer" (a form of tap dancing) and was noted for her "remarkable sand-dance", during which she supported herself on one leg as a "veritable human spinning-top". In March 1907, Truth reported her accompanying the well-known American boxer, Jack Johnson, at a social event held by the Coloured Progressive Association. Her costumes also drew comment; she said in an interview in 1913 that she designed her dresses herself, and had them made specially in Paris at a cost of £20–30 each.
On 12 June 1911, Walmer married Joseph Edward Louisson, a bookmaker, in Lambeth, London; he accompanied her when she made her second Australian tour in February–June 1913 (promoted after Rickards' death by Hugh D. McIntosh), visiting Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. She continued to be advertised as "Miss Cassie Walmer". The tour was again very successful, with a reviewer for Truth commenting that she had "lost none of her old dash and vivacity, and simply took the house by storm with her stunts."
During the First World War, Walmer toured in music halls across Britain until 1919; according to her Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry she was "extremely popular with audiences all over the country", and her reviews were invariably positive; the Daily Gazette, for example, in a review of a 1916 performance in Middlesbrough, describes her voice as "very fine" and her dancing as "very artistic". Louisson joined the Royal Army Service Corps; after the war, the couple separated permanently, but remained legally married until his death in 1947.