Bernice Claire (born Bernice Jahnigen; January 27, 1906 – January 17, 2003)Age given as 34 in 1940 census; taken in Assembly District 10, Manhattan, New York City during the first week of April 1940, listed as Bernice Claire, occupation: “Actress” "United States Census, 1940"
index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KQT6-92S: accessed November 10, 2014), Bernice Claire, Assembly District 10, Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 31-884, sheet 61A, family 45, NARA digital publication of T627, roll 2644, NARA digital publication of T627, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.Bernice Claire, aged 25, year of birth given as 1906, on June 29, 1931 ship manifest sailing from Hamilton, Bermuda to New York, New York, "New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957"
index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/24N8-W41: accessed November 10, 2014), Bernice Claire, 1931; citing Immigration, New York, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; FHL microfilm 1756726.“Bernice Claire (known as Jahnigen)", aged 29, born Oakland, California (Passport # 203238), date of birth given as ”Jan/27/I906” ship manifest, SS Champlain, sailing from Southampton, England (on July 17, 1935) to New York-U.S.A. (July 24, 1935)
/ref> was an American

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

and

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

. She appeared in 13 films between 1930 and

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

Early years

She was born as Bernice Jahnigen (surname later mistranscribed as Janighen) to Adolph and Clara (née Sternitzky) Jahnigen in 1906 in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. She had an elder brother, Earl. Her birth name is also sometimes found as Bernice Jahnigan. An article in the June 18, 1950, issue of the ''

Oakland Tribune The ''Oakland Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, and a predecessor of the '' East Bay Times''. It was published by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. Founded in 1874, the ''Tribune'' ...

'' reported, "It was in 1918 that she first appeared as a juvenile, a pert little one with curled tresses who made an immediate impression on all who saw and heard her perform at Eastbay theaters and at lodges and veterans' gatherings." She attended Oakland High School, where she studied dramatics and was active in musical comedy productions.

Career

With a clear

coloratura Coloratura ( , , ; , from ''colorata'', the past participle of the verb ''colorare'', 'to color') is a passage of music holding elaboration to a melody. The elaboration usually takes the form of runs, trills, wide leaps or other virtuoso ma ...

, Claire took to the stage performing light opera and had no difficulty singing demanding roles. In 1927, she appeared in her first vaudeville production. She met then-leading singer Alexander Gray; they appeared in three

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

films together in 1930 for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, including a shortened film version of ''The Desert Song'' (titled ''The Red Shadow'') in 1932. Gray and Claire became film's first operetta team, predating

Jeanette MacDonald Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American soprano and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (''The Love Parade'', ''Love Me Tonight'', ''The Merry Widow (1934 film) ...

and

Nelson Eddy Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 – March 6, 1967) was an American actor and baritone singer who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs ...

. Her first screen appearance was in the original film version of '' No, No, Nanette'' in the title role. (A post-Code version was made in 1940.) The other two films she made with Gray were ''Spring is Here'' and '' Song of the Flame''. Operettas began losing popularity with audiences so Warners tried Claire in dramatic parts without much success. Claire made several more musical shorts up through the late thirties (some again with Gray), later becoming a radio and orchestra singer. In 1934, she appeared on Broadway in a short-lived musical, '' The Chocolate Soldier''.

Later life

Claire was married to Dr. Douglas P. Morris.

Death

On January 17, 2003, ten days before her 97th birthday, Bernice Claire died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

in her adopted hometown of

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, where she had lived for many years.

Filmography

* '' No, No, Nanette'' (1930) * '' Spring Is Here'' (1930) * '' Song of the Flame'' (1930) * '' Numbered Men'' (1930) * '' Top Speed'' (1930) * '' Kiss Me Again'' (1931) * '' The Red Shadow'' (1932) * '' Moonlight and Pretzels'' (1933) * '' The Flame Song'' (1934) * '' Meet the Professor'' (1935) * '' The Love Department'' (1935) * '' Two Hearts in Harmony'' (1935) * '' Between the Lines'' (1936) * '' The Pretty Pretender'' (1937) * '' Forget-Me-Knots'' (1938)

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Claire, Bernice 1906 births 2003 deaths American film actresses American musical theatre actresses American sopranos Deaths from pneumonia in Oregon Singers from Oakland, California Actresses from Oakland, California Actresses from Portland, Oregon 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American women