Gitz Rice

Gitz Rice, born Ingraham Rice on March 5, 1891, in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, was a Canadian entertainer, composer, and book writer whose career spanned military service, vaudeville, and Broadway. He appeared on Broadway between 1918 and 1926, with credits including the play Getting Together, the musical Princess Virtue, and the revue Nic Nax of 1926. He died on October 16, 1947, following several months of bronchial asthma.

Rice was born to Amos Ingraham Rice, a photographer, and Eliza G. Rice. The family relocated from Nova Scotia to Montreal in 1892 when Rice was young, as his father transferred his photography business there. The nickname "Gitz" was given to him by his eldest brother Charles, a reference to his unusual gait in his earliest years. He was a direct patrilineal descendant of Edmund Rice, an early English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his first cousin George W. Rice was a noted Arctic explorer. Rice studied piano throughout his childhood and attended Victoria School, Montreal High School, the Feller Institute, and the French Protestant School at Grande Ligne, Quebec, before enrolling in the McGill Conservatory in Montreal, where music professor Eddy Upton was a significant influence on him.

When Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, Rice enlisted in the army on that same day, initially serving as a gunnery officer. He began composing songs during training, drawing on the routines and procedures of military life. After deployment to Europe, he wrote about trench life as early as 1915 at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and organized what is recognized as the first World War I concert party for servicemen in France. He periodically joined Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Comedy Company as a pianist. Following the Battle of the Somme, Rice formed a committee dedicated to developing concerts for soldiers. He was removed from combat after being gassed at Vimy Ridge in 1917 and returned to Canada, where he was appointed lieutenant of musical entertainment, overseeing performances that reached approximately 70,000 troops per week. Among his best-known wartime compositions are "Dear Old Pal of Mine," "Keep Your Head Down, Fritzie Boy," "Mademoiselle from Armentières," and "On the Road That Leads to Home."

Rice married silent film actress Ruby Hoffman in 1918. The following year, having built a reputation through his wartime songs, he moved to New York City to advance his entertainment career. He worked initially as a piano accompanist and continued writing, with much of his material drawing on his wartime experiences. He frequently performed in uniform on stage. He also created the vaudeville act "Gitzy Rice and His North West Mounted Police," in which performers appeared in Royal Canadian Mounties uniforms. Rice wrote multiple musicals during this period, though none achieved the broader success of his other work. His Broadway activity ran through 1926, encompassing his work as a performer, composer, and book writer.

Rice stepped away from performing in 1930 to pursue a career in public relations. He returned to the stage during World War II to entertain Canadian troops before his death in October 1947.