Josie Sadler

Josie Sadler (1871–1927), born Josephine Rauscher in New York City, was a leading American stage comedienne whose career spanned roughly two decades. Her father was German and her mother was French, a heritage that would later inform her signature performance style. Sadler appeared on Broadway from 1899 to 1917 and became widely recognized for her "Dutch," or German, dialect routines and her heavy-set physical presence, both of which distinguished her among stage comediennes of her era.

Sadler's introduction to performing came at age nine, when Tony Pastor discovered her and, with her parents' permission, cast her in his production Nursery Rhymes, an engagement that lasted approximately four months. She was educated in the United States and subsequently in Germany, completing her schooling at age fifteen. She then joined the Broadway production of Erminie before working as a chorus girl in traveling productions of La Marquise and Madelon. Manager John Russel took notice of her work and gave her a bit part in Natural Gas. From February through June 1890, she appeared at the Bijou Theatre in New York in The City Directory, playing an elevator operator named "John Smith." Two additional Russel productions followed — Easy Street and Miss McGinty — after which she worked with Henry Dixey in revivals of Patience and The Mascot.

Her German-language education contributed directly to her development as one of the foremost German dialect comediennes of her generation. In August 1897 she appeared in the William Harris production Good Mr. Best, playing "Gretchen Slowe," a role she counted among her favorites. The following March she took a departure from dialect work, playing a cockney character named Jemima in Monte Carlo at the Herald Square Theatre. In February 1899 she returned to the Bijou for Brown's in Town as "Frida Von Hollenbeck," though that production failed. She then joined the Webber and Fields' Theater for Catharine, earning considerable success, and most of that cast, including Sadler, subsequently moved into Hurly Burly.

Sadler is credited with originating the "Dutch Girl" — the naïve immigrant character type — on stage through her 1899 performance in Prince Pro Tem, where she starred alongside Fred Lennox in the role of "Wild Rosie of Yucatan" and wrote and performed the production's hit song, "Oh, If I Could Only get a Decent Sleep." Sadler and Lennox married following that production, and she took time away from performing to travel with her husband while he starred in Princess Bonnie. She returned to the stage in September 1899 as "Tryphena Shoolz" in A Million Dollars, and in January 1900 appeared in the Alfred Baldwin Sloane musical Broadway to Tokio, again performing "Oh, If I Could Only get a Decent Sleep." Further stage appearances followed at the New York Roof Garden in The Supper Club and at the New York Theater in The Hall of Fame. She starred in The Silver Slipper in 1902.

The peak of Sadler's stage career arrived in 1903 with Peggy from Paris, in which she played Peggy's "Dutch Maid" and performed a featured song about her character's son, a bassoon player. In 1908 she headlined with Charles A. Bigelow in A Waltz Dream, portraying "Fifi," a bass drummer. That same year she appeared as "Miss Tiny Daly" in The Mimic World, which ran for 100 performances at the Moorish Casino Theatre and the Grand Opera House, and her phonograph recordings began to reach the market. Columbia Records was the first label to issue her recordings, releasing four titles in total. Victor announced Sadler recordings for sale in March 1909, and her recording of "Hilda Loses her Job" — a comedy routine featuring an uncredited Len Spencer — remained in the Victor catalogue until 1923, paired with Billy Murray's "Tipperary" on Victor 16783. She also made cylinder records for Edison beginning in mid-1909. Her recordings combined comedic singing, intermittent patter, and monologues, with most performed in her German dialect. Her stage hit "If I Could Only Get Some Sleep" was recorded for Victor on December 31, 1908, but was never released.

Subsequent stage work included Lew Fields' The Jolly Bachelors and The Bachelor Belles at the Globe Theatre, which ran for 32 performances through November and December 1910. She then appeared alongside Eddie Foy and Lillian Lorraine in the musical Over the River. During the summer of 1911 she performed in Will O' Th' Wisp at Chicago's Studebaker Theater, and in 1912 she was among the featured performers of the Ziegfeld Follies.

Sadler entered film work in March 1913 when she joined Vitagraph. Her screen debut appeared in May 1913 in support of Norma Talmadge in Omens and Oracles. In 1914 she made a series of five comedy films for Vitagraph co-starring Billy Quirk, marketed as the "Josie Comedies," though the series was not continued due to poor commercial performance. She subsequently moved to the World Film Corporation and appeared in the 1915 feature What Happened to Jones. Returning to the stage, she played "Alma" in the 1916 production The Blue Envelope before taking her sketch "Moving Pictures," drawn from her film experience, onto the vaudeville circuit.

Sadler retired from performing in 1918 to manage the electrical research business left by her second husband, a Mr. Geddes, following his death. Operating under the name Josephine S. Geddes, she handled the bookkeeping and daily operations with the assistance of her son, William Geddes, who had himself worked both on the stage and in the business. She credited her show-business background with giving her the ability to assess people's characters quickly and with instilling resourcefulness and perseverance. Sadler died in 1927.