Elise Cavanna

Elise Alyse Cavanna (January 30, 1902 – May 12, 1963) was an American film actress, stage comedian, dancer, and fine artist. She went by the following names: Elise Seeds, Alyse Seeds, Elise Armitage, Elise Cavanna, and Elise Welton.

Elise Cavanna
Cavanna in The Dentist (1932)
Born	Elise Alyse Seeds (1902-01-30)January 30, 1902 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	May 12, 1963(1963-05-12) (aged 61) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Other names	Elise Armitage Elise Welton
Occupations	Actress comedian dancer artist
Years active	1926–1945
Spouses	Merle Armitage ​ ​ (m. 1932, divorced)​ James Welton ​ (divorced)​

Stage and film career

She was born Elise Seeds in Germantown, Philadelphia, to Sally D. Burk and Thomas M. Seeds. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy and studied dancing with Isadora Duncan in Berlin, Germany. Cavanna was 6 feet tall and very svelte. She gave dance recitals in New York City, but grew dissatisfied and instead became a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies.

Cavanna was a comedian with Joe Weber and Lew Fields before she entered motion pictures in 1926. Her first film was Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (1926) with Louise Brooks and Evelyn Brent. Next she performed as an "early morning customer" with Brooks and W.C. Fields in It's the Old Army Game (1926). She worked with Fields in four other of his films, most notably The Dentist, where her scenes as a writhing victim of the brutal dentist (Fields) were deemed so risque that they were edited out for television broadcast decades later. Her on-screen interplay with Fields was compared by film historian William K. Everson to that between Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont. Cavanna remained in films until the late 1930s, compiling more than twenty screen credits.

In 1932, while living in Los Angeles, she met and married Merle Armitage (1893–1975), a writer, book designer, musician, and WPA administrator. She became more interested in visual art and art social circles after her marriage.

Art

Air Mail (1937), mural for the post office in Oceanside, California

In September 1933, Cavanna presented six abstract lithographs at a showing at Stendhals in Los Angeles, California. A newspaper review commented on the "cool precision of her lines and spots of tone." The art was best appreciated through the "mind's eye" rather than the eye itself. Cavanna's art was shown in October 1949 as part of the contemporary section in the California Centennials Exhibition of Art at the Los Angeles County Museum, Exposition Park. Oils, water colors, and prints from 20th-century artists were presented along with a historical section, which assembled early art. It displayed life in California from 1800 through 1870.

In 1937, Cavanna completed the 16′ x 6′ oil-on-canvas painting Air Mail for the Oceanside, California, post office. The painting depicts a realistic but stylized airplane flying over a landscape that looks similar to California.

The Los Angeles Art Association exhibited Cavanna's work in a 1954 showing at 2425 Wilshire Boulevard. The four artists whose work was shown were known collectively as Functionists West. They were Stephen Longstreet, Helen Lundeberg, Cavanna, and Lorser Feitelson. By then the former actress signed her name simply, Elise. Cavanna and Feitelson presented only nonobjective paintings, though each worked in representational modes. Both artists were similar in "using only flat-colored, near geometrical forms", which either opposed or complemented each other. Cavanna was one of the first nonobjective painters in southern California. Each one of her pictures was brightly colored, filled with energy, and could be viewed as a separate portion of a frieze. Feitelson and Lundeberg wrote a manifesto in 1934, describing their art as post-surrealism. Their desire was to use art to communicate the connection between the conceptual and the perceptual.

Later years and death

In 1961 Cavanna and her husband James Welton co-authored the book Gourmet Cookery for a Low Fat Diet, which contains 200 recipes for making fatless meals.

Elise Cavanna Welton, at age 61, died of cancer in Hollywood, California, on May 12, 1963. Her gravesite is located at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1926	Love 'Em and Leave 'Em	Miss Gimple
1926	It's the Old Army Game	Near-sighted woman	Uncredited
1931	A Melon-Drama		Alternative title: Broadway Headliners: A Melon-Drama
1932	The Dentist	Patient (Miss Mason)
1933	Infernal Machine	Bit Role	Uncredited
	The Pharmacist	Mrs. Dilweg	Alternative title: The Druggist
	The Big Fibber
	The Barber Shop	Mrs. O'Hare
	Beauty for Sale	Hat Saleslady	Uncredited
	Static	Radio Store Customer	Uncredited
	Day of Reckoning	Gertie	Uncredited
1934	Hips, Hips, Hooray!	Miss Pilot, Radio Announcer	Uncredited
	You're Telling Me!	Sarah Smith, female gossip	Uncredited
	Have a Heart	Genevieve, the Pianist	Uncredited
1935	Times Square Lady	Hosiery Saleslady	Uncredited
	Air Hawks	First Nurse	Uncredited
	I Dream Too Much	Darcy's Secretary	Uncredited
1936	Old Hutch	Travel Agency Clerk	Uncredited
1938	Everybody Sing	Colvin's Music Teacher	Uncredited
	Having Wonderful Time	Office Supervisor	Uncredited
	Three Loves Has Nancy	Third Woman on Autograph Line	Uncredited
1939	Naughty But Nice	Pansey, Hardwick Maid	Uncredited
1946	Ziegfeld Follies	Tall Woman	Uncredited

External links

• Elise Cavanna at the Internet Broadway Database
• Elise Cavanna at IMDb
• Elise Cavanna at the Steve Turner gallery