Armida (actress)

Armida Vendrell

Vendrell in 1949.
Born Armida Vendrell
May 29, 1911
Aguascalientes, Mexico
Died October 23, 1989 (aged 78)
Victorville, California, U.S.
Occupation Actress, singer, dancer, vaudevillian
Years active 1929-1951

Armida, born Armida Vendrell, (29 May 1911 – 23 October 1989) was an American actress, singer, dancer and vaudevillian born in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Early life

Armida came from a theatrical family; her father Joaquin Vendrell was a well known magician "The Great Arnold" who immigrated to Mexico from Barcelona, Spain.[1] She also had two sisters that were performers as well, Lydia Vendrell and Lola Vendrell. By the time she reached the age of nineteen she had a lucrative, long-term screen contract. She purchased a beautiful home where she lived with her family. She aspired to send her younger sisters to college.

Appearance

Vendrell was just five feet tall with high heels and two inches less without them. Armida had a tiny face with two dark eyes of radiant beauty. She spoke quickly, without pausing. As a small child she spoke Spanish only. Her personality was vivacious, piquant, fiery in temper, typically Latin in sparkling cleverness.

Vaudeville in California

Armida started performing at a young age, when her family moved from Mexico to the United States, her father opened the first movie theater in Douglas, Arizona. She and her sisters would sing and dance during intermission and her father would perform an illusionist act.

Armida was discovered in the old Hidalgo theater in the Plaza in Los Angeles. The Plaza was the oldest section of the city. Armida was appearing in a small, home-manufactured vaudeville skit, along with her sister Delores. A spotter for a coast vaudeville circuit was in the audience and offered her a chance at a four-a-day. Armida progressed from the drama marts of the Plaza to various Broadway productions after being discovered by Gus Edwards, stage and screen actor, song writer, and dance instructor. She participated in as many as twenty-four vaudeville numbers a day while in New York. Edwards brought her back to Hollywood with him and began to feature her in colortone novelties. Gus once said of Armida, that she possessed "the emotional temperament of an actress capable of surmounting the most difficult of histrionic roles".

Film career

Film debut in Border Romance, 1929

The young Mexican actress was a success and soon progressed into short subjects in the films and was under contract to United Artists. Her first film of note featured her in a role opposite actor John Barrymore. In On the Border (1930) Vendrell played Pepita, a Spanish girl. She is protected from the leader of a band of desperadoes by her lover and her pet dog, Rin-Tin-Tin. The story was an exciting one about Orientals being smuggled over the Mexican border into the United States.

Armida appeared in films like Border Romance (1929), The Show of Shows (1929), General Crack (1930), Under a Texas Moon (1930), The Marines Are Coming (1934), Under the Pampas Moon (1935), Patio Serenade (1938), Machine Gun Mama (1944), Bad Men of the Border (1945), Congo Bill (1948) and The Gay Amigo (1949). Her final role was in Rhythm Inn (1951), in which she played a specialty dancer.

Filmography

Death

Armida Vendrell died in Victorville, California on October 23, 1989 of a heart attack.

References

  1. ↑ "Armida Still on Stage. Jan 31, 1933 news article". Library.illinois.edu. 1933-01-31. Retrieved 2013-07-24.

Bibliography

External links