Early years Betty was born on June 9, 1905, in
Chicago,
Illinois, to
Jewish American parents Lillian and David Felsenthal. Her birth name was Bertha Felsenthal, which she never used professionally. She began practicing ballet at age seven where she took lessons from H.W. Miller. In programs and newspaper articles, Betty's first name appeared in different forms, namely Buddye, Buddy, and Buddie, while her last name was either Felsen of Felsenthal. She received praise from the
New York Star, which for a time was known as
The Vaudeville News and New York Star, for her performance at a meeting of the
Western Vaudeville Managers Association in June 1915. The paper's Chicago representative, H.C. Danforth, wrote a letter on June 16, 1915, praising her abilities.
From corps de ballet to ballerina soloist In 1916, shortly before her tenth birthday, her parents enrolled her at the Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet School under the name Buddye Felsenthal. In 1919, the
Chicago Opera Association accepted Betty, sometimes referred to as Elise, as a member of the
corps de ballet because she passed the required tests. Betty was one of several Gypsies dancing while Carmen sings in Act 2 of the Chicago Opera's 1921 productions of
Bizet's opera
Carmen. In 1919,
Adolph Bolm was invited by the Chicago Opera to stage an original ballet. He developed a ballet of
The Birthday of the Infanta with music by Chicago composer
John Alden Carpenter and decor by the American costume designer
Robert Edmond Jones. Two scenes were performed at Chicago's
Auditorium Theater on January 14, 1922, followed by several performances at the
Manhattan Opera House in New York City. In these two scenes, sixteen-year-old ballerina Betty "Elise" Felsen danced as the Infanta, Oukrainsky danced as the dwarf, and Pavley danced as a Gypsy leader, as described in the February 3
New York Globe review. During the 1920–1921 and 1921–1922 opera seasons, Betty performed in the
Dance of the Moorish Slaves in Verdi's
Aida numerous times. She was one of six female slaves but appeared first performing a short solo dance, then danced with the ensemble of male and female slaves during which she performed several short solo dances. In late fall of 1922, Betty left the Chicago Opera and began performing solo at Fred Mann's Million Dollar Rainbo Room in the Rainbo Gardens. Under the name Buddye Felsen, Betty landed a dancing role and the singer
Ruth Etting was hired as one of the lead singers. The show,
Rainbo Trail opened on December 15, 1922, and ran until March 1, 1923.
Broderick and Felsen In spring 1923, she and Frank Lischeron began to collab. Beginning in June, they were requested by Balaban and Sam Katz to appear for one week each at many of their theaters. However, at the end of the summer, she and Frank separated. Betty formed a partnership with dancer Jack Broderick at the beginning of the fall in 1923 and for the next few weeks they hired performers and crew and developed their act, Broderick & Felsen. Broderick and Felsen toured in the Midwest on the B.F. Keith Vaudeville Circuit during the last quarter of 1923 and into the second quarter of 1924. In January 1924, they hired Verne Rathaar for piano. Shortly before the summer of 1924, Broderick and Felsen contracted with the Pantages Vaudeville Circuit and performed across the American mid-west and the western United States and Canada through December. In late 1925, they appeared on the
Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit and at two independent vaudeville theater chains. Throughout their tours, Broderick & Felsen presented their program of original dance creations, which involved different styles of dance that included
classical ballet,
tap, Spanish—including their
Argentine tango dance— and modern (aka interpretive). One of Betty's most well-known ballet creations was titled "The Butterfly Who Lived but a Day". In one of acts where Betty runs and leaps in a dive past Broderick and he catches her by the ankles and swings her around, Betty was injured with a torn ligament in her leg. In January 1925, Betty and Broderick ended their contract with the Pantages circuit and returned to the B.F. Keith circuit. They replaced Verne Rathaar with the Jud Hill Orchestra. Also in January, Betty convinced tap dancer Pincus Leff, aka
Pinky Lee, to join their company; he soon became a featured dancer. The orchestra and Pincus Leff remained with the act throughout 1925. A debut occurred on September 20, 1925, at the B.S. Moss Colony Theater on Broadway at 53rd Street in
New York City with their production called
Campus Capers. This was a prologue Betty and Broderick created for the new
Harold Lloyd film,
The Freshman. They also created a new prologue act for the film
The Phantom of the Opera that would be shown beginning on November 28, 1925, after the ten-week engagement of
The Freshman ended. Their act continued for 19 or 20 weeks, finishing on January 30 or February 6, 1926. After Colony Theater, they joined a new production by actor-comedian Emil Boreo called
Mirage de Paris. Betty and Broderick was in the starring roles. Impresario Merriel Abbott, their friend and former teaching assistant for the Pavley-Ourainsky Ballet, sent a telegram congratulating them on their opening. After their opening week at the Palace, the production played for a week in St. Louis and another week back in Chicago. Following a rest, Broderick and Felsen created their own production titled
Ballet Caprice in which they presented routines in their dance styles with costumes and sets. They contracted with impresario George Choos to produce it and manage the tour. The show opened on September 30, 1926, in New York City at B.F. Keith's Riverside Theater on Broadway, playing for four weeks. Broderick & Felsen then continued their
Ballet Caprice tour of Keith-Albee circuit theaters in other cities before returning to New York City to present the show at the
Hippodrome Theater for the week of January 3, 1927. After that week, their tour continued for most of the year in the mid-west and northeast. From January 1927 into June 1928, a shadowgraph production appeared at many of the theaters on the same bill at which
Ballet Caprice played. Members of the
Ballet Caprice troupe were often among those who performed behind the curtain for the production. Toward the end of 1927, Broderick left the act and ended the partnership. Betty created a production called
Visions of Dance for her new dance company known as Betty Felsen & Company. == Performing arts schools ==