Elise Cavanna (January 30, 1902 â€" 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.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 until she began to dislike it. Then
she 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.
actress, stage comedian, dancer, and fine artist. She went by the
following names: Elise Seeds, Alyse Seeds, Elise Armitage, Elise
Cavanna, and Elise Welton.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 until she began to dislike it. Then
she 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.
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