Josephine Mary Brandell (September 1887â€"27 June 1977) was an
Austrian-Jewish musical actress and actress notable for surviving the
torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. Following her marriage in
1945 to Beresford Cecil Bingham, 8th Earl Annesley she became
Josephine, Countess of Annesley.According to the 1900 U.S. Federal
Census and the 1905 New York State Census, Josephine Brandell was
actually born as Janetta Kleinberg in Austria in 1887 into a Jewish
family, the daughter of Fishel 'Phillip' Kleinberg (born 1848) and
Yetta née Goldstein (1857-1953). Her siblings included Samuel Lasker
Kleinberg, Sadie Zehring Kleinberg and William Kleinberg. Later in
applications for passports and American citizenship she claimed that
she was a British citizen born on 26 November 1891 or 1892 in
Bucharest in Romania, the daughter of Phillip Brandell.Her father, a
tailor by profession, immigrated to the United States of America,
settling in New York City in 1895, with the rest of the family
following him in 1897 and 1898. Josephine Brandell had ambitions of
becoming an actress and attempted to break into show business on the
New York stage while in her early teens but this was temporarily put
on hold when in 1907 at the age of 19 she married dentist and
naturalised American citizen Dr Bernard Black Brandeis (1879â€"1944),
also from Romania. The marriage made Brandell an American citizen but
it was short-lived with the couple divorcing in September 1910
following which she assumed the name 'Brandell', possibly to avoid
anti-Semitic persecution. After the divorce Brandell resumed her
ambition of following a career on the stage.A soprano, 'Jenny'
Brandell's first small role was in the comic-opera Nightbirds by
Johann Strauss in which she toured Europe and America with Fritzi
Scheff and gaining favourable press coverage for her performance. On
Broadway she appeared in The Beauty Spot (1909) at the Herald Square
Theatre; as Maline in The Belle of Brittany (1909-1910) at Daly's
Theatre; in Tillie's Nightmare (1910-1911) at the Herald Square
Theatre and as Sidi in The Merry Countess (1912) at the Casino
Theatre.
Austrian-Jewish musical actress and actress notable for surviving the
torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. Following her marriage in
1945 to Beresford Cecil Bingham, 8th Earl Annesley she became
Josephine, Countess of Annesley.According to the 1900 U.S. Federal
Census and the 1905 New York State Census, Josephine Brandell was
actually born as Janetta Kleinberg in Austria in 1887 into a Jewish
family, the daughter of Fishel 'Phillip' Kleinberg (born 1848) and
Yetta née Goldstein (1857-1953). Her siblings included Samuel Lasker
Kleinberg, Sadie Zehring Kleinberg and William Kleinberg. Later in
applications for passports and American citizenship she claimed that
she was a British citizen born on 26 November 1891 or 1892 in
Bucharest in Romania, the daughter of Phillip Brandell.Her father, a
tailor by profession, immigrated to the United States of America,
settling in New York City in 1895, with the rest of the family
following him in 1897 and 1898. Josephine Brandell had ambitions of
becoming an actress and attempted to break into show business on the
New York stage while in her early teens but this was temporarily put
on hold when in 1907 at the age of 19 she married dentist and
naturalised American citizen Dr Bernard Black Brandeis (1879â€"1944),
also from Romania. The marriage made Brandell an American citizen but
it was short-lived with the couple divorcing in September 1910
following which she assumed the name 'Brandell', possibly to avoid
anti-Semitic persecution. After the divorce Brandell resumed her
ambition of following a career on the stage.A soprano, 'Jenny'
Brandell's first small role was in the comic-opera Nightbirds by
Johann Strauss in which she toured Europe and America with Fritzi
Scheff and gaining favourable press coverage for her performance. On
Broadway she appeared in The Beauty Spot (1909) at the Herald Square
Theatre; as Maline in The Belle of Brittany (1909-1910) at Daly's
Theatre; in Tillie's Nightmare (1910-1911) at the Herald Square
Theatre and as Sidi in The Merry Countess (1912) at the Casino
Theatre.
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