Jennie Mannheimer

Jennie Mannheimer (January 9, 1872 – May 26, 1943), also known professionally as Jane Manner, was an American elocutionist, acting coach, and teacher of speech and drama.

Jennie Mannheimer, from a 1900 publication.

Early life

Mannheimer was born in New York City, the daughter of Louise Herschman Mannheimer and Sigmund Mannheimer. Her mother was a writer, translator, and inventor born in Prague, and her German-born father was a professor and librarian at Hebrew Union College.[1] Both of her brothers became rabbis.[2] Mannheimer was one of the first two women to earn a bachelor's degree in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College, in 1888;[3] she also earned degree from the University of Cincinnati, in 1892.[4][5]

Career

Mannheimer was director of the drama department at the Cincinnati College of Music from 1900 until 1907. She also ran her own school, the Cincinnati School of Expression (1894-1912).[6] In 1914, she went traveling in Europe with her brother, only to encounter difficulty as the First World War began. Her letters home to Cincinnati were quoted in the newspaper as first-hand accounts of the volatile situation.[7]

Mannheimer moved to New York, where she performed dramatic readings,[8] including at a Red Cross benefit during World War I.[9] She opened the Jane Manner Studio to teach acting.[10] She also wrote several texts on the topic, including The Silver Treasury of Prose and Verse for Every Mood (1934), and the Junior Silver Treasury (1938).[3][11]

She was founder of the Drama Recital Club, and a member of the New York Drama League, the New York League of American Pen Women, the Council of Jewish Women, and the Temple Emmanu-El Women's Auxiliary.[12]

Personal life

Mannheimer died in 1943, aged 71 years.[5] Her papers were donated to the American Jewish Archives by her sister Edna B. Manner in the 1960s.[3]

References
  1. "Sigmund Mannheimer" in Isaac Landman, ed., The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (Universal Jewish Encyclopedia 1942): 333-334.
  2. Judy Barrett Litoff and Judith McDonnell, eds., European Immigrant Women in the United States: A Biographical Dictionary (Taylor & Francis 1994): 186. ISBN
  3. A Finding Aid to the Jennie Mannheimer (Jane Manner) Papers, American Jewish Archives.
  4. Nahida Ruth Lazarus, Nahida Remy's The Jewish Woman (Bloch Publishing 1916): 281-282.
  5. "Jane Manner Dies; Dramatic Reader" New York Times (May 28, 1943): 21.
  6. Miloslav Rechcigl Jr., Encyclopedia of Bohemian and Czech-American Biography, Volume 2 (AuthorHouse 2016). ISBN 9781524620691
  7. "In Exciting Flight from Fury of War" Des Moines Register (August 21, 1914): 1. via Newspapers.comopen access
  8. "Miss Mannheimer's Readings" New York Times (January 25, 1914): 29.
  9. "Entertained Red Cross" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (December 20, 1917): 22. via Newspapers.comopen access
  10. John S. Fine and Frederic James Krome, Jews of Cincinnati (Arcadia Publishing 2007): 46. ISBN 9780738551067
  11. Jacqueline Jones Royster, Profiles of Ohio Women, 1803-2003 (Ohio University Press 2003). ISBN 9780821415085
  12. "Jennie Mannheimer" in Julius Schwartz, Solomon Aaron Kaye, John Simons, eds., Who's Who in American Jewry (Jewish Biographical Bureau 1926): 412.
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