Louis Davids

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

Notable

Celebrated Dutch cabaret singer and revue artist. His parents were the local comedian and café owner Levie David (25 Oct 1857, Rotterdam - 6 August 1909, Rotterdam) and Francina Terveen (19 Jan 1858, Rotterdam - 22 May 1927, Amsterdam), a soubrette soprano. The poor Jewish family married on 21 July 1880 in Rotterdam and got eight children. Simon and his younger sister Heintje Davids (13 February 1888 5 AM, Rotterdam) would become after a long struggle famous artists. They called Louis "De grote, kleine man", the great , small man of the street. His sister would become noted for the "Heintje Davids effect", referring to the fact that she always returned to the Bühne, after she officially had retired. But others siblings fared less well. His elder sister Rebecca (29 Nov 1881, Rotterdam - 16 Dec 1882, Rotterdam) died early of disease and two unnamed brothers died resp. on 8 April 1890 and 25 February 1891 in Rotterdam on their birthday. His elder brother Hartog David (22 May 1879, Rotterdam - 4 June 1943, Sobibor) and sister Rebecca "Rika" David (4 Sept 1885, Rotterdam - 2 July 1943, Sobibor) became victims of the Holocaust. The heavy smoker Louis Davids died in 1939 of an heart attack, before he would be confronted with Berufsverbote, Exile and termination camps, but one his most famous songs "Als je voor een dubbeltje geboren bent" (If you were born for a dime) in the movie "Op stap" (on the road) dealt with the pitfalls of live. He started his career as a child in the funfair revue of his parents. After a quarrel with his father, at age 17, he went to England, becoming the assistant of a magician. After a few months he telegraphed his father: Please, get me back, I am hungry. Back in Holland , he worked together with his sister Rika, later with Heintje. Via the pubs in red light districts in Amsterdam, he ended in theatre Carre and the international Kurhaus in Scheveningen. Louis Davids contributed to the career of postwar stars like Wim Kan, Corry Vonk, Wim Sonneveld and the Cabaret Ping Pong in Berlin. In his last years he needed to be admitted to hospital for asthma several times. He died in the early hours of 1 July 1939 from a heart attack. He did not wish a Jewish funeral. His funeral and cremation on 3 July at Westerveld in Amsterdam became a historical event, being attended by many unofficial widows and thousands of visitors. Personal. On 24 October 1906 he married Rebecca Kokernoot (20 April 1883, Rotterdam- ?) in Rotterdam. They got a daughter Kitty (1907). The marriage was unhappy. Davids became a womaniser. In 1911 he met the pianist and composer Margie Morris (24 July 1892, London — 14 January 1983, Hindhead), and though he never officially divorced, he moved with Margie to Amsterdam (1913). They got a son Louis Jr. in 1915. Margie left him 1922, after Louis started dating the actress Mathilde Joséphine Louise Blanche "Tilly" van der Does (17 Nov 1896, Rotterdam - 30 Nov 1971, Domont). Tilly's ex was the pianist of Maurice Chevalier. Link to Wikipedia