Heintje Davids

Vocation

Dutch variety artist, that played from 1907 till her retirement in 1954, but came back again and again until her death in 1975. Her habit to come back on stage became a regular Dutch expression: Heintjedavids effect. Her father was the comedian and café owner Levie David (25 Oct 1857, Rotterdam - 6 August 1909, Rotterdam). Her mother Francina Terveen (19 Jan 1858, Rotterdam - 22 May 1927, Amsterdam) was a waitress and singer. The poor Jewish couple married on 21 July 1880 in Rotterdam and got eight children. Four of them died at very young age. Heintje was the youngest of the family and would be only one to reach old age. Her brother Louis Davids became the most celebrated Dutch interbellum singer, but died 1939 of an heart attack. Her sisters Rebecca "Rikka" David (4 September 1885, R'dam - 2 July 1943, Sobibor) and "Hakkie" were murdered during the Holocaust. The talented children that survived the poverty and childhood diseases would play in the family theatre Davids, but the short and thick Heintje was not selected, as she was ugly and had a strange voice. The pretty girls could collect some money from the drunk spectators of the shows in the pubs, but Heintje seemed to be he black sheep of the family. She tried a single career and debuted in 1907 as comic revue singer in Rotterdam. From 1910 she performed with her brother Louis, after Louis's favourite sister "Rika" had married and left the show business. The striving to perfection Louis had a critical attitude to her, but she replied with common sense jokes that became her hallmark. On 8 October 1914 Heintje Davids married the Jewish journalist and theatre writer Philip Pinkhof (25 December 1882, Den Haag - 29 February 1956, Amsterdam). They got no children. Philip wrote under the penn-name Rido classic song for her, like "Zandvoort aan de zee", "Draaien" and "Omdat ik zoveel van je hou". She played the role of "Ma Druppel" in the film "De Jantjes" (1934). In 1935 she started her own company "de Henriëtte Davids Revue NV". During WW2 she first played in the cabaret in Hollandsche Schouwburg (1941), but September 1942 she and her husband went underground. First in the reclaimed land, later as a strange case in the Pathology department of the academic hospital of Amsterdam. June 1945, she came back. In 1948 she wrote her memoirs. In 1954 (retirement age 65), she starred in a last concert that was so successful, that she repeated it several times. After the sudden death of her husband, she became lonely. The comedians Tom Manders and Max Tailleur advised to go back to stage. The day before her 87th birthday, she became unwell and was admitted to hospital in Naarden. She died 14 February 1975 7h40 AM. Link to Dutch Wikipedia