Nitta-Jo

[1] It was said that she made her stage debut at the age of 9,[6] but another account states that as a child from Montmartre "she used to deliver hats from a shop on the Rue de la Paix on her bicycle[,] and when she grew up she became a salesgirl.

"[7] She was married in 1913 in Romania[8][9] to Charles Elwood Durnell, nicknamed "Boots", a noted American horse owner and trainer who was in charge of the racing stables of the Romanian politician Alexandru Marghiloman.

She immediately began singing a song, each verse of which set forth to the enjoyment of her audience the weak spots in Roumanian neutrality."

[15] She left Romania during the war to go to Russia, "until the chaotic conditions there made any form of amusement impossible," according to an article in The Buffalo Enquirer, which continued: "The reign of terror of the Bolsheviks forced her after witnessing innumerable uprisings and massacres to escape through Siberia to Japan[,] where she sailed to America.

"[6] In Russia, she and her husband were "confined to their apartments for eight days during the revolutionary fighting," the Reno (Nevada) Evening Gazette reported after an interview.

They arrived in the United States via Manchuria, Japan, Victoria (British Columbia) and San Francisco where they stayed at the Palace Hotel.