# Elsie Ames

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**Elsie Ames** (May 18, 1902 – May 3, 1983) was an American comic dancer and film actress. Between 1937 and 1974 she acted in 15 films. She is best known as the female film partner of [Buster Keaton](/source/Buster_Keaton).[1]

Ames was half of the [vaudeville](/source/Vaudeville) team Ames and Arno, doing a slapstick adagio routine. Theirs was a good, standard vaudeville act, as *Variety* reported in 1938: "Elsie Ames and Nick Arno make every second of their knockabout routine count for laughs. Nothing seems left to chance. Also, a mid-center walloper is the encore."[2] Ames and Arno performed their act on film in the [Bing Crosby](/source/Bing_Crosby) musical *[Double or Nothing](/source/Double_or_Nothing_(1937_film))* (1937).

Elsie Ames's willingness to take pratfalls and physical punishment in the name of comedy made her a natural candidate for [Columbia Pictures](/source/Columbia_Pictures)' short subjects. Producer [Jules White](/source/Jules_White) had a host of male physical comedians under contract, but no female comics who could withstand the films' high slapstick content. In 1940 White hired Ames, who stood a little over 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m) tall, as a foil for the 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)-tall Buster Keaton. She worked with Keaton in five of his 10 Columbia shorts, and received featured billing. After the final short in the series, *[She's Oil Mine](/source/She's_Oil_Mine)*, Keaton let his Columbia contract lapse, leaving Ames idle. White tried to keep her Columbia career going, co-starring her with [Harry Langdon](/source/Harry_Langdon) (in two shorts) and then [El Brendel](/source/El_Brendel) (in one final short). She left Columbia in 1942.

She made two further movies, both with Nick Arno, doing their dance specialty.

## Personal

Elsie Ames's daughter, [Elizabeth Deering](/source/Elizabeth_Deering), is also an actress. Elizabeth "Betty Lou" Deering was married 1964–1983 to [Seymour Cassel](/source/Seymour_Cassel). Ames and her then son-in-law acted together in *[Minnie and Moskowitz](/source/Minnie_and_Moskowitz)* (1971). Ames and Deering acted in *[A Woman Under the Influence](/source/A_Woman_Under_the_Influence)* (1974).

## Filmography

- *[Double or Nothing](/source/Double_or_Nothing_(1937_film))* (1937)
- *[His Ex Marks the Spot](/source/His_Ex_Marks_the_Spot)* (1940)[3][4]
- *[The Spook Speaks](/source/The_Spook_Speaks)* (1940)[5]
- *[The Taming of the Snood](/source/The_Taming_of_the_Snood)* (1940)
- *[General Nuisance](/source/General_Nuisance)* (1941)[6]
- *[She's Oil Mine](/source/She's_Oil_Mine)* (1941)
- *[Rhythm Inn](/source/Rhythm_Inn)* (1951)
- *[Houdini](/source/Houdini_(1953_film))* (1953)
- *[Minnie and Moskowitz](/source/Minnie_and_Moskowitz)* (1971) as Florence[7]
- *[A Woman Under the Influence](/source/A_Woman_Under_the_Influence)* (1974)

## References

1. King, Rob (2017). [*Hokum!: The Early Sound Slapstick Short and Depression-Era Mass Culture*](https://books.google.com/books?id=hbQwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA171). [University of California Press](/source/University_of_California_Press). p. 171. ISBN 9780520288119. Retrieved 2017-10-23. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books)

1. *Variety,* Nov. 2, 1938, p. 52.

1. Neibaur, James (2010). [*The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia*](https://books.google.com/books?id=_ELk9327M68C&pg=PA159). [Scarecrow Press](/source/Scarecrow_Press). p. 159. ISBN 9780810876835. Retrieved 2017-10-23. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books)

1. Okuda, Ted & Watz, Edward (2013). [*The Columbia Comedy Shorts: Two-Reel Hollywood Film Comedies, 1933–1958*](https://books.google.com/books?id=wfnaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT133). [McFarland & Company](/source/McFarland_%26_Company). ISBN 9781476610108. Retrieved 2017-10-23. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books)

1. Batista Da Silva, George (2010). [*Os Filmes De Buster Keaton*](https://books.google.com/books?id=fzpSBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA71) (in Portuguese). [Joinville](/source/Joinville), [Brazil](/source/Brazil): [Clube de Autores](/source/Clube_de_Autores). p. 71. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books) Spook Speaks, The - Curta-metragem produzido e dirigido por [Jules White](/source/Jules_White) pelos estúdios da [Columbia Pictures Corporation](/source/Columbia_Pictures_Corporation) no ano de 1940. A história leva as letras de [Ewart Adamson](/source/Ewart_Adamson), [Clyde Bruckman](/source/Clyde_Bruckman) e [Elwood Ullman](/source/Elwood_Ullman). Com [Buster Keaton](/source/Buster_Keaton), Elsie Ames, [Don Beddoe](/source/Don_Beddoe), [Dorothy Appleby](/source/Dorothy_Appleby), [Lynton Brent](/source/Lynton_Brent), [John Tyrrell](/source/John_Tyrrell_(actor)), [Bruce Bennett](/source/Bruce_Bennett) e [Evelyn Young](/source/Evelyn_Young).

1. Erickson, Hall (2012). [*Military Comedy Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography of Hollywood Releases Since 1918*](https://books.google.com/books?id=NE7DPJWdXd4C&pg=PA51). [McFarland & Company](/source/McFarland_%26_Company). p. 51. ISBN 9780786462902. Retrieved 2017-10-23. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books)

1. Canby, Vincent (December 23, 1971). ["Movie Review: Film by Cassavetes Takes Friendly Jabs"](https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990DE5DF1138EF34BC4B51DFB467838A669EDE). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Retrieved 2017-10-23. "Minnie and Moskowitz," [John Cassavetes](/source/John_Cassavetes)'s sixth and, in many ways, most ambitious film, is also his friendliest, in the dish-throwing, door-pounding, exclamation-pointed manner of a comic strip. [...] Florence ..... Elsie Ames

## External links

- [Elsie Ames](http://www.hollywood.com/celebrities/elsie-ames-57348899/) on [Hollywood.com](/source/Hollywood.com)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Elsie Ames](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Ames) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Ames?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.