“Miss Amerique is a graceful dancer of rare beauty while her partner, Mr. Neville, is a man of powerful physique and a dancer of amazing ease and grace.”

Before Neville Goddard was standing at lecterns in New York and LA teaching humanity how to imagine reality into existence, he was a dancer.

As we know from previous articles like “Neville Goddard Like You’ve Never Seen Him – In ‘Somewhat Striking’ Costumes at Ciro’s London,” “Neville & Amerique – Broadway Shows and Theaters,”  and our newspaper clipping gallery, his partner was a California society girl named Jeannette Johnson. She was on the road to becoming a debutante and decided she would rather make history in theatrical columns than attend junior proms at Stanford. Her stage name was “Amerique.”

They went to London in 1925. They were the featured attraction at Ciro’s famous restaurant. There, they performed their “jewel dance” for the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York, and Princess Helen Victoria (see Appendix 1). The English public adored them the clippings say.

They returned to the US in 1926 and worked at various prominent New York nightclubs. There, an opera manager named Haase from Atlanta caught their act in New York.

“These dancers were unquestionably the best I saw in New York and just as soon as I could get them to sign a contract for the Atlanta light opera season I did so.”

Just like that, they were locked in for a fourteen-number, eight-week run at the Erlanger Theater working for Atlanta Municipal Opera Association performing musical comedy, comic opera, and operettas.

Atlanta – Neville and the Valentino Type

The local papers dug into their origins (see Appendix 1). According to the press, Amerique’s destiny was sealed at age two when she escaped her nurse to dance for an Italian organ-grinder’s monkey on the street. Her parents, Marcus Morton Johnson and his wife, simply bowed to the inevitable.

Neville’s path they said was equally “determined”. He was the son of a wealthy merchant in Barbados who agreed to train his ten children for whatever careers they chose. While his brothers became bankers and physicians, Neville wanted the stage. So, his father sent him to America.

“The Valentino type was then much in demand, and Neville found work rather more easily than he expected. He was, the managers decided, the Valentino type. Several generations of Scottish ancestry [1] had probably acquired a Latin complexion under the tropical West Indies’ sun.”

They danced over fourteen different numbers over eight consecutive weeks. Dancing during a hot Georgia summer in 1927 was probably no joke. So in came the ad for a massage rub. They became such local celebrities it appears below that a local lab had them endorse their “Crystal Bath” 70 percent alcohol massage rub.

“Amerique and Neville, one of the most famous dancing teams in America, are now appearing at the Erlanger theater… ‘No other stage work requires such intensive exercise as dancing,’ say Amerique and Neville, ‘and we find Crystal Bath alcohol massage a perfect preparation for rubs after performances.'”

The 1927 Atlanta Summer Season: Shows & Roles

Over eight weeks, the duo performed an incredible variety of routines, becoming the stars of the season.

1. The Pink Lady: The Debut
2. The Red Mill: Single Dance Appearance
3. The Blue Paradise: Hungarian Dance & Jewel Dance
4. H.M.S. Pinafore: Nautical Solos (Schumann / Saint-Saëns)
5. The Count of Luxembourg: Featured Premier Dancers
6. Dearest Enemy: Colonial Gavotte
7. The Wildflower: Tarantella & Show-Stopping Tango
8. Pom Pom: Season Finale Apache Dance

1. The Pink Lady

To drum up excitement for the opening of the season, the theater used Amerique and Neville to drive advance ticket sales.

“Some of the leading dance numbers in ‘The Pink Lady,’ the first production… will be offered by the famous dancing team of Amerique and Neville shown in one of their dances in the picture. This team of dancers is one of the ablest in the country…”

2. The Red Mill

Following their successful debut, the duo had a relatively light second week, stepping back to perform just a single dance routine.

“…a fortnight ago when they appeared in ‘The Pink Lady.’ Last week they appeared in only one number of ‘The Red Mill’…”

3. The Blue Paradise

For week three, Neville & Amerique had three distinct appearances throughout the show.

“…Neville is looking properly sinister for their Hungarian dance number.”

This week also featured the performance that had previously charmed royalty across the Atlantic:

“…they will give the jewel dance, which won the admiration of the Prince of Wales when they were appearing at Ciro’s last year.”

4. H.M.S. Pinafore (with “The Balloon Ballet”)

The fourth week featured a massive set with a realistic battleship built on the stage. Preceding the main opera was “The Balloon Ballet,” which gave the duo a chance to shine individually.

“Amerique will appear in a dance version of Saint-Saens’ familiar ‘Le Cygne,’ and Neville will have a solo number to music by Schumann.”

5. The Count of Luxembourg

By mid-July, the press had stopped merely introducing them and officially crowned them the stars of the summer.

“Above, left, Amerique and Neville, premier dancers of the company, and general favorites with comic opera patrons…”

6. Dearest Enemy

Week six was a historical American colonial-era production, where they traded in their exotic costumes for refined elegance.

“Amerique and Neville appeared briefly in a gavotte which, like their previous appearances, was as finished and as glowing as genuinely artistic performances must be… The audience greeted them with a ripple of friendly applause…”

7. The Wildflower

The penultimate week of the season was the undisputed climax of their run. Their performances in The Wildflower were so magnetic that they brought the entire production to a screeching halt.

“And since Amerique and Neville very definitely stopped Monday evening’s performance, and stopped it despite other distractions… they received a greeting which was the most emphatic accorded any entrance of the evening…”

The local theater critic, Frank Daniel, summed up the city’s adoration and “show stopping” performance:

“Amerique and Neville are second to no member of the company.”

“And since Amerique and Neville very definitely stopped Monday evening’s performance, and stopped it despite other distractions which might have silenced a less determined audience, they will likewise interrupt this report. When they appeared for their brief first act tarantella, they received a greeting which was the most emphatic accorded any entrance of the evening, and this greeting was reiterated when they appeared for their amazing tango, in the second act.

After the dance the audience began an applause which contained the accumulation of seven weeks’ admiration for their consistently brilliant performances. It was applause designed to bring them back for an encore, and it was forceful enough to bring them back from anywhere short of the grave. At just this moment Richard Powell, the comedian, entered in comic attire, but the audience’s surprise did not overcome its enthusiasm. Then a set fell perilously near the comedian, but the audience would have continued, no doubt, if it had been a piece of the sky instead of a piece of scenery. And because they were too sporting to accept applause thus distracted, Amerique and Neville declined to repeat their number.”

8. Pom Pom

For the eighth and final production of the summer, the duo closed out the theater season with a dramatic, high-energy flourish.

“This week they are dancing an Apache number in ‘Pom-Pom,’ which, like their dozen or more preceding dances of the season, is excellent. Off the stage, Amerique is Jeannette Johnson, and Neville’s surname is Goddard.”

For eight weeks in Atlanta, Neville & Amerique were the absolute center of the universe for comic opera patrons in Atlanta. Years later after a spiritual awakening experience, Neville Goddard hung up his dancing shoes entirely, well The Great Depression didn’t help, and traded in the spotlight of the vaudeville stage for the quiet intensity of metaphysical lectures. He would teach millions that the physical world is merely a shadow of the imagination and the ultimate goal was The Promise.

But for one summer in Georgia, the physical world was all there was and an audience that wouldn’t stop clapping.

Appendix 1

CALIFORNIA SOCIETY LOST DEBUTANTE IN ERLANGER DANCER
BY FRANK DANIEL

San Francisco is short one debutante because the Johnsons’ daughter preferred to make history in the theatrical columns rather than in the society sections.

Atlanta knows the Johnsons’ daughter as Amerique, the feminine half of the team of Amerique and Neville, whose dances are an unfailingly delightful attraction of the comic operas the Atlanta Municipal Opera association is producing at the Erlanger theater. But even before the time arrived when, in the natural order of things, the society columns should have apprised San Francisco that Miss Janette Johnson, charming subdeb daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Morton Johnson, was attending the junior prom at the University of California or at Stanford university—long before that time the Johnsons’ daughter had decided to do her dancing in the theater instead of in the correct country clubs and fraternity houses.

When Amerique was two years old she made her first appearance. Her audience was an Italian organ-grinder, his monkey, and several street children. She had evaded the Johnsons’ nurse and gone to look at the monkey, and when the hand organ began to play “Santa Lucia,” the little girl began to dance. A few minutes later her nurse found her, flushed with triumph, and with her infantile subconscious all adjusted to a dancing career.

Parents Accept Inevitable

Her parents bowed before the inevitable—that is, a daughter’s determination—and when Amerique was 10 years old she entered the dancing school of Mahr and Mieczkowski in San Francisco. During the next six years she became their star pupil—so excellent a dancer, in fact, that her teachers predicted a career.

Mrs. Johnson accompanied her daughter to New York, where she continued her studies and soon began to appear in stage and in private entertainments. When the Hippodrome became a vaudeville house, with the finest vaudeville obtainable on its bill, one of the attractions was Amerique and Neville. That was the beginning of the new celebrated team. Mrs. Johnson still accompanies her daughter.

Neville, whose sirname is Goddard, was at that time a pantomimist. He had come to America from the British West Indies, seeking a stage career. His father is a wealthy merchant in Barbados—as wealthy as the father of nine sons and a daughter ought to be. He had agreed to provide each of his children with training for whatever career they chose. Cecil, the eldest, is a banker; Lawrence, the next, is a graduate of McGill university, where he studied to be a physician; Victor studied law, but is now working in his father’s offices; Neville, the next son, disturbed his parents by wanting to go on the stage, but true to their promise they sent him to America.

Valentino Type Then Popular

The Valentino type was then much in demand, and Neville found work rather more easily than he expected. He was, the managers decided, the Valentino type. Several generations of Scottish ancestry had probably acquired a Latin complexion under the tropical West Indies’ sun.

Since the formation of the Amerique and Neville partnership, they have been eminently successful. Last year they were the featured attraction at Cino’s famous restaurant, in London. Here they won the friendship and admiration of the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York and of Princess Helen Victoria. They appeared at several royal entertainments, and won enthusiastic praise from the English public. John Murray Anderson signed them to appear in the first Publix attraction, “The Melting Pot,” and they came to Atlanta first with that production, playing at the Howard theater.

Amerique and Neville will make several appearances this week in Franz Lehar’s “The Count of Luxemburg,” at the Erlanger theater.

1. From a “A Summing Up” (1963) – “I was born and raised a Britisher, born under the Union Jack. All my family are still living under the Union Jack. I am very proud I was born with that background, a rugged, rugged background of Scotch, English, and Irish. My forefathers were from Cornwall, that rugged English setup. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. They were adventurers when they ventured and re-adventured across all the seas of the world. Nothing could be more clear than my background.”

Appendix 2

MOST RESPONSIVE AUDIENCE OF YEAR GREETS ‘WILDFLOWER’

Bucolic Virtues Triumph Over City Slickers With Claire Madjette Giving Fine Performance BY FRANK DANIEL

The bucolic virtues, gorgeously sponsored by Claire Madjette, again triumphed signally over the machinations of the gol-derned city slickers Monday evening, when the Atlanta Municipal Opera association presented Arthur Hammerstein’s “The Wildflower” at the Erlanger theater before the most spontaneous and responsive audience any of the seven weekly premieres of the summer season has assembled.

“The Wildflower,” plus the sure and resourceful direction of Fred A. Bishop, has provided Miss Madjette with a more suitable medium than her earlier roles afforded, and she received every opportunity with her lively and lovely playing.

And since Amerique and Neville very definitely stopped Monday evening’s performance, and stopped it despite other distractions which might have silenced a less determined audience, they will likewise interrupt this report. When they appeared for their brief first act tarantella, they received a greeting which was the most emphatic accorded any entrance of the evening, and this greeting was reiterated when they appeared for their amazing tango, in the second act.

After the dance the audience began an applause which contained the accumulation of seven weeks’ admiration for their consistently brilliant performances. It was applause designed to bring them back for an encore, and it was forceful enough to bring them back from anywhere short of the grave. At just this moment Richard Powell, the comedian, entered in comic attire, but the audience’s surprise did not overcome its enthusiasm. Then a set fell perilously near the comedian, but the audience would have continued, no doubt, if it had been a piece of the sky instead of a piece of scenery. And because they were too sporting to accept applause thus distracted, Amerique and Neville declined to repeat their number.

Applauded Violently Earlier in the season this Pierian spring sulked about the frequency of encores, but Monday evening, heaven help us, there we were, applauding like the most horny-handed claque at the Metropolitan opera house. This objection to superfluous encores is the first cause we ever sponsored, and now we have gone over to the opposition. Hereafter we will content ourselves with straight reporting, and we begin by reporting that Amerique and Neville are second to no member of the company.

Sudwarth Frasier found in “The Wildflower” another suitable role, and he sang and played handsomely, and with the force of his work last week in “Dearest Enemy.” Then he was a dashing military hero, and this week he personifies the fireside virtues. He does each impersonation well. Fireside virtues are seldom picturesque, but Mr. Frasier made those he represented thoroughly entertaining.

Ever since Alice MacKenzie played the Lorelei Lee part in “The Blue Paradise” she has been due an ample comedy role, and she got it Monday evening. As a philandering wife she adroitly avoided making this dangerous role anything but entirely charming. She combines the politer comedy skill with a sense of burlesque which makes her lighter scenes sparkling and graceful. And Monday evening she looked like that 20,000,000 lira inheritance the heroine of the musical comedy received.

“World’s Worst Women” She and Richard Powell sang “The World’s Worse Women” when the chauffeurs were already arriving outside the theater, and they had to repeat their interpretations of Samson and Delilah, Athanael and Thais, Paris and Helen, and John and Salome until, they had summoned all the standard wicked women of history. Mr. Powell played a fine role splendidly, and contributed a dance number of extraordinary spirit. Roland Woodruff, in a comic make-up, played the second comedy role with his thorough capability, and showed again his skill as a gymnastic dancer.

Madeleine McMahon was a villainess who made sin even more attractive than usual, and Louis Templeman was a fortune hunter who, one would think, didn’t have to hunt far. Charles Galagher again colored a character role with his first rate understanding. A solo by Ed Kane, which preceded the curtain rise in “Cavalleria Rusticana” fashion, was an effective opening. The chorus and ballet showed conspicuously fine grouping, and contributed greatly to “The Wildflower’s” success.

This production will be offered every evening this week, and on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. “Pom Pom,” next week, will close the season.”

Other Neville & Amerique Articles

Neville Goddard Like You’ve Never Seen Him – In ‘Somewhat Striking’ Costumes at Ciro’s London
Neville & Amerique – Broadway Shows and Theaters
Amerique & Neville Goddard (Vaudeville) – Photo Gallery and Newspaper Clippings