Henriëtte Davids

Biography

Variety artist Henriëtte (Heintje) Davids came from a family of performers who appeared at many carnivals. At the beginning of the 20th century, her brother Louis and sister Rika formed a successful duo. Her family members didn’t think Henriëtte was cut out to be a performer because of her plain appearance and lack of stage talent. But thanks to her perseverance, she did manage to get her career off the ground. She eventually wound up using her short posture to her advantage in her comic repertoire.

In 1907, Henriëtte began performing in Henri ter Hall’s revue with songs that her brother Louis had written. After initial resistance, Louis, who was no longer performing with his sister Rika, agreed to form a duo with Henriëtte. They made their first successful appearance in 1910, in Amsterdam's Theater Carré.

In 1914, Davids joined the revues of Amsterdam’s Flora theatre, which were written by her husband Philip Pinkhof. In 1925, she switched to the Bouwmeester-Revue, which within a few years became the largest revue in the Netherlands.

In the 1920s and 1930s, she also appeared in some of the best-known Dutch films from this period: Bleeke Bet, Oranje Hein, De Jantjes, and Op stap. She worked together with all the great comedians of her day, from the clown Johan Buziau to actor Johan Kaart. The Second World War forced Davids and Pinkhof to go into hiding in 1942. The couple wound up surviving the war, but Davids' sister Rika and brother Hartog died in a concentration camp. Louis had already died in 1939.

Davids' first post-war appearance was in June of 1945 in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Much to her chagrin, she never managed to be seen independently of her brother Louis, though she did continue to sing his songs.

In 1948, she received the Louis-Davids Ring from the city of Rotterdam. She gave this ring to Wim Kan in 1954, when she and her husband Pinkhof retired from the theatre world. Her final film role was in 1949, in the comedy Een koninkrijk voor een huis.

When Pinkhof died in 1956, Davids decided to perform again. This decision resulted in a long series of farewell tours, which lasted until the mid-1960s.