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Biography
Trix Sisters
Helen and Josephine Trix (nee Yeiser) were born and 1898, respectively, in Newmanstown, PA. They had another sister Alma (b 1890), also born in Newmanstown. All three sisters were performers during and through the Vaudeville era and were considered Vaudeville performers.
Helen Trix (Helen Yeiser):
Helen was in her teens when she first started performing and entertaining, she had formal piano training (in Europe, returning with a British accent) and was a contralto comedienne. Helen was also a proficient songwriter. In her late teens Helen traveled to New York City to visit family and while there performed at a Masonic stage event attended by Edison and Victor talent scouts. She started recording professionally soon after and her recordings lead to a burgeoning Vaudeville career, then by 1907 was a headliner in the Vaudevillian scene and had her debut hit The Bird on Nellie's Hat.
Helen toured with Will Rogers in 1913, the Orpheum Circuit, through Canada (especially Calgary and Edmonton) and the Northwest US (Seattle, Spokane, Portland, Claremore, etc.). It was during this time on the Orpheum Circuit that one of the members of the tour, a teen named George Jessel who performed with Kid Kabaret. , later recalled in a book on his life, "she (Helen Trix) was the first gentlewoman I had ever known, and I have to admit it was she who started me on my lifetime habit of reading and educating myself because of my lack of formal education." Jessel was smitten with Helen but at the time she was dating former lightweight (fighter/boxer) champion of the world, Jimmy Britt. Helen had been married to lyricist Frank Fogerty for a time but the marriage ended in divorce.
and in 1915 with Rogers and Harry Houdini in Louisville, KY, at Keith's Theater. Rogers called Trix a "pianosongwhistleress". Helen also performed with Eddie Cantor and Joan Sawyer at the Temple Theatre.
By 1921 she was the composer, producer and a featured performer (with her younger sister Josephine) for/in the London musical "A to Z". She and her sister performed and recorded as the Trix Sisters until 1926/27 when Josephine married actor/performer Eddie Fields. Josephine and Eddie had a flat in the Charing Cross Road.
Helen died in Manhattan, New York in 1951 shortly after writing The Bridal Waltz with Joseph A. Cirina.
Josephine Trix (Josephine Yeiser):
Josephine was born and educated in Newmanstown, PA, graduated 1916 as class valedictorian from Newmanstown High School and went on to became a Vaudeville performer as her sister, Helen, did. In the early 1920's Josephine teamed with Helen to form The Trix Sisters.
In 1926 Josephine married actor Eddie Fields (Edward Greenfield) and not too long after the Trix Sisters broke up the act, in 1927 she starred in a musical production in London called Blue Skies.
The Trix Sisters (Helen and Josephine Yeiser) were a Vaudevillian performing team. They danced, sang, whistled, played piano, banjo and Ukulele and were considered the darlings of London. They had many hit singles throughout the twenties and thirties and were very popular in England, France (they owned a nightclub/casino in Paris) and Germany. When Josephine married actor Eddie Fields the Trix Sisters broke up but they remained in London until 1944.
Helen moved to New York City (Manhattan) where she remained until her death in 1951 and Josephine moved to New York City where she lived with her husband until his death in 1962, she stayed in New York until 1973 then down to New Orleans to be near her son, Edward A. Greenfield, until her death in 1992.
Helen, Alma, Josephine and Edward Greenfield (husband) are all buried at Elias Cemetery in Newmanstown, PA.
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