Gertrude Hoffmann collection

American vaudeville dancer and choreographer Gertrude Hoffmann (sometimes spelled Hoffman) was born Catherine Gertrude Hayes on May 7, 1885 in San Francisco, California, to parents John and Catherine Hayes. At her mother's urging, Gertrude – whose early stage name was "Kitty" – took dancing lessons as a young girl and soon began auditioning for roles in the local theaters. She made her vaudeville debut in 1899 at Frederic Belasco's Alcazar Theatre. Gertrude met composer and arranger Max Hoffmann while touring as a dancer, and two married in 1901. Hoffmann gave birth to a son, Max Jr., in 1902.

Hoffmann started out as a dancer and impressionist on the vaudeville stage; in her early years she performed imitations of other, more famous performers, including Eva Tanguay and Anna Held. Hoffmann worked with the latter in Flo Ziegfeld's A Parisian Model in 1906, shocking many by dressing in drag and dancing with Held. Programs from Hoffmann's appearances on Brooklyn stages during this period can be found in our Brooklyn Playbills and Programs Collection (BCMS.0041). She made her first major impression on audiences in 1908, with her rendition of the then-popular "Dance of the Seven Veils," adapted from the biblical story of Salome. Hoffmann was repeatedly arrested when touring the United States with the dance, although some historians suggest that the arrests were arranged by vaudeville impresario Oscar Hammerstein to drum up publicity. Despite the scandals, this period marked Hoffmann's change of focus from dancing as entertainment to dancing as a high art. Hoffmann also gained fame when she partnered with theatrical producer Morris Guest to introduce American audiences to the much-lauded Russian ballet company, the Ballets Russes, in 1911 by hiring European dancers to perform pieces from the company, albeit without choreographer Michel Fokine's permission.

Hoffmann continued to perform through the 1910s, although by the mid-1920s she had largely given up her role as a dancer to concentrate instead on directing and choreographing her own group. She formed the Gertrude Hoffmann Girls dance troupe during this time – a chorus line of 18 to 25 dancing girls whose stage act also included fencing and aerial acrobatics. This group performed on New York stages as well as at Paris's famed Moulin Rouge nightclub through the mid-1930s.

Hoffmann largely disappeared from the stage after the 1930s. She died of a heart attack on October 21, 1966, in Hollywood, California, following the death of her husband and collaborator, Max Hoffmann, in 1963.