Biography[edit]

Early life and career[edit]

Josie Sadler was born as Josephine Rauscher in New York City in 1871.[1][2] Her father was
German, and her mother was French.[1] Sadler was discovered at age 9 by Tony Pastor, and
after Pastor received parental acquiescence, she appeared in Pastor's production Nursery
Rhymes.[1] This engagement lasted for about 4 months.[1] She was educated in the United States,
and later in Germany, ending her education at age 15.[1] She then joined the Broadway
production of Erminie.[1] She then worked as a chorus girl in traveling productions of La
Marquise and Madelon.[1] Her superior work came to the attention of manager John Russel and
she was rewarded with a bit part in Natural Gas.[1] Her next appearance was in the February
through June 1890 production of The City Directory at the Bijou Theatre in New York, in the role
of an elevator operator named "John Smith".[1][3] Sadler then appeared in 2 more John Russel
productions, Easy Street and Miss McGinty, before engaging with Henry Dixey for revivals of the
shows Patience and The Mascot.[1]

Featured performer[edit]
Her German education helped make her one of the prominent "German dialect" comediennes of
her day. This combined with her girth made her one of the best known stage comediennes of any
type.[4][5][1]
In August 1897[6] she appeared in the William Harris production Good Mr. Best where she played
the role of "Gretchen Slowe" which proved to be one of her favorite characters.[1] Her next role
(March 1898) was not "Dutch", but as a cockney named Jemima in Monte Carlo at the Herald
Square Theatre.[1][7]
In February 1899 she was back at the Bijou for Brown's in Town as "Frida Von Hollenbeck", but
this production was a failure.[8] She then went to the Webber & Fields' Theater for the part of the
sister in Catharine, to great success.[1] Most of the cast, including Sadler, then moved to the
production of Hurly Burly.[1] She is credited as originating the "Dutch Girl" role (the "nave
immigrant") on stage, in her performance in the 1899 play Prince Pro Tem.[1][4] Here she not only
starred alongside Fred Lennox in the role of "Wild Rosie of Yucatan," but wrote and performed
the hit song of the play, "Oh, If I Could Only get a Decent Sleep."[1][9] It was at this time period
when Sadler and Lennox married, and Sadler took a bit of time away from performing in order to
travel with her new husband while he starred in Princess Bonnie.[1]
September 1899 saw her as "Tryphena Shoolz" in the production A Million Dollars.[10] Following
this, she appeared in the Reginald De Koven play Broadway to Tokio (January 1900)[11] where
she again sang "Oh, If I Could Only get a Decent Sleep".[1][9] Next was a role in the play The
Supper Club at the New York Roof Garden.[1] She was again at the New York Theater for The
Hall of Fame.[1] She starred in The Silver Slipper in 1902.[4] The biggest success of her stage
career came in 1903, in the vehicle Peggy from Paris.[4] In this play she performed as Peggy's
"Dutch Maid" and had a featured song in which she described her son, a bassoon player.[12] In
1908 she headlined with Charles A. Bigelow in the play A Waltz Dream where she played the
role of "Fifi", a bass drummer.[1] It was this year that her phonograph records began to
appear.[1] The same year she appeared as "Miss Tiny Daly" in the play The Mimic World which
ran for 100 performances at the Moorish Casino Theatre and the Grand Opera House.[13] Her
next theatrical appointment was in Lew Fields' The Jolly Bachelors, then was at the Globe
Theatre for The Bachelor Belles which ran for 32 performances through November and
December of 1910.[14] She was next alongside Eddie Foy and Lillian Lorraine in Over the
River.[15] It was announced she was appearing in a play entitled Will O Th Wisp for the Summer
1911 season at Chicago's Studebaker Theater.[16] In late 1912 she was among the featured
performers of the 1912 Ziegfeld Follies.[17]

Film and later career[edit]

Sadler joined Vitagraph March 1913.[18] Her first appearance on film was shown May, 1913, in
support of Norma Talmadge's Omens and Oracles.[4] In 1914 she made a series of five comedy
films for Vitagraph which co-starred Billy Quirk. These were entitled "Josie Comedies".[19] The
films were not very successful, and the "Josie" series did not continue.[19] After two years at
Vitagraph, Sadler moved to the World Film Corporation[18] and appeared in the feature film What
Happened to Jones? in 1915.[4] She continued to work on the stage, appearing as "Alma" in the
1916 production The Blue Envelope.[20] At this point she went on the vaudeville circuit with her
sketch "Moving Pictures" based on her movie-acting experience.[15]

Businesswoman and death[edit]

Sadler retired from show business in 1918 in order to run her husband's (at this point no longer
Mr. Lennox, but a Mr. Geddes) electrical research business, subsequent to his death.[15] She was
now known as Josephine S. Geddes.[15] Although she was uneducated in business or in
electrical science, she did the bookkeeping and ran the daily operations with the assistance of
her son, William Geddes.[15] The career transition was reported to be successful, she credited her
show-business background with giving her the ability to judge people's characters quickly, and
with instilling her with resourcefulness and perseverance.[15] She also gave credit to her
husband's business friends and her employees who readily assisted her.[15] Sadler credited
herself with using her sense of humor to improve the mood of the workplace.[15] She died in
1927.[4]