Violet Carlson; Star of Vaudeville, Musicals

Violet Carlson, vaudeville and musical comedy star who created the role of barmaid Gretchen in the original Broadway production of “The Student Prince in Heidelberg” in 1924, has died. She was 97.

Carlson died Wednesday at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, Miles Kreuger, president of the Los Angeles-based Institute of the American Musical, said Friday.

Earlier this year, Carlson was in the audience at the opening of a revival of the 1924 musical, whose title has been shortened over the years to “The Student Prince,” at San Gabriel Civic Auditorium.

“She was such a lively and delightful person right up to the end,” said Kreuger, who befriended the star and hopes to preserve anecdotes she told him about Broadway’s early years.

Regrettably, he said, no recordings of her singing exist.

Born in Oak Park, Ill., Carlson grew up in Omaha and began performing in vaudeville when she was 8. She eventually headlined the Orpheum, Pantages and Keith circuits.

Between 1922 and 1934, Carlson headlined the Palace four times and was the saucy soubrette in nine Broadway musicals or operettas: “Spice of 1922,” “Caroline,” “The Student Prince in Heidelberg,” “The Nightingale,” “Ruddigore,” “The Love Call,” “The Red Robe,” “Sweet Adeline” and “Caviar.”

She also toured in “My Maryland,” “Earl Carroll Vanities” and “Naughty Marietta” in the 1930s and, in the early 1960s, in “Harvey” with Joe E. Brown.

Carlson performed with a USO troupe in Africa and the Pacific islands during World War II.

Although she never made a motion picture, Carlson had a small career in television, appearing on such shows as “Bewitched,” “Batman,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Monkees.”

Her brief first marriage to Edmond C. De Courville in 1936 ended in an annulment that she sought, she told entertainment reporters, “because he hardly ever kissed me.”

Carlson was married in 1941 to businessman Henri Margo, who died in 1967. She is survived by her stepson, Tom H. Sand, and two nieces.