Early Life (1907—1923)

Adrienne Doré was born Elizabeth Himmelsbach near the former Fort Sherman in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, on May 22, 1907, to Louis Joseph Himmelsbach and Edith Estelle Kell. Growing up, she was referred to solely as “Doll”, a cutesy childhood nickname that stuck through her middle teens. A lifelong disdain for the name ‘Elizabeth’ is evident even this early on, as she never used it for the rest of her life (for transparency, I’ll refer to her as ‘Doll’ until the name Adrienne is assumed).

Doll’s parents were both Wisconsin transplants. Her father, Louis, came from a prominent German family in Chippewa Falls; he played the mandolin and dabbled in theatrics. Doll’s mother Edith was born in New Richmond of a relatively obscure English Canadian background. 

The couple married in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1904 after an apparently sudden courtship; the shock that came to Louis’ friends and family was such that it made the local news. Edith’s brother, Norman, and his wife were the only witnesses.

Just before their first anniversary, the Himmelsbachs welcomed their first child. Doll’s older brother, William Kell, was born on October 30, 1905 in Coeur D’Alene.

On March 22, 1908, at the age of ten months, Doll was baptized with her older brother and cousin Edith Peters at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Coeur D’Alene. Doll’s aunt Lilly (Edith’s mother), resided in nearby Tacoma and sponsored her baptism. All three children and their parents appear in church baptism records.

By 1910, a three-year-old Doll and family had moved to Spirit Lake, a small town and lumber powerhouse a short distance away. In later interviews, she would claim three as the age she began performing on stage in musical revues.

Spirit Lake was platted in 1907, the year of Doll’s birth. The town was officially incorporated in 1908 when the Panhandle Lumber Company began operations, a sawmill and the town’s lifeblood where Louis was employed. Spirit Lake’s first buildings and streets were completed in 1910; the population was only nine hundred the same year. Most residents were pioneers, including the Himmelsbachs.

Given the family appears on the 1910 census for Spirit Lake, we can assume they were among the town’s initial settlers. According to the census, the family lived in a house located on Second Street. Louis’ occupation was given as the foreman of a lath mill.

The Himmelsbachs soon found themselves spending their summers in Spirit Lake and their winters in Spokane when the lake froze over. In Spokane, Doll studied at Hawthorne Elementary School.

Tragedy befell the family in 1915 when little William Kell, only nine years old, passed away from valvular heart disease further complicated by scarlet fever. The boy’s obituary, published in Wisconsin (home of his grandparents) noted he had been ill for over two years. William’s death certificate lists his burial location as Fairmount Cemetery in Spokane, a claim easily upheld by cemetery records.

Around the same time she lost her brother, Doll was enrolled in the Bouley College of Dancing, a local performing arts academy. There, she quickly rose through the ranks and proved herself to be a stellar pupil. Doll soon became known for her proficiency in Russian folk dance.

Within two years, her performances were regularly making the local news; she even found herself involved with junior philanthropy toward the end of the Great War. Her picture ran in the paper after she and a group of friends successfully organized a Red Cross fundraiser in the form of a musical variety show. The Spirit Lake Herald lauded the children’s event as a “financial success and lasting inspiration”.

“The youngest theatrical manager, stage director and premiere danseuse in the Inland Empire, certainly, and probably in the country, is little Doll Himmelsbach of Spirit Lake, Idaho, and Spokane. This embryonic Diaghileff has just turned 11 years, but she and her little friends have organized a troupe that has appeared on several occasions in northern Idaho towns recently with marked success.”

The Semi-Weekly Spokesman-Review, August 1917

By 1918, Doll and family had again relocated to Seattle, where they appear on the 1920 census; this move is also corroborated by newspaper reports and city directories. The Silver Blaze, a publication out of Rathdrum, Idaho, reported the family’s move in October 1918:

The Himmelsbachs’ Seattle home no longer stands, but was located on a stretch of Aurora Avenue in the north part of the city. The 1920 census notes Louis Himmelsbach was working as a ‘checker’ for Seattle’s Port Commission.

They didn’t stay here very long. By the following year, directories point to the family making yet another move, this time south to Yakima. Here, Doll attended Yakima High School. By her junior year, she was a member of the school’s Girls’ League, and held a role in a play performed by the group in 1923. Namely, a one-act called “Joint Owners in Spain”.

By April of the same year, we see something significant in Doll’s personal life; she begins using her stage name, Adrienne Doré, in local dance revues around Yakima. The first ever mention of this name comes from a newspaper article detailing a recital in neighboring Pasco, Washington:

“The woman’s club gave a recital of 12 numbers tonight at the Liberty Theater. Adrienne Dore of Yakima gave three dances. The other numbers were put together by home talent. The proceeds from the recital, which was directed by H.E. Bridge of Northwestern academy, will go to the library fund.”

The Semi-Weekly Spokesman-Review, April 1923

Doll presumably didn’t graduate from Yakima High, as she isn’t listed among the 1924 seniors; by that year, her family had left the state completely. Yakima High’s 1926 ‘Lolomi’ yearbook, which talks briefly of her Universal contract, simply lists her as a “former student” as opposed to a graduated alumnus. The last mention of the Himmelsbachs residing in Washington at all is from the obituary of Doll’s paternal grandmother, Catherine Himmelsbach, in June of 1923; she was listed under her birth name, Elizabeth, among surviving family in Yakima. Soon after this, the family relocated to Los Angeles.

From here on out, Doll Himmelsbach begins finalizing her transformation into Adrienne Doré. Continue reading here.