Lion Solser

Lion Solser turned 38 years old. He began very early in the career that had been prescribed for him, if only out of respect for his ancestors. At the age of about 19 - - I could say it exactly if I went to ask his long-term friend and associate Hesse, who lives in the same house as me, but I dare not disturb him on this funeral day, because he is miserable, devastated -he set foot on the variety stage as a chansonnier, humorist, character comedian.

But only for a short time did he act alone. He was very fortunate to meet Piet Hesse, a few years older than him, who was also an excellent and cultured couple singer, and from that moment on their fortunes-if one can speak of that in our country with its narrow borders-was made. For Lion Solser could be an excellent humorist - he knew absolutely nothing about saving money, managing money, and in this precisely Piet Hesse was a matador, a genius - a born businessman.

Hesse soon realized that his couplets were going in. Solser made many of them himself. And so they started to print and sell those things to amateurs, who wanted to recite them in a "closed circle", but also to professional comedians. But Piet Hesse conceived bigger plans. After some years of singing together at all the fairs in the country, and here in the capital with Frits van Haarlem or in "Flora" (I believe also with Mulder in the Kalverstraat, now long gone), the two partners formed a small troupe that would perform specific Amsterdam happy games, true genre pieces. But before that, Solser would first win laurels with his one-act play "Half an hour at the office of the Moderne Tooneel", in which, following Henri de Vries, he was the first Dutchman to "introduce" the genre here. alone performed six different roles in a truly exquisite manner. With this, Solser and Hesse - and with the greatest success - traveled all over our country about 1910.

Lately the already hot-blooded Solser has been very "troublesome." His friends had to keep a close eye on him after he once, for some futile reason, suddenly, in the middle of his part, began to lash out at the audience, something a man like Solser would never have done under normal circumstances. That was during a performance by Schellevis Mie, now about six months ago. Then things quickly, anxiously, quickly diminished with him. He started to rant for no reason, became quarrelsome, which also did not fit with his nature, took a month off to 'rest completely', seemed completely healed, suddenly collapsed again, until his inexorable nervous illness struck him down with one last blow.