Santa Fe Living Treasures – Elder Stories

Flo Ziegfeld saw Jacques perform a Javanese dance and asked him to join the Ziegfeld Follies, where he starred with Fanny Bryce, W. C. Fields, and Eddie Cantor. Wanting to learn more about dance, Jacques went to see Ruth St. Denis. St. Denis had seen him in the Follies and said, "You don't need a teacher, you need to hire a small hall and work. Put your ideas into dance form.' That's exactly what I did, and that is how I became a dancer," he said.

Movie roles and international acclaim followed. The New York Times lauded Jacques as "America's Greatest One-Man Theater" for his portrayals of such figures as the Apache Chief Cochise and the Russian dancer Nijinsky.