Ode to Jasperina de Jong | A strong Amsterdam woman who has had a great impact on Amsterdam and for women on stage

Dear Pien,

Although you now live in the Achterhoek and I haven't seen you for years, I think you deserve an ode as a strong Amsterdam who had a lot of impact on Amsterdam and for women on the stage. There must be a picture somewhere where you are driving me around in a baby carriage. Back then, maybe your thoughts were on a career as a dancer or singer. You made it to the top by continuing to fight and develop. You tackled everything after Van Kol School, became a typist, a dental assistant, went to work at the Bijenkorf, but also took ballet and singing lessons.

That brought you to Cabaret Lurelei in 1960 with Ben Rowold and Eric Herfst, who later became your husband. There you achieved your first successes, while during the day you still worked in customer service at the Bijenkorf department store. Guus Vleugel's lyrics suited you perfectly, because they were daring, progressive and leftist. In those early days you still lived behind the bathhouse on Javaplein. But that changed when it was clear that sparks jumped back and forth between you and Eric. You were soon married in 1961. Eric's father had been a city councilor for the PvdA in Amsterdam. Your father, Uncle Willem, was a plasterer and neatly tiled the toilet cum shower at our house. It was a red marriage.

Your mother, Aunt Marie, and my mother were bosom friends. When your mother came to our house, there was always laughter. For example, when she told us about the parakeet playing soccer with a table tennis ball. You really got that special funny voice from her. You were particularly generous, because my parents always got tickets from you to go to those many premieres together with your parents. That list of performances became very long. Because besides being a cabaret performer, where you sang and danced, you've been in movies (you won a Golden Calf), you've done television shows (you did the first One Woman Show), you've directed, you've been an executive producer, you name it.

My mother bought your records, kept scrapbooks, piles of them. When I leafed through them I saw the impact you had on Amsterdam. You did, among other things, The Angel of Amsterdam and Fien de la Mar, it couldn't be more Amsterdam-like. You were in more than seventy productions. My mother could no longer keep track of it all in her scrapbooks. I ended up taking them all to the Theater Museum when it was still on Herengracht. 

You now live quietly in the Achterhoek with a sweet dog. Your son couldn't resist the attraction of the theater either, just him behind the scenes. You deserve an ode before and on stage.

Henk Penseel