Thought some readers (who might not have an "Elsie Houston" google alert like I do) would appreciate this:
A rather significant collection of photos, correspondence, and concert-related material. For the time being you can get a glimpse at what's there. I don't have the budget to be a "collector" so I won't be bidding against you...

Interesting EH-related items will occasionally show up on ebay, such as this invitation to an art auction at the Julien Levy Gallery. Listing first under the heading "entertainment" is "Elsie Houston: Brazilian Strip Tsi Tsi Dance." (I know nothing about this particular act). Listed second, her friend, Sam Barlow, doing "Pocket Book Whittling." My guess would be 1938, when she was still breaking in to the NY social scene. [UPDATE: 1937]

An interesting article in the current issue [the link might need updating soon] of Caribbean Beat on Calypso performer, Beryl McBurnie (stage name La Belle Rosette). McBurnie, who was a star in 1940s New York, was a strong influence on Katherine Dunham. She debuted during one of Elsie Houston's Coffee Concerts at the Museum of Modern Art; according to the New York Amsterdam News, at least, McBurnie stole the show. Here's the review as posted in the article:

So far, it had been a nice evening of South American Music at the Museum of Modern Art. The audience was remotely polite, applauding the mediocre efforts of the artists at the proper time. But it was an uninspired audience, overburdened by dull music interpreted lugubriously. There hadn’t been a single lift—that is until the curtain parted to reveal Belle Rosette—a slender bronze girl in a flowing and colorful costume—an infectious grin lighting her face.

“She poised there on her toes for a split second and then, at the first beat of the drums from the trio of Haitians huddled in the shadow of the stage, Belle Rosette executed the first sinuous and sensuous movements of the [Shango], a dance she brought from her native Trinidad.

“Excitement ran high. No longer was the audience nice and polite and remote. It completely lost its face and became rowdy in paying obeisance to this girl from Trinidad who completely stole the show from the star. When it quieted down after a third encore, Belle Rosette sang a Calypso song about the Germans surrendering to the British.

She was no longer a dancer—but a minx kidding the life out of the Axis dictators.”

I just updated the Elsie Houston discography to include one new release and one old one that I hadn't known about. Unfortunately, the link to the discography on Ends Her Life has gone bad (I need to go back in and fix it, but at the risk of having Dreamweaver screw up all the other links again...)
Here's the link to the discography, which includes the recent Cherry Red Villa-Lobos reissue (EH has a very small role, in the Quatour), and a French release that includes EH singing three of the Serestas.

I had previously gotten the sense that EH resented the presence in the US of Brazilian folksinger/guitarist, Olga Coelho, but an article last year in Digestivo Cultural on Coelho provides some details (that don't speak terribly well of EH).
Here's the relevant paragraph:

Consagrada, de volta ao Brasil, Olga arranja mais viagens. Por indicação de Villa-Lobos e do escritor Erico Verissimo, é convidada pelo governo americano para se apresentar em Washington e Nova York. Em 1938, canta na Casa Branca para Eleanor Roosevelt e assina contrato com a RCA Victor. Ela e Gaspar se instalam num apartamento na Sétima Avenida, defronte ao Central Park. Seu concerto no Town Hall é um sucesso. A crítica solta rojões. Camargo Guarnieri a convoca para lançar árias suas, para inveja de Elsie Houston (1902-1943), soprano amiga de Mario de Andrade que, até a chegada de Olga, tinha monopólio do folclore verde-amarelo em Nova York. “Elsie falava mal de mim e brigava com todos. Era problemática. Casou-se com um barão belga, que a roubava. Terminou por se atirar do seu quarto de hotel em Manhattan, deixando o filho de 11 anos à janela e Camargo Guarnieri à espera dela na estação, pois iam fazer um recital em Washington.”

As you know, I don't know Portuguese [and would love a real translation], but here's what I get (note, it is from Coelho's point of view):
Elsie Houston was envious that Camargo Guarnieri was writing a piece for Coelho and that Coelho was disrupting her monopoly on Brazilian folk song in New York. So she spoke badly about Coelho to everyone. Another detail: Guarnieri, unaware of Houston's suicide the night before, was left waiting at the train station for her (they were scheduled to perform in Washington).

A compilation of old French 78s has shown up on various mp3 music sites. Elsie Houston is listed as singing "Tu m'as donné Paris." If you listen to the sample, though, you hear a voice very different than the Elsie Houston we know (lower register, belty). I suspect the compiler mixed up the credits. "Amour…Amour..," credited to "Yolanda" is much more EH-like. Any opinions?

I've updated the Ends Her Life page with new annotations (most just cleaning up mistakes). Unfortunately, this seems to have resulted in a Google demotion. Oh well, back to obscurity...