Florenz Tamara

Florenz Tamara gave Chicago as her birthplace on travel documents and census forms, but she was usually described as being from San Francisco,[1][2] or possibly Oakland, with the original name Florence Gustave.[3] She explained that she was a "delicate" child who was encouraged to study dance as exercise.[4]

Florence Gustave danced in southern California as a young woman, paired with Jack Holland.[5][6] Beginning about 1921,[7][8] the "fancy and eccentric"[9] dance act of Fowler & Tamara were known for their tango, foxtrot, and modern dance performances.[10][11][12] Individually she was also known as a toe dancer.[13] In 1924 the pair danced on stage to a radio broadcast, when the orchestra failed to appear for their performance at Aeolian Hall.[14] Her Broadway credits include performances in Zelda Sears' musical comedy Lollipop (1924)[15] and the revue George White's Scandals (1926-1927).[16] They toured in the United States and internationally[17] through the 1920s and 1930s.[18][19][20]

Newspapers carried descriptions of Tamara's costumes,[13] pets,[2][21][22] and shopping,[23] and her advice on posture and "perfect carriage".[24] A 1938 review found them past their prime, describing their program as an "inept exhibition."[25] After they retired from full-time performing, Fowler and Tamara opened a dance school in Providence, Rhode Island.[26][27]

In 1930, in London,[28] Florenz Tamara married her dance partner, Ernest Addison "Jack" Fowler.[29] She died in 1947; her husband died in 1957.[30] Her scrapbook and some of her costumes are in the collection of the Lake County Museum in California.[31]

• Florenz Tamara at the Internet Broadway Database
• Florenz Tamara at Playbill Vault
• Mary Evans, "Florenz Tamara" (1927 photograph), in the Mary Evans Picture Library
• A 1930 photograph of Fowler & Tamara in London, from Getty Images
• A 1932 British Pathé film of Fowler & Tamara, demonstrating a paso doble dance