Gaby Deslys

Gaby Deslys (born Marie-Elise-Gabrielle Caire, 4 November 1881 – 11 February 1920) was a French singer and actress during the early 20th century. She selected her name for her stage career, and it is a contraction of Gabrielle of the Lillies. During the 1910s she was exceedingly popular worldwide, making $4,000 a week in the United States alone ($125,629 in 2022 dollars [1]). She performed several times on Broadway, at the Winter Garden Theater, and performed in a show with a young Al Jolson. Her dancing was so popular that The Gaby Glide was named for her.[2][3]

Gaby Deslys
Publicity photo of Deslys, c. 1910s
Born
Marie-Elise-Gabrielle Caire

(1881-11-04)4 November 1881
Marseilles, French Third Republic
Died11 February 1920(1920-02-11) (aged 38)
Paris, French Third Republic
Occupation(s)Actress, singer, dancer
Years activec. 1901–1919

Renowned for her beauty, she was courted by several wealthy gentlemen including King Manuel II of Portugal. She eventually made the leap to silent films, making her only U.S. film Her Triumph with Famous Players–Lasky in 1915. She would make a handful of films in France before her death. In 1919 she contracted Spanish influenza and underwent several operations trying to cure a throat infection caused by the disease. She died from complications of the infection in Paris in 1920, at the age of 38.[4]

Early life

Deslys had many admirers among royalty, most notably King Manuel II of Portugal, and her origins became the subject of dispute. A private detective claimed her true name was Hadiwga Nawrati or Hedvika Navrátilová and that she was a Czech peasant girl, born in the village of Horní Moštěnice, then part of Austria-Hungary. The investigator reported that Deslys had denied her alleged mother's claim to kinship when he brought her to see the dancer, paying her a large amount of money to leave. Deslys replied that the story was ridiculous and that she was French, not Czech.[5]

After Deslys' death, at least two dozen persons with the surnames Navratil/Navratilová attempted to claim her fortune. In January 1930, the French foreign minister said he had settled the dispute about Deslys' birthplace and origins. According to him, Deslys had been born in Marseilles on 4 November 1881 (despite some sources claiming her birth year was 1884), daughter of Hippolyte Caire and his wife, Mathilde (née Terras).[5] This study found that the claim of the Navrátil family was incorrect and was based on their daughter's being a look-alike of Gabrielle Caire, who later adopted the stage name Gaby Deslys.[5]

Career

Dancer

Deslys rose in popularity in dance halls around Paris and London. She was a practitioner of several types of dance such as the Ju-Jitsu waltz,[6] Ballroom, Grizzly Bear, Turkey Trot and her most famous The Gaby Glide.[2] Her appearance at the Liverpool Olympia was also well received. She had been to the United States where she had earned $4,000 per week. She was dedicated to the art of dancing. At least a part of her popularity was a result of her desire to please the audiences who came to watch her perform.

Still photo of Deslys

While she was dancing at the Hyperion Theater at Yale University, in November 1911, students rushed the stage. The Yale News had complained about ticket prices for the production being raised to $2. The performance followed the Yale - Princeton University football game played earlier the same day. The inflated price of admission is thought to have triggered the students to pull the seats to pieces and proceed with the outbreak. Deslys retreated to her room while stage hands used fire extinguishers to subdue the students. The same month Deslys performed at the Winter Garden Theater in a production of Vera Violetta.[7] In 1913 Deslys appeared with Al Jolson (in blackface) in the musical comedy The Honeymoon Express.

On a number of occasions she appeared at the Grand Casino in Marseilles. Her final performance there was in 1919. Her passion for Marseilles was matched by her animosity toward her critics among French editors. One of her most prominent detractors was Ernest Charles. She sued him for 50,000 francs in August 1912. She at first considered hiring a groom to horsewhip Charles before her lawyer advised against it.

During the early decades of the last century, her likeness adorned many cigarette trading cards issued in the United States and United Kingdom that were dedicated to series on ‘beauties’ or famous actresses and dancers.

Singer

In 1910 Deslys recorded two songs in Paris, "Tout en Rose" and "Philomene". Both were released on phonograph by HMV and are still available. Another song, "La Parisienne" was recorded at the same time but rejected for an unknown reason, and thus never released.[8]

Films

She began her movie career in 1914 with Rosy Rapture, a short film based on the play of the same name in which she had appeared in England. This film according to IMDb had a scene with George Bernard Shaw in it. Her American feature film debut came in 1915 with Her Triumph costarring her dancer boyfriend Harry Pilcer. The film was presented by Daniel Frohman and produced by Famous Players–Lasky. Her Triumph featured Deslys doing one of her famous dances with Pilcer. The film is lost but surviving stills show a scene with Deslys and Pilcer in Daniel Blum's Pictorial History of the Silent Film, as well as the intro card with Deslys' picture in the credits. She made only two more French silent films in 1918 and 1919, both with Harry Pilcer in the cast, before getting the illness that would take her life.

Personal life
Still of Deslys circa 1915
House of Gaby Deslys at 299 Kennedy Avenue in Marseilles

Deslys' celebrity rose following newspaper stories which gossiped about King Manuel II of Portugal's infatuation with her. During the king's visit to Paris in December 1909, he was introduced to Deslys and immediately began a relationship with her.[9]

It was thought that after this first meeting the King sent Deslys a pearl necklace worth $70,000. Their relationship was anything but discreet (she would arrive before night at the Palácio das Necessidades and would pass through Portugal unnoticed); abroad, meanwhile, they were on the front pages of newspapers in Europe and North America, especially after he was deposed in 1910.

In public interviews, usually on trips, Deslys never negated the obvious, but always refused to comment on her relationship with the deposed king. After his exile, they would continue to meet, especially while she had stage engagements in London.

When Deslys moved to New York, in the summer of 1911, their relationship cooled off; Deslys became involved with a fellow stage actor Harry Pilcer, and Manuel married in 1913. Despite this, she maintained her contacts with Manuel's personal secretary, the Marquês of Lavradio.

Deslys and Pilcer became a successful dance act duo during the First World War on a par with the Castles, but it is unclear if they ever legally married.

Death and legacy
Grave of Gabrielle Caire alias Gaby Deslys in Marseilles

Deslys contracted a severe throat infection caused by the Spanish flu pandemic in December 1919. She was operated on multiple times in an effort to eradicate the infection, on two occasions without the use of an anesthetic. Surgeons were inhibited by Deslys' demand that they must not scar her neck.[10]

She died in Paris in February 1920.[11] In her will, Deslys left her villa on the Marseilles Corniche Road, and all of her property in Marseilles, to the poor of Marseilles. The property was valued at $500,000.

According to the Pittsburgh Press on July 18, 1920: "In an adjoining room was the exquisite bed that belonged to the celebrated Dutchess de Fontanges--one of several beds of equal historical value which Gaby used in rotation. In cabinets about her were Limoges enamels that had been the joy of great King Francis I. On the walls were paintings by Botticelli and other early Italian masters. On the book shelves were priceless volumes printed by Elzevir and Aldus Manutius."

Her carved and gilded bed, July 1922 was inspired by the boat in the "Grotto of Venus" scene from the opera "Tannhauser". On its bow, there are two boiseries, 13 August 2022 with images from Boucher's "Cupid's Target". The bed was bought at auction in Marseilles by Metro Pictures. It was used in the 1922 film Trifling Women, starring Barbara La Marr. Later, it came into the possession of the Universal Studios prop department, and it was used in the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera.[12] In 1934, it was used as Lily Garland's bed in Twentieth Century and in 1950, it was in Sunset Boulevard as the bed of Norma Desmond. In 1964, it appeared in a dream sequence in the film "Good Neighbor Sam".

In 1943, her life story was bought by MGM as a potential film property for Judy Garland to be produced by Arthur Freed, but it was shelved after a few script treatments.[13]

She was portrayed humorously by the ballerina Tamara Toumanova in the Sigmund Romberg biopic Deep in My Heart (1954), directed by Stanley Donen.

In 1986 James Gardiner wrote a biography of Deslys' life, titled Gaby Deslys: A Fatal Attraction.[14]

Filmography
Poster for Deslys' only US film, Her Triumph 1915

(all are believed to be lost films)

  • La remplaçante (short film, 1914)
  • Her Triumph (1915, only American film)
  • Rosy Rapture (1915)
  • Infatuation (*aka Bouclette) (1918)
  • Le Dieu du hasard (1921)

Theatre
  • The Revue of Revues (27 September 1911 - 11 November 1911)
  • Vera Violetta (20 November 1911 - 24 February 1912)
  • The Honeymoon Express (6 February 1913 - 14 June 1913)
  • The Belle of Bond Street (30 March 1914 - 9 May 1914)
    Gaby Deslys portrait, 191?
  • Stop! Look! Listen! (25 December 1915 - 25 March 1916)

Discography
  • Philomene (1910, HMV)
  • Tout en Rose (1910, HMV)
  • La Parisienne (Unreleased, 1910)

References
  1. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  2. The Gaby Glide, streetswing.com; accessed 6 May 2014.]
  3. Gaby Deslys at the Internet Broadway Database
  4. "Gaby Deslys Dies After Operation". New York Times. 12 February 1920. p. 11.
  5. Marie Elise Gabrille Caire profile at, Valentine Theatre website, accessed 15 April 2012.
  6. National Portrait Gallery profile of Deslys, npg.org.uk; accessed 6 May 2014.
  7. "Acting Of The Irish Players". New York Times. 26 November 1911. p. X2. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  8. "The Only Known Recordings of French Star GABY DESLYS". Nitrateville.com. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  9. Breyner, Thomaz de Mello, Diário de um Monárquico 1908-1910, Lisboa, Edição do Autor (May 1993); Nobre, Eduardo, "Paixões Reais", Lisboa, Quimera Editores Lda. (2002).
  10. Chicago Tribune (12 December 1919). "GABY DESLYS UNDER KNIFE.; Condition Is Critical and Another Operation May Be Necessary". New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  11. Gaby Deslys (1881-1920) Stage Beauty
  12. Hall, Mourdant, MOVIE REVIEW/THE SCREEN, New York Times, 7 September 1925.
  13. Hugh Fordin, MGM’s Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit, Da Capo Press, NY, 1996, p. 555.
  14. Gardiner, James (1986). Gaby Deslys : a fatal attraction. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 0283993987. OCLC 14955928.

Further reading
  • Gardiner, James; Gaby Deslys: A Fatal Attraction (Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd, 1986); ISBN 0-283-99398-7
  • Smith, Angela K. and Krista Cowman, editors; Landscapes and Voices of the Great War (Routledge, 2017); ISBN 1138701300; ISBN 978-1138701304
  • Slide, Anthony; The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville (Greenwood Press, 1994; University Press of Mississippi, 2012); ISBN 0313280274; ASIN: B00E7V0VXE
  • "Yale Students Refuse To Let Gaby Deslys Proceed". Los Angeles Times. 19 November 1911. p. IV12.
  • "Gaby Deslys Brings Suit". Los Angeles Times. 4 August 1912. p. II9.
  • "Gaby Deslys Kin Appear". New York Times. 25 April 1925. p. 2.
  • "Seeks Gaby Deslys Estate". New York Times. 3 January 1927. p. 9.
  • "France Solves Mystery of Glamorous Gaby Deslys". Olean Evening Times. 31 January 1930. p. 10.
  • "Europe's $50,000,000 Playboy Finally Learned Gaby Deslys' Lesson About Women, Difficult As It Was". Syracuse Herald. 31 July 1932. p. 35.
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