Gilda Gray

Gilda Gray (October 24, 1901 – December 22, 1959) was born Marianna Winchalaska in Kraków, Poland. Her birth parents were killed in a revolution and she was adopted from an orphanage. She escaped from Poland with her foster parents just before Krakow was taken over by Russia prior to World War I. They settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gilda began her career singing and dancing at local pubs.

She became famous in the US for popularizing a dance called the "shimmy" which became fashionable in 1920s films and theater productions. Although the shimmy is said to have been introduced to American audiences by Gray in New York in 1919, other sources say that her shimmy was born one night when she was singing the Star Spangled Banner and forgot some of the lyrics. She covered up her embarrassment by shaking her shoulders and hips. Although the shimmy was already a well-known dance move, Marianna appropriated it as her own when she was asked about her dancing style, she replied in a heavy Polish accent; "I'm shaking my chemise," which sounded to the English-speaking audience like shimmy. This account stands somewhere between truth and urban myth.

Her desire to continue her foot light career prompted Gray to move to Chicago where she was noticed by talent agent Frank Westphal who introduced her to his wife, singer Sophie Tucker. It was Tucker who prompted her to change her name to Gilda Gray. After being seen by Florenz Ziegfeld, she appeared in the 1922 Ziegfeld Follies where she was enormously popular with the public.

In 1923 she took her successful act and persona to Hollywood and between 1919 and 1936 she made several movies, shimmying on the screen in each one. Her first appearance was uncredited, but her second role was a small part in Girl with the Jazz Heart. Gilda then made Aloma of the South Seas, which grossed $3,000,000 in its first three months. The success of this film was enhanced by Gilda's personal appearances doing the shimmy as a promotion. In 1927, she made two more films, Cabaret and The Devil Dancer (co-starring Anna May Wong, with whom she would appear in 1929's recently restored and released Piccadilly).

When the stock market crashed in 1929, Gilda Gray lost most of her financial assets, but she managed to get a job dancing at the Palace Theater in New York for $3,500 a week - not bad in those depression years.

In 1936 she was signed to play herself in the movie, The Great Ziegfeld, but unfortunately her scenes were cut from the picture. She left Hollywood and continued her stage act well into the fifties, but was basically penniless at the time of her death from a heart attack at age 58.

Picture Play Magazine, January 1926 - A beautiful illustration by Hal Phyfe and the image that has been adorning this blog's banner for the past couple of months.

This illustration accompanied the text below. It appeared in the January, 1926 Picture Play

The Shimmy in Celluloid.
Don Ryan (Who i believe became a screenwriter)

It is a keen disappointment to Hollywood that "Aloma of the South Seas" is being filmed in the East. For Hollywood remembers the merry times we had when Gilda Gray was among us on her stage tour.

It was during that time that I held my one and only salon, which was a howling success. The crowning glory of the evening-as the society reporter might have said-was the $769.74 worth of shimmy generously donated by Gilda.

Miss Gray was getting $15.000 a week for her shimmy. That is what her percentage in Los Angeles amounted to. For this amount she was doing three fifteen-minute shows, in which her actual shimmying time was two minutes each. At this rate she received $178.51 a minute. For us she performed exactly 4.2 minutes. I held the watch myself.

Which figures down to $769.74 worth of shimmy that we received free, gratis, without let, hindrance, or encumbrance-$769.74 worth of glittering motion, which Cecil De Mille would have given his right eye to have incorporated in an ancient Egyptian sequence.

The later years.

Gilda Gray - What do you think - Allure?

Belle Bennett

Belle Bennett (April 22, 1891 - November 4, 1932) was born in Milaca, Minnesota and is not related in any way to the other Bennett’s, Joan and Constance. Her father owned a circus and it was there Belle got her start. He trained her to be a trapeze performer. She eventually made her way to Broadway and appeared in theatrical productions staged by impresario David Belasco.

She went west and began appearing in minor Hollywood films like A Ticket to Red Horse Gulch (1914). Her break came when Samuel Goldwyn selected her from among seventy-three actresses for the leading role in Stella Dallas (1925). The film has been ranked as one of the finest movies of all time. Interesting note: While filming the movie her son, sixteen-year-old William Howard Macy, died. William had posed as Bennett's brother for some time because of her fear that her employers might find out her true age. She was actually thirty-four rather than twenty-four, which she had claimed to be.

After playing the mother role in Stella Dallas, Bennett was typecast for the remainder of her film career. She appeared in Mother Machree (1928), The Battle of the Sexes (1928), The Iron Mask (1929), Courage (1930), Recaptured Love (1930) and The Big Shot (1931).

She survived the transition to sound but sadly, Belle developed cancer and died in 1932, ending what may have been an important “talkie” career. Belle Bennett appeared in 87 films and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This picture of Belle is from the 1930 edition of Stars of the Photoplay, a hardcover book published by Photoplay magazine. The text accompanying the picture was:

In 1925 a new screen mother found fame among the fans-a young and modern mother in the person of Belle Bennett. “Stella Dallas" Was the picture that brought her nation-wide acclaim. Miss Bennett had waited long for success. Born in 1891, in Coon Rapids, Iowa, she trouped for years in stock and appeared in pictures in their early days. She was divorced from William Macy, her first husband. They had one son who passed away when he was sixteen. She married Director Fred Windemere in 1924.

Belle Bennett - What do you think - Allure?

Ann Pennington

Born Anna Pennington (December 23, 1893–November 4, 1971) Ann was nicknamed both "Penny" and "Tiny". She was a 4"10" actress, dancer, and singer who starred on Broadway in the 1910's and 1920's, notably in the Ziegfeld Follies, where she debuted in 1913. She became famous as what was, at the time, called a “Shake and Quiver Dancer,” and was noted for her variation of the “Black Bottom”. She was also noted as an accomplished tap dancer; her shoe size was 1 1/2!

During her years in the Ziegfeld Follies she appeared alongside the likes of Bert Williams, Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers, Fanny Brice (who became her closest friend), Marilyn Miller, and W.C. Fields. Ann was romantically linked to several men during her lifetime, and at one time was engaged to boxer Jack Dempsey. However, she never married.

Ann's official film debut was in Susie Snowflake. The New York Times review was as follows:

"Many of those who went to the Broadway yesterday for the first showing of Susie Snowflake will be inclined to endorse this particular nomination. Miss Pennington is obviously put forth as a diminutive star of the Marguerite Clark variety, a style enormously in vogue at the moment. She is little and cunning on Mr. Ziegfeld’s stage and little and cunning on the screen. She has youth, a Mary Pickford like harum-scarum way with her and, except in the trying close-ups when her expression is somewhat adenoidal, she is pretty.

Of course she dances. As her frisky little dance is her sole claim to fame at the moment, it could no more be omitted from her first scenario than the “pump and washing tubs” in Mr. Crummles’s theater. So as a child of the music halls adapted into a staid, old New England community, Susie Snowflake disrupts a church sociable by doing her Follies dance there in her terse Follies costume."

While continuing to be primarily a stage performer, Ann went on to appear in 19 films between 1916 and 1941, most of them lost or impossible to find. There is however a clip on YouTube of Ann dancing. She appears about 1 min. 30 sec. into the number.

The following first set of images with accompanying copy comes from the January 1927 issue of Photoplay, where Ann instructs Felix the Cat on how to do the "Black Bottom". Dancing With the Stars - Look Out!

Felix decides that the Charleston is passé and goes to Ann Pennington for a lesson in the Black Bottom. In the first step, Ann points her left foot to the side, raising the left heel from the floor, bending both knees and slanting her body backwards.

Second step. "Now, Felix," says Ann, "straighten the body, lower the left heel and point your toe up from the floor. And, Felix sing that song, 'The Black Bottom of the Swanee River, sometimes likes to shake and shiver.' A little more pep, please!"

"Come on, cat! All set for the third step. Face forward, Felix, and bend that left knee slightly, pointing the left paw toward the floor. This is the way we make 'em sit up and take notice when we dance the 'Black Bottom' in Mr. White's 'Scandals' ".

"Snap into the fourth step, funny feline. Stamp that left mouse-catcher on the floor and bend that left knee.Stamp it good and hard. And sing that song - 'They call it Black Bottom, a new twister They sure got 'em, oh sister!' ".

"Now Mr. Cream and Catnip Man, after stamping forward, drag the left paw back across the floor. This is one of the most important principles of the dance. Then for step five, raise both of your hands from the floor and slap your hip. Like this!"

"Kick your right paw sidewards, old back-fence baritone, and keep slapping your hip. Now run along and practice your steps in someone's backyard. Little Ann must hurry and keep a dinner-date. See you at the 'Scandals' ".

Ann with Jacqueline Logan and Billie Dove

While at the Ziegfeld Follies, she was photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnston. This image was taken from the recently published book "Jazz Age Beauties - the lost collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston".

Ann Pennington - What do you think? Allure

Asides: Earl Christy Was On A Roll In Early 1932

F. Earl Christy (1883-1961), who has been mentioned on this blog in the past, was one of the most prolific illustrators of the early half of the twentieth century. Christy studied commercial art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His work was found on or in practically every movie magazine published in the 1920's and 30's and in advertisements, sheet music, postcards and general publications as early as 1906.

He was particularly busy providing covers for Photoplay. I generally like the work he did for Photoplay, but occasionally he seemed to miss the mark in capturing the essence of his subject - probably because he was turning out so much work. I am sure at the height of the depression it was rare that he turned down any assignment.

However, I think the first three Photoplay covers of 1932 are wonderful examples of his best work. The colors are vivid, the expressions of the actresses capture their allure, and the easy, yet stylish approach are a pleasure to view. Click on the images for a larger view.

Photoplay - January 1932

Photoplay - February 1932

Photoplay - March 1932

And if you are wondering "How Garbo's Fear of People Started" - well guess what, some came from what we hear about everyday now, paparazzi, though that term wasn't yet coined in 1932. From the article, "Every time Garbo tried to take a quiet walk in Central Park she was dogged by reporters and cameraman."

For a bit of history, here two Christy postcards from 1906.

Lilian Harvey - Second of two postings

As I mentioned in my first post, in 1933 Lilian got an invitation and contract from Fox to come to Hollywood. She made four films, but abruptly dissolved the contract, walking out on a role that was then filled by then-unknown Alice Faye. She returned to Germany and Ufa in 1935 to be with director Paul Martin, with whom she was romantically involved.

The Fox films themselves weren't big hits, but were generally well received as we can see from the original reviews that appeared in the New York Times. I think for whatever reason (including her romance with Paul Martin), Lilian just didn't fit in the Hollywood film community and grew homesick. Of course, we know that her return to Germany was ill-timed as she ran afoul with the Nazi Regime and actually returned to the states until the war's end.

The Times Reviews (condensed)

My Weakness (1933)
Reviewed September 22, 1933
The vivacious and charming Lilian Harvey, an English actress who has spent several years in Germany, is now to be seen at the Radio City Music Hall in the first of her two Hollywood productions to be released. It happens to be known as "My Weakness," and was produced by B. G. DeSylva. It is a fluffy piece of work with no more of a story than most musical comedies. It is, however, handsomely staged and virtually all the members of the cast contribute highly satisfactory performances, but as the scenes come to the screen it is disappointing to hear so many silly and antiquated jokes and painful puns.

But Miss Harvey's presence atones for most of the shortcomings. She sings and she prances about the various settings in a blithe and happy fashion. And the audience at the first exhibition of this film laughed heartily even over several none too original ideas, such as Looloo Blake (Miss Harvey) falling down several steps and the sudden shrinking of a taxi driver's trousers.

My Lips Betray (1933)
Reviewed November 4, 1933
With crossed fingers and a prayer, the authors of "My Lips Betray" have invented a mythical kingdom for their setting. That was no epochal feat of the imagination, to be sure, but with S. N. Behrman on the dialogue, Lee Garmes on the photography and Lillian Harvey on the screen, even a mythical kingdom ought to be less energetically commonplace than Ruthania. As a romantic comedy, the new film has an unhappy talent for seeming slightly flyblown on the first count and a good deal less than hilarious on the second. In fact, El Brendel, the king's antic chauffeur, raises "My Lips Betray" to its comedy high by addressing his master as "Your Mee-ajesty," and if that is comic, after the sixth repetition, then Miss Harvey's picture is a magnificent and heart-warming adventure.
...A likable and occasionally lyric comedienne, her (Lilian Harvey) efforts to enliven a heavy-handed and humorless script result in a performance stuffed with that particular form of girlish charm which drives strong men to dipsomania and homicide.


I Am Suzanne (1933)
Reviewed January 19, 1934
With the valuable support of Signor Podrecca's marionettes, Lilian Harvey's new picture, "I am Suzanne," which is now at the Radio City Music Hall, succeeds in being quite a fascinating diversion. If its story is inconsequential, the frailties are forgotten when the puppets strut their stuff. Not that Miss Harvey is any less appealing than she has been in other films, or that Leslie Banks, Georgia Caine, Halliwell Hobbes and, in some respects, Gene Raymond, do not contribute their share to the entertainment, but merely that the inanimate cast affords many an opportunity for original touches and delightful streaks of fantasy.

BTW, I found a copy of this film on Ebay and while the print is pretty bad, the film is quite a delight.

The Only Girl - aka Heart Song (1934)
Reviewed June 6, 1934
A quite charming pictorial musical extravaganza, produced under the aegis of the Ufa and Gaumont-British, is now sojourning at the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse. Over here it is known as "Heart Song," but in Britain it was released as "The Only Girl." The feminine players include Lilian Harvey, Mady Christians and Friedel Schuster, and its unimportant romance is cast against a background of the Third Empire.

Out of this frail fable the producers have made a refreshing screen work, with agreeable musical compositions supplied by Franz Wachsmann. Miss Harvey makes the most of her opportunities and Miss Christians is attractive and competent. M. Boyer does fairly well by the part of the Duke.

Silver Screen Magazine from January 1934 was a little late in featuring Lilian.

Postcard of Lilian in I Am Suzanne

Publicity still of Lilian in I Am Suzanne

Publicity still from My Weakness

No idea what this was from, but she's a good looking dish! (ouch)

Lilian Harvey - What do you think - Allure?