Maud Allen and Controversy

Throughout her career Maud Allan was no great stranger to controversy. The sensuousness of her dancing and the flimsy costumes she wore, whilst making her immensely popular in most quarters, frequently led to outrage in others. Nor was her private life exempt from such tribulations, she was no stranger to the justice system and was involved in a number of court cases, some of which had a major effect on her life. The first of these cases did not actually involve Maud directly but nevertheless was the one which had by far the most profound effect.

The Trial of William Henry Theodore Durrant

Theodore Durrant was Maud Allan's brother with whom she was very close. His sensational trial for murder was the reason why Maud changed her surname from Durrant to Allan - ie. to escape the notoriety that became associated with the former (although this was done as a career necessity and not from shame - throughout her life Maud never wavered in her conviction of her brothers innocence). The events surrounding the case unfolded as follows:

On April 3rd, 1895, Blanche Lamont, an attractive young woman of approximately twenty years of age, disappeared and was never seen alive again. She was a quiet girl who lived alone with her aunt, and prior to her disappearance had devoted herself to church work at the Emanuel Baptist church on Bartlett Street in San Francisco. Nine days after Blanche's disappearance another young woman, Minnie Williams, left her home to attend a meeting of the Young Peoples Society and failed to return. The following morning her strangled and mutilated body, stripped almost naked, was discovered in the library of the Emanuel church. The following day the police conducted an extensive search of the premises eventually reaching the belfry where the body of the missing Blanche Lamont was finally discovered. The body was totally naked, and red fingermarks around her throat testified to her also having been strangled. Her clothes were recovered at the scene, together with her school books which showed that she had never made it home on the day she went missing.

Theodore Durrant, the church librarian and an officer of the Sunday school, was known to have been friendly with the murder victims and witnesses placed both girls in his company when they were last seen alive. Consequently, the police promptly arrested him on suspicion of murder. He seemed an unlikely murderer. A prominent young man in the city, medical student, devout Christian and president of the Young Peoples Society. The evidence against him was largely circumstantial but compelling. On the day that Blanche disappeared he was seen approaching the church in the company of a young woman resembling Blanche Lamont. Another witness placed him inside the church later that same day descending from the church tower (where Blanche's body was subsequently found) looking pale and sick. More damningly, Adolph Oppenheim, proprietor of a pawn shop, identified Durrant as the man who had attempted to pawn certain rings missing from the dead girl's hands. Worse, the rings were subsequently returned to Blanche's aunt in a package which also contained a paper on which was found Durrant's name and address. No motive was ever put forward for Blanche's murder, although in Minnie's case she had professed knowledge that Blanche had been murdered following her disappearance, thus raising the possibility that she may have been murdered to keep her quiet. In fact Durrant was never charged with Minnie's murder, the authorities proceeded with the case for murder against Blanche alone as being the strongest.

Theodore DurrantAccording to Theodore's own testimony, he left his home on the morning in question to visit that of church organist George King. On the way he met Blanche Lamont and, at her suggestion, accompanied her to her school before continuing on himself to Cooper College. He remained at the college all day apart from two half hour intervals, leaving after the last lecture at around four-fifteen. He named two students with whom he had conversed after noon and produced the notes he had taken in the afternoon lecture. On leaving the college he went to the church in order to repair the vibrator on the electrical apparatus connected to one of the sunburners. It was for this reason that he had been on the upper floor of the church on the day of Blanche's disappearance, and the odor of gas from the sunburner that had made him nauseous. He denied being with Blanche at or near the church on that day, or of having any involvement in her murder or the attempted pawning of her rings.

Durrant's attorneys, led by Eugene Duprey, attempted to place suspicion on Reverend J. G. Gibson, pastor of the church, as an alternate suspect in the case, since a chisel linked to evidence found in the church was itself found in his toolbox, and the lettering on the paper which enclosed Blanche's returned rings matched his handwriting. The defence also raised serious questions as to the eye-witness identifications that were the crux of the evidence against Durrant - including that of an elderly woman with notoriously poor eyesight. But it was all to to no avail. On November 1st, 1895, after a trial lasting over three months, during which time the jury were taken to view the scene of the tragedy, Theodore Durrant was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.

Durrant was scheduled to be hanged on February 21st 1896, but the persistent efforts of his attorneys postponed his execution for almost two years, and included a sensational late bid for his freedom when a confession was brought forward from seaman John Rosenberg that he was in fact guilty of the crime. Rosenberg's confession was, however, discredited since the ship which brought him to San Francisco, according to records, did not arrive until sometime after the murder. Theodore Durrant was hanged in San Quentin prison at 10:30 on the morning of January 7th, 1898. He maintained his innocence to the very end and his jailers, without exception, praised his poise and calmness when he went to the gallows.

Whilst the evidence against Durrant does seem to have been fairly convincing, it was by nature entirely circumstantial, and to modern eyes seems a little thin to take a man's life. At her brothers behest Maud had remained in Europe throughout the duration of the trial. It's outcome was to cost her not only a beloved brother, but also her best friend.

The next case was a civil hearing that Maud herself instituted against a fellow dancer attempting to steal the credit for her signature dance.

Miss Maud Allan and Palace Theatre Ltd v Birmingham Hippodrome Ltd and Miss Maud Dennis

In the Spring of 1908 Maud Allan was visiting Birmingham, with a view to planning a performance in that city, when she noticed an advertisement for the Hippodrome theatre which she very much took objection to. The theatre was planning to produce a review featuring South American dancer Maud Dennis and had advertised that lady's performance in words that claimed she was the creator of the "Salome dance" that was "the rage of London." Miss Allan, who was the true creator of that dance, and the Palace Theatre in London, where she was performing, immediately instituted legal proceedings and on May 18th obtained an injunction preventing the defendants from continuing those claims in their advertising. Later that year the Hippodrome company settled with the defendants by paying £130 and consenting to the injunction being made perpetual. The case then continued against Miss Dennis alone, being heard by Mr. Justice Hamilton in the King's Bench Division in March 1909. Miss Dennis failed to attend or send representation and consequently her defence was struck out. Miss Allan's counsel then informed the judge that Miss Allan and the Palace Theatre were willing to forego their claim for damages and asked instead that the injunction against Miss Dennis be made perpetual. Accordingly, Justice Hamilton entered judgement against Miss Dennis for a perpetual injunction with costs.

In the third case Maud was named as the Defendant. This case had little consequence on her life, being nothing more than a nuisance and inconvenience for Maud. But occurring, as it did, at the height of her career and popularity ensured it would receive embarassing media coverage.

Miss Julia Surmont v Miss Maud Allan

In Kansas City on April 1st 1910, Maud Allan was sued for assault by Julia Surmont, a maid whom she had engaged in London. Miss Surmont alleged that Miss Allan had slapped her soundly several times about the face and was seeking 1000 dollars in damages for injured feelings, as well 225 dollars in unpaid earnings. The claim for damages was subsequently withdrawn when Miss Allan agreed to pay the latter amount if full.

The fourth court case saw Maud again as the Plaintiff this time at odds with a British Member of Parliament - himself no stranger to controversy having once had to be forcibly removed from the House of Commons where he was disrupting proceedings.

Miss Maud Allan v Noel Pemberton Billing (MP)

In London in May 1918 Maud filed a suit for criminal libel against Noel Pemberton Billing, Member of Parliament for East Hertfordshire and editor of the periodical "Vigilante". Her complaint arose from an objectionable headline in "Vigilante" which maligned her character in reference to a private performance of "Salome". The article in question read as follows:

The Cult of the Clitoris To be a member of Maud Allan's private performance in Oscar Wilde's Salome one has to apply to a Miss Valetta of 9 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C. If Scotland Yard were to seize the list of these members I have no doubt they would secure the names of several thousand of the first 47,000.

Not only did the article dare to publicly suggest that Miss Allan was a lesbian, sufficient in itself to warrant a prosecution for criminal libel at the time, it also aligned her with persons said to be involved in promoting propaganda sympathetic to the German cause in the ongoing war (the 47,000 alluded to a supposed list of such individuals).

The case was conducted in a blaze of publicity as a result of two sensational turns of events. Firstly, Maud was forced to admit on the stand that she was the sister of Theodore Durrant, a convicted murderer, a fact which until then she had largely succeeded in keeping hidden. Then, in a bizarre turn, Pemberton, who defended himself, was permitted to introduce into evidence all manner of self-serving and irrelevant matter - including serious imputations against many of the leading social and political figures of the time, including even the judge who was hearing the case, Mr Justice Darling, himself.

These stemmed primarily from the alleged existence of a 'Black Book', supposedly compiled by the German Secret Service, wherein were contained the names of 47,000 persons who were addicted to high vices and therefore susceptible to blackmail. Despite no copy of this book ever being introduced into evidence, Pemberton and several of his witnesses were permitted to ascribe unthinkable vices to numerous leading figures present and past, named in open court, without any shred of actual evidence in support of such claims or any opportunity for those thus impugned to defend their good names. Amongst those named were former British Premiere Herbert Asquith, Viscount Haldane, and Justice Darling himself.

That the case was grossly mismanaged by Justice Darling is beyond dispute. Whether he should even have continued to hear the case when he himself was impugned by the so called 'evidence' for the defence is a serious question in itself. Worse, the defendant was allowed to derail the proceedings to the extent that the action brought by Miss Allan, and which ought to have been the sole concern, was effectively relegated to the background and almost completely forgotten in the wash of sensationalism and irrelevancy that overwhelmed it. The extent to which Billing was permitted to suborn the proceedings can be no better demonstrated than by the following extract from the court transcript:

Judge to Billing (referring to a book Billing has introduced into evidence): "You ask if one of the photographs here is her brother. Are you bound to ask this question"
Billing: "I deeply regret I shall have to call evidence, to prove the exact influence that the case in that book has to bear generally. I shall have to prove the matters referred to in that book and that cases are hereditary, that in some case the victims give expression to their vice at great personal risk culminating in some instances in their execution for murder."
Counsel (for Miss Allan) objected to the question, which he said was very cruel.
Judge to Counsel: "It is not a question whether it is cruel or not. Have you any legal objection to it"
Counsel: "Anything that happened to a brother can have no bearing on this case"
Judge: "But Mr. Billing says he is going to show this is hereditary. He said he is going to show this is the kind of thing that would be done by a family that had such hereditary instincts. I cannot exclude the question, though Mr. Billing must understand it may, because of their secrets, have terrible consequences for the witness and if the verdict of the Jury is against him some of those consequences may fall upon her".
Billing to Miss Allan: "I regret having to put it to you Miss Allan: You are the sister of William Henry Theodore Durrant"
Miss Allan nodded.
Billing: "Was your brother executed in San Francisco for murdering two young girls"
Miss Allan: "Yes."
Billing: "What was the crime?"
Miss Allan: "You have said what the crime was."
Judge Darling: "For the murder of two young girls?"
Miss Allan: "Yes."
Billing: "Were these bodies found in the belfry of a church?"
Miss Allan: "I do not know.

To permit into evidence that the morality of one family member could be ascribed to all others by dint of 'hereditary instinct' is, by modern day thinking at least, thoroughly outrageous. Even as a point of law, Counsel's objection to this evidence was well founded and should have been upheld at the outset. To allow the evidence on Billing's claim that he would 'show' that such matters as it referred to were hereditary were improper - grounds for evidence should be established before it is admitted, even more so when the Judge by his own words acknowledges that the evidence is prejudicial to either party far beyond its evidentiary value. At the very least proceedings should have been adjourned for Billings to establish justification for his 'evidence' before the judge in camera. Although civil courts are not as tightly bound by rules of evidence as criminal ones, to entrust Billings to establish justification for his evidence after its admission was ludicrous, since it would then be too late if it was found to be improper. In fact, at no point did Billing even attempt to 'show' (ie. produce evidence) that such moral turpitude was hereditary, he merely claimed it as a fact on his own unsubstantiated cognizance, and a weak and ineffective Judge permitted him to do that.

As for the supposed 'black book', Billings was forced to admit that he had never seen it himself and his proof of its existence rested entirely on the testimony of two witnesses of highly questionable character. The first, Harold Spencer, was a young itinerant American with a history of mental illness. The other, Mrs. Villiers-Stewart, was a self-confessed bigamist who claimed she was shown the book by two British officers. The latter could not be called upon for corroboration as they subsequently died in the war - murdered, she claimed, by their own men because of their knowledge of the books contents.

The allegations that were allowed to be made in open court were so wild, and the so called 'evidence' so bizarre and insubstantial, that there is little wonder that the Newspapers at the time branded Justice Darling "a weak Judge", and trumpeted that "the Judge has completely lost his head." The Times observed that "the real objection against him is that his conduct was inconsistent. He sometimes relaxed the rules of evidence, and sometimes enforced them strictly. He permitted names to be mentioned without admitting the right of reply."

When the jury acquitted Pemberton of the specific charge against him, of maligning Miss Allan, he hailed the result as a judicial vindication of his moral stance against the degeneracy of those against whom his vitriol had been directed. That the jury acquitted him at all was probably due less to any understanding of the case than to Billing's consistently playing upon patriotic fears that certain high powered individuals were sapping England's resolve to prosecute the war. Even at that late stage in the hostilities there was little sign of Germany's imminent collapse and it appeared the Allies might even lose. Although Billing withdrew any imputations against Miss Allan and the judge in his final address stated that "Miss Allan leaves this court without a stain upon her reputation." it was never-the-less a humiliating defeat for her.

Maud was understandably bitter over the outcome. Spending more than four hours in the witness box, cruelly tortured by Billings interrogation over painful matters that held no relevance to the case, she felt more the accused than the victim of an unjustified personal attack. In all, Miss Allan had good reason to be distrustful of the judicial systems on both sides of the Atlantic, on one side it had unfairly (in her mind at least) taken away her beloved brother, on the other it had pandered to an enemy who had unjustly sullied her reputation.

Thank you for this article courtesy of Don Gillian.

Maud Allen

Maud Allan (1873-1956)

Some known facts:

• Born 27th August 1873 - Toronto (Canada)
• Died 7th October 1956 - Los Angeles (USA)
• Real Name Beulah Maude Durrant
• Daughter of William Durrant (shoemaker) and wife Isabella
• Educated in San Francisco, studied music in Berlin, made professional debut in Vienna, gained stardom in London.
• Recognized as a pioneer of western early modern theatre dance.
• Changed her name from Durrant to escape from her brother's notoriety (Theodore Durrant was found guilty and executed for murdering two women in San Francisco).
• 1908 Caused a sensation appearing in 'Salome' at the London Palace Theatre when rumors spread that she appeared completely naked beneath her flimsy costume for her provocative 'Vision of Salomé' dance.
• 1908 Published autobiography, 'My Life and Dancing'.
• 1918 Sued an MP for libel.

Maud Allan was born Beulah Maud Durrant in Toronto, Canada, in 1873 (she changed her name in later life to escape the notoriety which would fall upon her brother). She was the second child of William Durrant, an itinerant shoemaker, and his wife Isabella. When Maud was only five, her father moved the family to San Francisco where he had gone in search of work.

From an early age, Maud showed exceptional talents at arts and crafts which would be of great benefit to her in later life. She particularly excelled, however, in the musical arts and would go on to study to be a concert pianist at the San Francisco Grand Academy of Music.

In February 1895, aged only 22 and on the advice of her music teacher, she travelled to Berlin to complete her musical education at the Hochshule fur Musik. Barely had she arrived however, than she received the stunning news that her beloved brother Theo (full name William Henry Theodore Durrant) had been arrested for murder. Theo, a medical student, was the assistant Sunday School superintendent at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco where two young women were found murdered. The finger of suspicion pointed at Theo and in November of that year he was tried and found guilty by a jury of his peers. He was sentenced to death and after delays for appeals was executed in January 1898. Not wishing his sister to be caught up in the sensational publicity surrounding the case Theo convinced her to remain in Europe keeping in frequent contact by letter. It must have been difficult for her to accede to her brother’s wishes and she never faltered in her own conviction of his innocence.

To support herself in Europe Maud needed to make money and with several confederates started up a corset making business, designing, sewing, and on occasion even modeling the products. She even profited from her drawing skills by contributing illustrations to a sex manual for women!

Whilst continuing her piano studies, Maud became increasingly interested in the art of dance, on which she would soon come to concentrate all of her considerable talents. She was no doubt influenced partly by Isadora Duncan who was performing in Berlin at the time but especially by a meeting with the Belgian composer Marcel Remy who encouraged her to explore her own ideas and interpretations. After building up her classical repertoire in Berlin, Maud made her professional début as a dancer in Vienna in 1903. After enjoying some initial success in Europe, Maud travelled to London in 1908 to dance 'The Vision of Salome' (for which Remy had written the music) at the Palace Theatre. Edwardian London, more conservative and morally repressed than continental Europe, was both entranced and appalled by the seductive and alluring nature of her performances. The sexual overtones of her movements, poses and costumes (many of which she designed and made up herself) shook London society to the roots, earning Maud equal measure of fame and infamy. It brought her instant fame and fortune, but by stretching Edwardian moral decency to breaking point denied her forever the artistic recognition that she most craved. She became known far and wide as 'the Salome Dancer', an epithet she hated yet would find impossible ever to cast aside.

In keeping with her new found status she rented luxurious apartments in Holford House, overlooking Regent's Park. These were for a number of years paid for by Margot Asquith, wife of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, one of Maud's many patrons and with whom she developed a close friendship.

After two years top-billing in London, Maud spent the next few years embarked upon on a series of World tours (including engagements in America, Africa, Asia and Australia), before returning home to California in 1915 to spend time with her family. Whilst back home in California she recorded her only film appearance, as Demetra in 'The Rug Maker's Daughter' - a part which reprised excerpts from some of her most famous dances.

In 1916, Maud returned to London to relaunch her career but two years later became the unwitting victim of further damaging notoriety when she became embroiled in a bizarre libel action against Independent MP Noel Pemberton Billing. Billing ran a newspaper and launched a moral attack against Maud in an editorial entitled 'the Cult of the Clitoris'. According to the social mores of the time, this was implying that Maud was a lesbian and he went so far as to suggest that she and others like her might be in the pay of German agents (war was still raging) to undermine the moral fabric of British Society. Billing successfully defended the action by blackening Maud's character through association with her brother and, farcically, by claiming that 'clitoris' was a specialist term that few outside the medical profession understood and that the fact that Maud herself did understand it only served to prove her moral degeneracy!

After the trial, Maud resumed her career but her popularity, in line with that of theatre in general, soon waned. She continued to live for a number of years in her Holford House apartments in London, for some time sharing them with Verna Aldrich, her secretary who later became her lover. She returned to California to live out her final days, and passed away in Los Angeles on 7th October, 1956.

At the height of her career Maud was an attractive and desirable young woman, as well as a lithe limbed, energetic, and talented performer. She possessed a unique grace and originality which permitted her to suit her movements most effectively to the music. Perhaps the emotional scars from the tragic loss of her brother were what gave her dancing its profoundly personal content. At times both Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Dennis accused her of stealing their dances, but Maud always maintained that her moves were all her own creations and that she had never even taken dancing lessons. She was undoubtedly a uniquely talented performer, perhaps a little ahead of her time (for Edwardian England anyway) whose life and career were tragically marred by events over which she had little or no control.

Thanks you Stagebeauty.net

Dame Gladys Cooper

Dame Gladys Cooper (1888-1971)

Some known facts:

·         Full Name Gladys Constance Cooper.

·         Born 18th December 1888 - Lewisham, London (England).

·         Died 17th November 1971 - Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (England).

·         Married 1) H.J. Buckmaster; 2) Sir Neville Arthur Pearson, Bart.; 3) Philip Merivale (actor).

·         1967 Made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

·         As a child became a photographic model.

·         Played Professor Higgins' mother (to Rex Harrison) in the Film Musical 'My Fair Lady'.

Gladys Constance Cooper was born in Lewisham, London on 18th December, 1888. She was the daughter of William Frederick Cooper, a journalist, and his wife Mabel (Barnett). The beauty that would set her apart in later years was obviously apparent even as a child and she became a photographic model at the tender age of six. By the outbreak of World War I she had grown into a stunningly attractive young woman and was a favourite pin-up for the British forces.

Her acting career had begun in 1905 when she was taken on by Seymour Hicks to tour with his company in 'Bluebell in Fairyland', making her stage bow in Colchester at the age of 17. In 1906 she appeared in London in 'The Belle of Mayfair' and the following year became a chorus girl at The Gaiety (one of Frank Curzon's famous Gaiety Girls).

Later, she turned to more serious acting and her first 'straight' role came in 1911 in a production of Oscar Wilde's witty comedy 'The Importance of Being Ernest'. A number of other roles followed and in 1913 she appeared in her first movie, 'The Eleventh Commandment'.

In 1917 she teamed up with Frank Curzon to co-manage the Playhouse Theatre, taking over sole control from 1927 until she left in 1933. She was one of only two women at the time involved in such a role. During that period she continued to appear in a number of the plays she helped to produce as well as finding time for a few more film appearances.

In 1934 she crossed the Atlantic to make her debut on New York's famous Broadway in 'The Shining Hour'. An extended stay in America brought subsequent New York appearances in Shakespearean roles, and led to her discovery by the Hollywood moguls when her movie career really took off. Her first Hollywood role was in "Rebecca", with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine (Gladys played Maxim's [Olivier's] sister). In 1942 she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in 'Now, Voyager' (as Mrs. Henry Windle Vale, mother of co-star Bette Davis' character), and again the following year for her part (Sister Marie Therese Vauzous) in 'The Song of Bernadette'. During her time in Hollywood she appeared in over 30 movies, often reprising the role of the dignified aristocratic lady. Other notable movie credits include 'Madame Bovary' in 1949, and 'My Fair Lady' in 1964 (as Mrs. Higgins - her third oscar nomination).

Gladys returned to the London stage for several years from 1947 before returning to Broadway to appear in 'The Chalk Garden' in 1955, and 'A passage to India' in 1962. Even past the age of sixty, between London, Broadway and Hollywood Gladys remined busy. Even the then relatively new medium of TV was no stranger to her, as she made numerous guest appearances on the small screen during the fifties and sixties.

In 1967, now almost eighty years old, she was rewarded for her considerable contributions to the acting profession when she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of British Empire (DBE). Even then, she was not yet ready to make her final bow and her last stage, film and TV appearances all came after she had passed her 80th birthday.

Gladys Cooper passed away in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, on 17th November 1971. In life she had been a celebrated beauty, a talented and versatile actress, and a shrewd businesswoman. She was married three times, on the last occasion to the actor Philip Merivale (his second marriage). Her daughters by her previous marriages, Joan Buckmaster and Sally Pearce, married the actors Robert Morley and Robert Hardy respectively. Three biographies of her life have been published, 'Gladys Cooper' penned by herself in 1931, 'Without Veils' in 1953, and 'Gladys Cooper: A biography' by her grandson Sheridan Morley in 1979.

Thanks again to Stagebeauty.net

Chatting Today

Hi, everyone. I’m chatting today for a couple of hours at Loves Romance Café—a yahoo group and would love for you to come and say hello. Follow the link and come and discuss your favorite book or whatever comes to mind. I’ll be there from 1-3 Eastern Time…or 12-2 Central. I’ll be giving away one free book to one lucky chatter so don’t miss out on all the fun!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/loveromancescafe

Ziegfeld Girls

Ziegfeld Girls were chorus girls from Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical spectaculars known as the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), which were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris. And this theatrical phenomenon has had long reaching fame including some very well known actresses. Today the Ziegfeld Girls are known as The Rockettes! Some things are simply timeless.

Perhaps the most famous Ziegfeld Girl during the run of the revues was Lillian Lorraine. Over the years they included many future stars such as Marion Davies, Paulette Goddard, Joan Blondell, Olive Thomas, Barbara Stanwyck, Billie Dove, Louise Brooks, Nita Naldi, Julanne Johnston, Mae Murray, Bessie Love, Dorothy Mackaill, Odette Myrtil, Lilyan Tashman, Claire Dodd, Cecile Arnold, Dolores Costello, Dorothy Sebastian, Iris Adrian and other society and business successes such as Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Helen Gallagher, Anastasia Reilly, and Irene Hayes.

Ziegfeld girl Mona Louise Parsons, was a member of a resistance movement in Holland during Nazi Occupation, working to return down Allied Airmen to England. She was eventually arrested by the Gestapo and became the only Canadian female civilian to be imprisoned by the Nazis, and one of the first women to be tried by a Nazi military tribunal in Holland. Her original sentence was death by firing squad, but the sentence was commuted to life with hard labor. She escaped from her captors.

I was surprised to learn that although a great many future stars got their start with the Ziegeld Girls many others were turned down. A few of these were. Norma Shearer (in 1919 and 1920), Alice Faye (in 1927), Joan Crawford (in 1924), Gypsy Rose Lee (in 1927), Lucille Ball (in 1927 and 1931),Phyllis Haver (in 1915), Eleanor Powell (in 1927), Ruby Keeler (in 1924), Hedda Hopper (in 1913), and June Havoc (in 1927 and 1931) were among the many hopefuls discarded after auditions. The survivors of the chorus lines of the last century are The Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall.

Cleo de Merode (1875-1966)

I have always found Cleo de Merode to be a very dynamic individual from her looks to her life’s story. This lady was as mysterious as she was beautiful. I hope you enjoy this installment of my Golden Age actresses. I’d also like to thank Stagebeauty.net for this blog.

Some known facts:

• Born 27th September, 1875 - Paris* (France) 
• Died 17th October, 1966 - Paris (France)
• Real Name Cleopatra Diane de Merode
• Daughter of Karl von Merode (landscape artist)
• Dancer and famed Parisian beauty.
• Famously reputed to have conducted an affair with Leopold II, King of Belgium.

Cleopatra Diane de Merode was born in Paris (some reports say Bordeaux or Biarritz) on 27th September, 1875, the daughter of Austrian landscape painter Karl von Merode - who styled himself Freiherr von Merode (Baron Merode) and claimed descent from the old and noble Belgian family of de Merode. Her mother was a former Viennese actress.

Little is known of her early life except that Young Lulu, as she was affectionately called by her parents, showed an early aptitude for dancing and when she was only seven years of age she began training with the Paris Opera Ballet, making her professional debut when she was still only eleven. But whatever talent she may have possessed in her feet, throughout her life it would always be her great beauty that would be her greatest asset and by the age of thirteen she had already posed for the artists Jean-louis Forain and Edgar Degas.

At sixteen she became noticed for her trademark hairstyle, parted in the middle, pulled back over the ears and wound into a chignon at the back, often worn with metal bands. Soon it became the rage of all Paris. By this time she had grown into a intensely beautiful young woman, with a wasp-like waistline. Her image began to appear on postcards and playing cards which were widely collected. Before long she was the most photographed woman in the whole of France - perhaps even all of continental Europe. When Alfred Grevin opened his exhibit "Behind the Scenes at the Opera" at his waxworks, Musee Grevin, he included a lifesize mannequin of Cleo standing amongst such illustrious company as Gounod and Rose Caron - at the Opers, she was still only a coryphee!

In 1895, Toulouse-Lautrec painted her portrait and the following year the sculptor Alexandre Falguière caused a furore at the Paris Salon when he unveiled his cast of Cleo which depicted her naked. Cleo herself was shocked by the statue, having been unaware of the artist's intentions, and was keen to dispel any rumours that she had posed in the nude and sent the following signed note to the editor of Le Gaulois: "Will you be kind enough to say to the readers of Le Gaulois that I did not pose in the 'altogether' for M. Falguière's statue, as anyone can see by looking at the head. You will give me much pleasure." For a time she removed herself from the limelight, saying she could not appear in public and have everyone stare at her with "that horrid bare statue in their minds."

A new rumour then arose however, which quickly became the talk of Paris - the outrageous suggestion that she had no ears! Out of self-defence Cleo ended her short-lived, self-imposed exile, and was soon seen everywhere, at the theatre, strolling on the boulevards, and driving in the Bois - with her hair brushed up high from her temples to reveal a magnificent pair of ears!

At the end of that year, however, another event occured which was to plague her for the rest of her life. The Belgian King, Leopold II, was in Paris for negotiations over Belgian/French colonial interests, and, to disguise the purpose of his mission, let it be known that he was in Paris to see Cleo perform. Leopold was known to have had mistresses, and the corps-de-ballet of the Opera Ballet at the time was considered to be a den of courtesans. Consequently, the press put two and two together and began to spread salacious and ill-founded stories that the twenty-two year-old ballet performer had become the sixty-one year old Regent's latest mistress. Stories were told of fabulous gifts he had given her, and a special carriage added to his train to allow her to accompany him. The King was nicknamed "Cleopold" because of his supposed infatuation with her.

Cleo and her mother, who up to this time had lived with and jealously guarded her daughter, vehemently denied the accusations, and claimed that the most she had received from the King was a congratulatory bunch of roses. The papers claimed a gift of a fabulous pearl white pearl necklace, and that Cleo was being kept in a magnificent apartment in the most fashionable part of Paris - the truth of her abode, however, was a little apartment up five flights of stairs that she shared with her mother. None-the-less, the accusations stuck and damaged her private reputation, if not her professional career.

The rumours, apparently amused, and perhaps flattered the old King, but not so Cleo, a practising Catholic, who was so devastated by the stories that she promptly left Paris in an attempt to escape the notoriety. She went to St. Petersburg, where she vied with her countrywoman, Liane de Pougy, to captivate the hearts of the Russian dukes and princes. Subsequently returning to Paris she then elected to cash in on her notoriety by accepting an enormous salary to perform at the Folies-Bergere - something which no other ballet dancer had ever done. It showed she had nothing to hide, and it brought her a whole new audience and even wider popularity than she had enjoyed previously. Later that year, the prominent Paris journal 'The Eclair' decided to conduct a poll of it's readers to determine the most beautiful woman in Paris. To help voters decide, an array of 130 photographs were put up in one of the rooms of the newspaper offices which was then opened to the public. When the voting was over Cleo topped the poll, accounting alone for almost half the 7000 votes registered.

In 1897, in company with her mother and the manager of the Folies-Bergere as her agent, she made her first visit to the USA to play for a month at Koster and Blat's in New York. Although her arrival was anticipated with with great eagerness, and her photographs were already selling rapidly in the stores long before she set foot on American soil, the visit was not, ultimately, a success. The press was unkind in reveiwing her performances, praising her beauty but saying that she could not dance or act. On her departure, the Boston Globe summed it up by commenting that "Cleo was what theatrical people call 'a frost' in New York". Never-the-less, she returned to Paris $9,000 richer - more than forty times her regular salary for a month in Paris.

Cleo's mother died in 1899, whereupon Cleo revealed herself to be a strong-willed and determined career woman with an efficient business mind. She was keenly aware of how she could use turn the interest of reporters to her advantage and laid herself unusually open to their questions. She allowed reporters to sit in on her meetings with theatre directors thus allowing them an insight into their business practices and her own professional acumen. When not involved with the serious business of her career she passed her time playing the piano (she was said to be an excellent pianist although she never played in public) and riding her bicycle along the esplanades in Paris.

In the years that followed she became an international star, performing across Europe and in the United States, and often appeared before royalty. When King Chulalenghorn of Siam visited Paris Cleo designed a special performance for him - apparelling herself in a costume of metal filigree with a spire-like headdress of the type worn by Siamese dancers, and dancing in the Siamese style but with Parisian improvements.

Cleo's first visit to England came in June 1902, when she brought a repertoire of national dances for a two week engagement at the Alhambra in London. These were: A Danse Directoire, a Danse Bohemienne, a Danse Grecque, a Danse Espagnol, and a Danse Cambodgienne.

In 1904 she conducted a tour of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and scored a massive success in Stockholm where crowds in the street outside the theatre threatened to prevent her returning to her hotel. On her return to Paris she turned over to the editor of the Figaro some 3000 love letters which she had received from Scandinavian admirers. Many of them were subsequently printed in that journal.

Later in life, as she began to reduce her performance schedule, Cleo's artistic background and temperament stood her in good stead, allowing her to turn her hand to sculpture to supplement her income - crafting little figurines of dancers, shepherds and shepherdesses in the classical style which she then sold, sometimes for quite considerable profit.

She continued to dance, sporadically, until her early fifties when she retired from the professional stage to a villa in the French Atlantic seaside town of Biarritz. There she gave dancing lessons to aspiring hopefuls until she was well into her eighties!

Even in retirement the controversies that had followed her throughout her life would not let her be and in 1950, when the feminist writer Simone de Beauvois (the wife of Jean-Paul Sartre) published her book about infamous courtesans, entitled "Le Deuxieme Sexe" (The Third Sex), among those named was Cleo de Merode. Beauvois described her as the mistress of the former King Leopold of Belgium and intimated that she had been little more than a prostitute. The book also repeated the old claim that Cleo came from peasant stock and suggested she had illegitimately adopted the noble name of de Merode for purposes of self-promotion. Cleo sued, claiming five million francs in damages. She won the case, but the judge found that Cleo had permitted the rumours during the course of her career for their publicity value. Consequently, he awarded her only the paltry sum of one franc in damages, plus an injunction to remove the offending passages from any future editions of the book.

Cleo died in Paris on 17th October, 1966, and was interred at Père Lachaise. In life, she never married, and left no offspring. If the newspapers were to believed, she was, at various times, engaged to, among others: a Russian count; an American millionaire; the Duke of Manchester (allegedly before his grandmother intervened to end the affair); a wealthy French landowner, M. Reldoyen; a young Polish aristocrat, Sigismund Malensky; and even King Leopold himself, after his Queen, Marie Henriette, had died. These rumours, however confidently they were reported in the press, were generally nothing more than idle speculation based on the flimsiest of evidence. By her own account, Cleo only ever had two men in her life. Both of theses affairs were discreet and long-term, and both ended unhappily for Cleo - the first when her aristocratic lover died of typhoid fever, the second, with a Spanish diplomat, when he left her for another woman.

To this day the rumours of her supposed affair with Leopold are still widely taken at face value and she remains famous as the woman who slept with the elderly Belgian king. The truth is, almost certainly, that she did not. In fact, in his memoirs, the French agent, Xavier Paoli, recorded that when he finally met the ballerina after the rumours were already rife, the King apologised to her: "Allow me to express my regrets," he told her, "if the good fortune people attribute to me has offended you at all. Alas, we no longer live in an age when a king's favor was not looked upon as compromising! Besides, I am only a little king."