Gaby Deslys

French dancer and actress Gaby Deslys (1881-1920) was an internationally celebrated - and notorious - star of the early 20th Century. She was famous for her extravagant clothes, jewels and millinery. 'The Charm of Paris' had many admirers, most notably King Manuel II of Portugal. And before her tragic, early death she also made a series of silent films.


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni, no. 6144.


French postcard by SIP, no. 1537. Photo: Stebbing, Paris.


French postcard by SIP, no. 1537. Photo: Stebbing, Paris.


French postcard by G.B. Prot, Paris, Série no. 867, Th 119. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Stebbing, Paris.


French postcard by SIP, no. 1537. Photo: Stebbing, Paris. Sent by mail in 1906.


British postcard in the Philco Series, London, no. 3265 E. Photo: publicity still for 'The New Aladdin', produced at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in 1906. Gaby was 'The Charm of Paris'. 'The New Aladdin' was produced by George Edwardes and ran for 203 performances.

The Ju-Jitsu Waltz

Gaby Deslys was born in the French harbour city Marseille as Marie-Elise Gabrielle Caire in 1881, but during the latter part of her life and after her death, this identification was put under scrutiny. (Wikipedia claims that she was a Czech peasant girl, born in the village of Horní Moštěnice under the name of Hedvika Navratilova).

She selected the name Gaby Deslys for her stage career - an abbreviation of 'Gabrielle of the Lillies'. She started her career in 1898 in the Folies Bergères in Paris. Gaby was dedicated to dancing and loved to please the audience. In 1906 she travelled to London and appeared at the Gaiety Theatre in 'The New Aladdin' and performed the Ju-Jitsu waltz. She was nicknamed 'The Charm of Paris'.

Deslys became an international celebrity following newspaper stories about King Manuel's infatuation with her. He is thought to have given Deslys a pearl necklace worth $70,000 after first meeting her in Paris in 1909. More gifts soon followed.

In 1911, she appeared on Broadway at the Winter Garden in 'Vera Violetta'. In 1913 she starred in 'The Honeymoon Express' which also featured Al Jolson (in blackface) and a young Mae West. Gaby’s costume gowns attained almost as much attention as she did. She is credited for introducing the first Striptease number in a Broadway Musical.

She returned to Paris with American dancer Henry (Harry) Pilcer, who she was rumoured to have been married to. Pilcer created her most famous dance, 'The Gaby Glide', which she performed in Europe and in the United States. They became the most popular dance couple in the music halls of Paris. With her ostrich feathers and sexy costumes, Gaby Deslys introduced a new style. She also introduced the first jazz band to Paris: Alexander's Ragtime Band.


French postcard by E.P.


French postcard by Étoile, Série no. 677 - Th. 50. Papier Guileminot. Photo: Walery, Paris. Caption: la Theatre Marigny.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 4125 B.


British postcard by Rapid Photo Printing Co. Ltd., London, no. 4705. Photo: Bassano.


British postcard in the Lilywhite Photographic Series, Halifax, no. L 28. Photo: Claude Harris.


With Harry Pilcer. British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 11843 V. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield.

Severe throat infection

In London, 'Peter Pan' author J.M. Barrie was so smitten by Gaby Deslys that he wrote a one-act play for her, 'Rosy Rapture', at the Duke of York's Theatre. This became also one of her first films, A Rosy Rapture (Percy Nash, 1914).

Deslys loved the camera and it loved her. From the beginning of her career, she had posed for numerous still photographs. These stills, as with many other actresses, were sold as part of cigarette packages or after-performance lobby cards aimed at patrons, usually male, who wanted to take home a keepsake of their favourite performer.

Other short films followed like the French La Remplaçante/The Substitute (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1914) with Jean Angelo. In 1915 Gaby Deslys and Harry Pilcer filmed for Famous Players Lasky in Paris Her Triumph (1915). A feature film with the couple was Bouclette/Pincurl (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1918), written by French avant-garde director Marcel L’Herbier who also co-starred. In Dieu du hasard/God of the Chance (Henri Pouctal, 1919) Gaby appeared with Félix Oudart, Georges Tréville and Harry Pilcer.

She graced the cover of Pictures and the Picturegoer magazine in 1915, and Erté did a serigraph painting of her. On many occasions, she appeared at the Grand Casino in Marseilles. Her final performance there was in 1919. Deslys contracted a severe throat infection caused by influenza. She was operated on multiple times to eradicate the infection, on two occasions without the use of an anaesthetic, but she died in Paris in February 1920 at the age of 38.

In her will, she left her villa and all of her property, valued at half a million dollars, to the poor of Marseilles. Her carved and gilded bed, in the form of an enormous swan, was bought at an auction by the Universal Studios prop department and was used in The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925) and in Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) as the bed of Norma Desmond. Gaby Deslys was portrayed by Tamara Toumanova in Deep in My Heart (Stanley Donen, 1954), a biopic about the American Broadway operetta composer Sigmund Romberg.


French postcard by EPG, no. Ser. 20/1.


Austrian postcard by CP, no. 2465/66. Photo: E. Veit, Wien (Vienna), 1910.


French postcard by Cinemagazine-Edition, no. 9. Photo: Eclipse.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 11843 Q. Photo: Talbot, Paris. Collection: Didier Hanson.


British postcard in the Cinema Chat series. Photo: Chas Urban Trading Co.


British postcard by E.A.S. (E.A. Schwerdtfeger & Co.), no. 0291-3 Paris. Photo: Talbot. Hat by Lewis. In 1913-1914, Schwerdtfeger did a whole series of coloured postcards of photo portraits of Gaby Deslys by Talbot. These were hand-coloured matte bromide postcard prints. The National Portrait Gallery in London shows them on their site. This card is one of them.

Sources: Wikipedia, Dance History Archives, National Portrait Gallery and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 20 December 2023.