26 Facts About Gaby Deslys

Gaby Deslys selected her name for her stage career, and it is a contraction of Gabrielle of the Lillies.

Gaby Deslys performed several times on Broadway, at the Winter Garden Theater, and performed in a show with a young Al Jolson.

Gaby Deslys's dancing was so popular that The Gaby Glide was named for her.

Gaby Deslys would make a handful of films in France before her death.

Gaby Deslys died from complications of the infection in Paris in 1920, at the age of 38.

The investigator reported that Gaby 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.

Gaby Deslys replied that the story was ridiculous and that she was French, not Czech.

Gaby Deslys rose in popularity in dance halls around Paris and London.

Gaby Deslys was a practitioner of several types of dance such as the Ju-Jitsu waltz, Ballroom, Grizzly Bear, Turkey Trot and her most famous The Gaby Glide.

Gaby Deslys had been to the United States where she had earned $4,000 per week.

Gaby Deslys sang "very cleverly in an ultra-modern French manner".

Gaby Deslys retreated to her room while stage hands used fire extinguishers to subdue the students.

In 1913 Gaby Deslys appeared with Al Jolson in the musical comedy The Honeymoon Express.

Gaby Deslys sued him for 50,000 francs in August 1912.

In 1910 Gaby Deslys recorded two songs in Paris, "Tout en Rose" and "Philomene".

Gaby Deslys 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.

Gaby Deslys's Triumph featured Deslys doing one of her famous dances with Pilcer.

Gaby Deslys 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.

Gaby Deslys' celebrity rose following newspaper stories which gossiped about King Manuel II of Portugal's infatuation with her.

In public interviews, usually on trips, Gaby Deslys never negated the obvious, but nearly always refused to comment on her relationship with the deposed king.

However, in an interview to a correspondent while she was in Vienna Gaby Deslys was very forthright:.

When Gaby Deslys moved to New York, in the summer of 1911, their relationship cooled off; Gaby Deslys became involved with a fellow stage actor Harry Pilcer, and Manuel married in 1913.

Gaby Deslys contracted a severe throat infection caused by the Spanish flu pandemic in December 1919.

Gaby Deslys was operated on multiple times in an effort to eradicate the infection, on two occasions without the use of an anesthetic.

Gaby Deslys died in rue Antoine-Chantin, Paris 14 on 11 February 1920.

Gaby Deslys was portrayed humorously by the ballerina Tamara Toumanova in the Sigmund Romberg biopic Deep in My Heart, directed by Stanley Donen.