Jazz Age Club

Gypsy Rhoumaje

Shrouding herself with an exotic sounding name and persona, Gypsy Rhoumaje struck the big time in London and Paris from 1926 and delighted fashionable continental audiences with her exotic style of dancing and her own personal beauty. Of course nobody, least of all journalists, could spell her name right with several attempts that included Gypsy Rohoumage, Gypsy Roumahje, Gypsy Rhouma-je and Gypsy Rhouma (all with Gipsy variants).

Gypsy Rhoumaje in the Piccadilly Revels at the Piccadilly Hotel, London in 1926

Gypsy Rhoumaje was American, allegedly born in South America in about 1908 or 1909 and came from a well-known American family being the grand-niece of the great American President Ulysses S.Grant who defeated Robert E. Lee (18th president 1869-1877). All attempts to locate her true identity and her link to the Grant family have proved elusive but she may well have been a descendant of the President’s brother Orvil Lynch Grant or sister Mary Francis Grant.

One of her first appearances was on the West Coast dancing in a movie stage presentation at the Pantages theatre, Los Angeles in October 1924. Along with other acts she was billed as Gypsy Rhouma, a Hungarian dancer, and presented a series of eccentric and classical dances which according to the Los Angeles Times allowed ‘the spectators to glimpse a mode of terpsichore quite different from what Los Angeles is accustomed to.’

Thereafter, she must have migrated to New York and became a featured player either in another stage presentation, vaudeville or cabaret because in late 1925 she was snapped up by an overseas agent. She arrived in London in January 1926 at the age of 17 and stepped into a featured spot in the cabaret show Piccadilly Revels at the Piccaddily Hotel, launched 25th January and produced by Harry Foster. This edition of the popular cabaret also featured the eccentric dancing of fellow Americans Hal Sherman, Barrie Oliver and Frances White (Famous American comedienne), the British artists Max Wall, Doreen Reed and the fabulously inventive Hank the Mule (Woodward and Morrissey), plus of course the sixteen girls in delightful costumes designed by Dolly Tree. Amongst other numbers, Gypsy Rhoumaje portrayed ‘Mustika’ in ‘From the Wine List’. She also doubled each night at the Kit Kat Club in the Haymarket owned by the same management.

Programme for the Piccadilly Revels listing Gypsy Rhoumaje

Gypsy Rhoumaje in Luxe de Paris, Henri Varna's show at the Palace Theatre, Paris

From London she migrated to the bright lights of Paris and made her first appearance at a Gala at L’Ermitage (72 Avenue des Champs Elysees) in mid April in a dancing entertainment with June Roper and Kenneth Kinney (celebrated American dancers) and Harry Reso (described as the king of comic dancers). As the summer progressed she performed in some of the famed summer Parisian hotspots in the Bois de Bologne including the Chateau de Madrid (with Florence Walton and Leo Leitrim).

The Deauville Casino was her next stop at the height of the August season and presumably in the autumn of 1926 she had other cabaret engagements in Paris before spending the winter on the Riviera dancing at some of the well established nightspots including the Carlton in Monte Carlo.

Back in Paris Gypsy Rhoumaje featured in the spectacular Henri Varna revue Luxe de Paris at the Palace Theatre from March 1927 with the Spanish singer Raquel Meller as star along with the Irwin sisters. She appeared in no less than six numbers including: Dream Land (Les Chimeres) where she was the golden fleece (La Toison d’or); the Flowers of Paris as the blue Flower; the Marvellous Jewels as the Princess of Sapphires; a solo number in the dance of the fans; tropical sunshades as the coconut flower (fleur de coco) and she danced the dirty-dig. Seemingly, her Burmese dances were one of the hits of the show.

Gypsy Rhoumaje in the film White Cargo

In the midst of appearing nightly in the Palace revue she may well have doubled in cabaret and at the American ball at Claridges in early June, for example, she was one of the star performers along with Harry Pilcer, the Dodge Twins and Miss Florence. However, at some point she slipped and fell injuring her back. She obtained two and obtained two medical certificates saying she was unable to perform for at lest a month. She claimed that she left the show with Varna’s permission, thus taking thirty days off. However, Varna was not pleased and took out court action and claimed damages which he won. She was fined FF45,000 and was forced to work off the judgement for two weeks in the Empire, another of Varna’s theatres in May 1929.

Once recovered from her injury, Gypsy Rhoumaje spent the autumn of 1928 in Vienna where she must appeared in legitimate stage show, but she must have made her way back to London because she was cast in several British movies. According to Variety she had ‘vamp roles’ in Altantic (released 15/11/29) a fictionalised version of the Titanic story directed by EA Dupont and Alf’s Button (released in 1930) a comedy-fantasy directed by W.P. Kellino. In the latter Tubby Endlin was Alf Higgins who learns that a button on his jacket was fashioned from Aladdin’s lamp. Rubbing the button for luck, he summons a genie named Eustace who gives him the traditional three wishes.

However, the more prestigious film was J.B. Williams’s White Cargo (released May 1929) based on Leon Gordon’s play of the same name starring John Hamilton, Leslie Faber and Maurice Evans and Gypsy Rhoumaje who played the half-caste wanton, Tondeleyo. It was slammed by the New York Times who thought it was sluggish and unimaginative but the journalast did not like the stage production either calling it ‘no masterpiece’. Gypsy faired no better in their criticism and they thought that she simply did not realize what is demanded of her in the way of acting.

What happened to her thereafter is a mystery. If anyone knows her real identity or has details of her early career in America and what happened to her after 1929, please leave some comments.