Post by petrolino on Mar 13, 2021 1:36:23 GMT
Gabrielle Rejane : The Great Parisienne
'The great French actress Madame Rejane was born Gabrielle Charlotte Reju at 14 Rue de la Donane in a business district of Paris on June 5th, 1856 - the daughter of a retired actor who, with the help of his wife, was then keeper of the buffet at the Theater Ambigu.
So it was that the little Gabrielle virtually grew up in the lobby of the Ambigu where she was permitted to watch all the plays and was often admitted into the dressing rooms of the performers, all of whom knew and loved her. This instilled in Gabrielle a great love of the theater and after a performance she would mimic for her mother the performances she had seen on stage.
Gabrielle was not quite five when her father died, and the family fell upon hard times, her mother being left to support the both of them on her own resources. Gabrielle was sent to a school nearby and her mother gave her a franc each day to attend to her own supper at a local restaurant. She always took care to leave enough aside to buy an orange which she took with her to the balcony of the Ambigu to watch the evenings performance. When she was not in school Gabrielle helped her mother to supplement their income making palm fans for a business on Rue Meslay.
When war came to France in 1870, the ruling monarch Napoleon III was captured with whole his army at Sedan, and the Republican forces raised following his loss being quickly defeated France capitulated. Paris, which had suffered under German bombardment during the war, saw even greater bloodshed in the aftermath when a socialist revolution resulting in the short lived Paris Commune seized power. For Gabrielle and her mother, the fighting was brought quite literally to their doorstep when the cummunards erected a barricade across the Rue de Lorette where they were then living and shots were exchanged there.
When peace returned to the city Gabrielle was sent to the Boulet boarding school to complete here education. On graduation, she was offered a post there and, for the time being at least, accepted the class of the smallest children. But Gabrielle still dreamed of being an actress, leading to many arguments with her mother who was greatly in favour of her settling down to the life of a school teacher.
But eventually her mothers objections were won over, and by way of her mothers contacts, a friend of a friend arranged an interview for her with the legendary actor Regnier, only recently retired. Regnier tried to dissuade her from her objective, but was so moved by her resolution he consented to take her on for two months, provided that she promised to give up her aspirations of being an actress if at the end of that time he told her she was not made for it. Before the time was up however, it was abundantly clear that made for it she was, and Regnier used his influence to win her a scholarship at the Conservatoire under his tutelage.
To help pay for her living she gave elocution lessons on her own account. She won second prize on her graduation, whereupon the foremost Parisian drama critic, Francisque Sarcey, evoked a great storm of denunciation that she had been overlooked for the top award. Which such publicity in her favour she had little difficulty in securing her first engagement at the Vaudeville Theater. Although it was not a big part, it was a beginning and Gabrielle remained there for the next few years developing her talent.
Although still not yet generally recognised, in 1882 Gabrielle signed a three year contract with M. Bertrand at the Varieties. It was to be a fortuitous union, and soon the name of Rejane was known all across Paris. No longer was it a problem to find engagements for her, but rather of which ones to choose from the many that were offered. The biggest success in her career came in 1893 when she played the title role in Sardou's Napoleonic comedy "Madame Sans-Gene".
That same year she married Monsieur Porel, a director of the Vaudeville Theater where her career had begun. She then embarked on her first foreign tours, taking "Madame sans Gene" first to New York and then to London. She was rapturously received in both capitals, thus establishing her as an undoubted international star.
Gabrielle's marriage to Porel brought two children, a daughter Germaine, and son Jacques. It was troubled however, by her husbands wandering eye. They parted for a time in 1899 but reconciled for the sake of the children. In 1903 however, Gabrielle instituted divorce proceedings against Porel, and although for a time a second reconciliation seemed possible when he showered her with her favourite flowers, the rift this time was permanent and the proceedings became increasingly acrimonious.
Porel sued his wife over alleged contract violations regarding engagements he had made for her at the Vaudeville, and served writs upon all the other theatrical managers in Paris withdrawing the authorisation which he had given to her in 1895 to sign engagements without his consent. Having thus made it difficult for Gabrielle to find work in Paris, she reponded by simply renting her own theatre, Le Theatre Rejane, in which to stage her own productions.
Her popularity continued on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1905, James Hazen Hyde, who had just inherited control of the Equitable Life Assurance company, had organised a grand ball at Sherry's in New York and engaged Mme Rejane to come over from France just to recite "Racine". Rejane scandalised New York on that occasion however by climbing on a table and dancing the can-can with gay abandon.
In 1909 she toured South Africa and in 1911 returned to America to make a movie version of her greatest stage successes, "Madame Sans Gene". She was signed by the same company that had engaged Sarah Bernhardt for the same purpose, and the films they made were both enormously successful - some cinema managers payed in excess of 2000 pounds for the rights to show them.
She continued to appear regularly on stage until her retirement in 1915. In recognition of her career she was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour, the red ribbon being presented to her by French President DesChanel at a luncheon given in her honour in the foyer of the Theatre Rejane in February 1920. Later that year she bacame ill, and died in Paris on 15th June, 1920, from a heart attack arising as a complication of pneumonia. She was buried in Cimetiere de Passy.
An attractive woman but never a special beauty, Gabrielle acheived greatness through her talent and sheer determination to succeed. A gregarious personality, she talked incessantly, interrupting her companions with bright remarks and deflecting every attempt at seriousness with some charming witticism or droll observation.'
So it was that the little Gabrielle virtually grew up in the lobby of the Ambigu where she was permitted to watch all the plays and was often admitted into the dressing rooms of the performers, all of whom knew and loved her. This instilled in Gabrielle a great love of the theater and after a performance she would mimic for her mother the performances she had seen on stage.
Gabrielle was not quite five when her father died, and the family fell upon hard times, her mother being left to support the both of them on her own resources. Gabrielle was sent to a school nearby and her mother gave her a franc each day to attend to her own supper at a local restaurant. She always took care to leave enough aside to buy an orange which she took with her to the balcony of the Ambigu to watch the evenings performance. When she was not in school Gabrielle helped her mother to supplement their income making palm fans for a business on Rue Meslay.
When war came to France in 1870, the ruling monarch Napoleon III was captured with whole his army at Sedan, and the Republican forces raised following his loss being quickly defeated France capitulated. Paris, which had suffered under German bombardment during the war, saw even greater bloodshed in the aftermath when a socialist revolution resulting in the short lived Paris Commune seized power. For Gabrielle and her mother, the fighting was brought quite literally to their doorstep when the cummunards erected a barricade across the Rue de Lorette where they were then living and shots were exchanged there.
When peace returned to the city Gabrielle was sent to the Boulet boarding school to complete here education. On graduation, she was offered a post there and, for the time being at least, accepted the class of the smallest children. But Gabrielle still dreamed of being an actress, leading to many arguments with her mother who was greatly in favour of her settling down to the life of a school teacher.
But eventually her mothers objections were won over, and by way of her mothers contacts, a friend of a friend arranged an interview for her with the legendary actor Regnier, only recently retired. Regnier tried to dissuade her from her objective, but was so moved by her resolution he consented to take her on for two months, provided that she promised to give up her aspirations of being an actress if at the end of that time he told her she was not made for it. Before the time was up however, it was abundantly clear that made for it she was, and Regnier used his influence to win her a scholarship at the Conservatoire under his tutelage.
To help pay for her living she gave elocution lessons on her own account. She won second prize on her graduation, whereupon the foremost Parisian drama critic, Francisque Sarcey, evoked a great storm of denunciation that she had been overlooked for the top award. Which such publicity in her favour she had little difficulty in securing her first engagement at the Vaudeville Theater. Although it was not a big part, it was a beginning and Gabrielle remained there for the next few years developing her talent.
Although still not yet generally recognised, in 1882 Gabrielle signed a three year contract with M. Bertrand at the Varieties. It was to be a fortuitous union, and soon the name of Rejane was known all across Paris. No longer was it a problem to find engagements for her, but rather of which ones to choose from the many that were offered. The biggest success in her career came in 1893 when she played the title role in Sardou's Napoleonic comedy "Madame Sans-Gene".
That same year she married Monsieur Porel, a director of the Vaudeville Theater where her career had begun. She then embarked on her first foreign tours, taking "Madame sans Gene" first to New York and then to London. She was rapturously received in both capitals, thus establishing her as an undoubted international star.
Gabrielle's marriage to Porel brought two children, a daughter Germaine, and son Jacques. It was troubled however, by her husbands wandering eye. They parted for a time in 1899 but reconciled for the sake of the children. In 1903 however, Gabrielle instituted divorce proceedings against Porel, and although for a time a second reconciliation seemed possible when he showered her with her favourite flowers, the rift this time was permanent and the proceedings became increasingly acrimonious.
Porel sued his wife over alleged contract violations regarding engagements he had made for her at the Vaudeville, and served writs upon all the other theatrical managers in Paris withdrawing the authorisation which he had given to her in 1895 to sign engagements without his consent. Having thus made it difficult for Gabrielle to find work in Paris, she reponded by simply renting her own theatre, Le Theatre Rejane, in which to stage her own productions.
Her popularity continued on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1905, James Hazen Hyde, who had just inherited control of the Equitable Life Assurance company, had organised a grand ball at Sherry's in New York and engaged Mme Rejane to come over from France just to recite "Racine". Rejane scandalised New York on that occasion however by climbing on a table and dancing the can-can with gay abandon.
In 1909 she toured South Africa and in 1911 returned to America to make a movie version of her greatest stage successes, "Madame Sans Gene". She was signed by the same company that had engaged Sarah Bernhardt for the same purpose, and the films they made were both enormously successful - some cinema managers payed in excess of 2000 pounds for the rights to show them.
She continued to appear regularly on stage until her retirement in 1915. In recognition of her career she was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour, the red ribbon being presented to her by French President DesChanel at a luncheon given in her honour in the foyer of the Theatre Rejane in February 1920. Later that year she bacame ill, and died in Paris on 15th June, 1920, from a heart attack arising as a complication of pneumonia. She was buried in Cimetiere de Passy.
An attractive woman but never a special beauty, Gabrielle acheived greatness through her talent and sheer determination to succeed. A gregarious personality, she talked incessantly, interrupting her companions with bright remarks and deflecting every attempt at seriousness with some charming witticism or droll observation.'
- Stage Beauty
'Gabrielle Rejane was widely regarded as the embodiment of the Parisienne, and when she died in 1920, Le Figaro said that Paris had lost its soul.'
- Wikipedia
- Wikipedia
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