Dolores or Rose Dolores (born Kathleen Mary Rose; 26 September 1893 – 7 November 1975) was an English model. She is recognised as the first celebrity clothes model and has been credited with inventing the ''blank hauteur'' of the modern fashion model.
["De Meyer at Vogue: Commercializing Queer Affect in First World War-era Fashion Photography"]
Elspeth H. Brown
''Photography & Culture
''Photography & Culture'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Routledge. It was started in 2008 by Berg Publishers and was published by Bloomsbury Publishing until 2015. The editors-in-chief are Kathy Kubicki (University for ...
'', Volume 2, Issue 3, November 2009, pp. 253–274
Archived here.
/ref> Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.
Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the ''Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also p ...
called her "the loveliest showgirl in the world".[Ziegfeld, Richard and Paulette Ziegfeld. (1993) ''The Ziegfeld Touch: The Life and Times of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.'' New York: Harry N. Abrams, p. 292. ] She was known for her commanding stage presence and became the star of the Ziegfeld Follies
The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air ...
from 1917 until her retirement in 1923. She lived the rest of her life in Paris and during the Second World War helped Allied airmen escape the German occupation.
Early life
Kathleen Rose was born in Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, near London, on 26 September 1893. Her father was Harry Rose (born Northleigh, Oxfordshire), a former police officer, and her mother was Ellen Ann ("Nellie") Rose (born Vauxhall, London), a dressmaker. Kathleen had a sister, Eva Alice Rose (1890–1973).[''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007''] Newspaper reports say that Kathleen was born into poverty and in the 1901 England Census, Harry is shown without occupation. In the 1911 return he is marked as "Paralized 20 years". The family had two boarders and a visitor living with them at the time of the 1901 census when they were at 61 Russell Road, Wimbledon. Kathleen was not living with her parents at the time of the 1911 census.[1901 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription. findmypast.co.uk Retrieved 22 November 2014.][1911 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription. findmypast.co.uk Retrieved 22 November 2014.]
Around 1910, Kathleen started work for the fashion designer Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (née Sutherland; 13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935) was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile.
The first British-based designe ...
. Newspaper reports, which may not be reliable, say she started as an errand girl after being forced to leave school, presumably for financial reasons. Lady Duff-Gordon recognised that Kathleen's height of at least , elegant figure and blonde hair, made her an ideal clothes model.[Rose Dolores.]
''Broadway Photographs''. Retrieved 21 November 2014. She trained Kathleen as one of her mannequins (models) and renamed her "Dolores". Duff-Gordon later described Dolores as the best mannequin that she ever had. Dolores was photographed wearing Duff-Gordon's creations in Paris in 1912, the same year the designer and her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, survived the ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS ''Titanic''.
Ziegfeld years
During the First World War, Duff-Gordon's focus shifted to her New York office which she had opened in 1910. For her New York fashion shows she imported her own models from England, although Dolores was not among the first she brought over. The shows became so popular that she had to start holding them in a theatre. It was probably at one such event around 1916 that Florenz Ziegfeld and his wife Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North ...
discovered Duff-Gordon's designs and her model Dolores.[Mendes, Valerie D. & Amy De La Haye. (2009) ''Lucile Ltd: London, Paris, New York and Chicago: 1890s–1930s''. London: V & A Publishing, pp. 176 & 184. ] Ziegfeld was enraptured by Dolores and the luxurious spectacle of the show and Burke ordered two of Duff-Gordon's creations.[Carter, Randolph. (1974) ''The World of Flo Ziegfeld''. London: Paul Elek, pp. 59–60. ] Soon, Duff-Gordon was making costumes for Ziegfeld's theatrical productions, the ''Ziegfeld Follies''.
Ziegfeld decided to base a scene in his next ''Follies'' on one of Duff-Gordon's fashion shows and to use Duff-Gordon's girls to model the clothes. Duff-Gordon warned, "But they do not know how to sing or dance, let alone talk." Ziegfeld assured her that all they had to do was walk and wear the clothes.[Mizejewski, Linda. (1999) ''Ziegfeld Girl: Image and Icon in Culture and Cinema.'' Durham: ]Duke University Press
Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 Du ...
, p. 95. Thus was invented the Show Girl, whose job, unlike the Chorus Girl, was simply to be beautiful and to model clothes. The Duff-Gordon models were already trained in the Lucile Slither to which Ziegfeld added the Ziegfeld Walk, which enabled a girl to descend a staircase in full costume in such a way as to accentuate her natural attributes without appearing ungainly.[Schweitzer, 2009, p. 200.]
/ref>
The fashion scene was only part of the show, however, which continued to have comedians, singers and dancers, and Duff-Gordon's models were not mentioned as principal players on the bill.
Appearances
Dolores' first appearance for Ziegfeld was in the ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1917'' in which she played the Empress of Fashion in the "Ladies of Fashion, An Episode in Chiffon". As the tallest and most stately, Dolores came on last in a parade of nine girls in chiffon gowns of varying degrees of transparency. Her dress was known as "The Discourager of Hesitancy" in accordance with Duff-Gordon's practice of giving her gowns provocative names.
In ''Midnight Frolic of 1919'', Dolores played the part of The White Peacock in the Tropical Birds number. She wore a high peacock costume designed by Pascaud of Paris which Marjorie Farnsworth described as "one of the loveliest costumes ever seen on Broadway".[Farnsworth, Marjorie. (1956) ''The Ziegfeld Follies''. New York: Putnam, pp. 99–102.] According to one reviewer, a member of the audience asked another, "Is she going to dance?" to which the reply came, "A woman who can stand and walk like that doesn't have to dance." The idea of a peacock costume was not new as Anna Held
Helene Anna Held (19 March 1872 – 12 August 1918) was a Polish-French stage performer on Broadway. While appearing in London, she was spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, who brought her to America as his common-law wife. From 1896 through ...
had worn one in ''Follow Me'' in 1916 but it was Dolores who made it her own. Gertrude Hoffmann wore a similar costume in 1920.[Reilly, Anne. (2012]
''From Lucile's Showroom to Ziegfeld's Stage: Fashion, Celebrity Culture and Theatre Spectacle''.
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Retrieved 24 November 2014.
Dolores, like the other former mannequins, was only required to walk and pose when on stage. It was said that she never smiled during an appearance. In 1920, however, she had her first speaking part in the musical comedy ''Sally
Sally may refer to:
People
*Sally (name), a list of notable people with the name
Military
*Sortie (siege warfare), Sally (military), an attack by the defenders of a town or fortress under siege against a besieging force; see sally port
*Sally, ...
'', where she played the minor role of Mrs Ten Broek. It is not recorded whether she was required to smile during the performance.
As Dolores' fame grew, so did her earnings. When she started with Ziegfeld, she earned $75 per week but by 1923 this had risen to $500 per week. In October 1920 she was able to travel first class on the RMS ''Aquitania'' between Britain and America with her sister. In August 1922, the sisters made the same trip on the RMS ''Olympic'', sister ship of the RMS ''Titanic''. She was the subject of syndicated articles that appeared in newspapers across America, often praising her beauty in the most effusive and florid terms. One article claimed her beauty was "acclaimed in every civilized land" and there were geometric diagrams demonstrating the perfect symmetry of her face.
Style
Dolores had a laconic and androgynous beauty, and a haughty demeanor on stage that had been cultivated by Duff-Gordon and was naturally aided by Dolores' height. It was said that Duff-Gordon had trained her to act like a Duchess. Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland (September 29, 1903 – August 22, 1989) was a French-American fashion columnist and editor. She worked for the fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' and as editor-in-chief at ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', later becoming a special c ...
commented, "I remember his iegfeld'sgirls so vividly. Dolores was the greatest of them – a totally Gothic English beauty. She was very highly paid just to walk across the stage – and the whole place would go to pieces. It was a good walk I can tell you – it had such fluidity and grace. Everything I know about walking comes from watching Ziegfeld's girls."
Influence
The principal attribute that Dolores brought to the ''Follies'' was not beauty but attitude. She didn't sing or dance and she didn't speak on stage until later in her career, but the combination of Duff-Gordon's costumes, Ziegfeld's staging and Dolores' commanding stage presence has been seen as influencing the performances of generations of American showgirls, from Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted Fran ...
up to the modern day. Of Duff-Gordon's models generally, Randolph Carter has said that their "regal manner and astonishing hauteur were helpful in maintaining proper decorum at the ''Midnight Frolic'' 918 etc.where liquor flowed rather freely". Of Dolores specifically, it has been said that her unsmiling "blank hauteur" was the template for the performance style of the modern fashion model.
Marriage
On 15 May 1923, Dolores married the St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
art collector Tudor Wilkinson in Paris and retired from the stage.["Most Beautiful Woman in World Quit Stage Cold for Her Husband"]
''The Milwaukee Journal
The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently o ...
'', 22 January 1935. p. 1. The ceremony took place in the ''mairie'' of the first arrondissement and later at the oratory of the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
. Mr and Mrs Dudley Field Malone
Dudley Field Malone (June 3, 1885 – October 5, 1955) was an American attorney, politician, liberal activist, and actor. Malone is best remembered as one of the most prominent liberal attorneys in the United States during the decade of the 1920s ...
were the witnesses. In 1925, the American press reported that the couple lived on the Île Saint-Louis
Île Saint-Louis (), in size, is one of two natural islands in the Seine river, in Paris, France (the other natural island is the Île de la Cité, where Notre-Dame de Paris is located). Île Saint-Louis is connected to the rest of Paris by ...
in a house overlooking Notre-Dame Cathedral
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
,["How Wild Paris Tamed Our 'Peacock Girl' ".]
''Springfield Missouri Republican'', 30 August 1925, p. 22. newspapers.com Retrieved 24 November 2014. most likely the three-storey apartment at 18 Quai d'Orleans referred to in later sources.
After her marriage, Dolores adopted the severe masculine style of dress and hair popular at that time, appearing in ''Eve, The Lady's Pictorial'' in 1925 in a suit jacket and tie. The mannish appearance, uncharacteristic (in photographs) half-smile, and the knowing look in the picture has caused later commentators to wonder whether Dolores was signalling that she was a lesbian, but there is no evidence to suggest that she was and her appearance at this time may simply have been a fashion statement. The photograph appeared, slightly changed, on the cover of ''Fashioning Sapphism: The Origins of a Modern English Lesbian Culture'' by Laura Doan in 2013.
World War II
Paris was occupied by the Germans during World War II. Many Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
citizens were interned
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
, and Dolores (born in England and married to an American) was detained at the German internment camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
at Vittel
Vittel (; archaic ) is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France.
Mineral water is bottled and sold here by Nestlé Waters France, under the '' Vittel'' brand.
History
In 1854, after visiting the baths at nearby ...
. The exact dates of her detention are unknown, and it is possible that Dolores did not spend her whole detention at Vittel. Vittel was a former hotel and spa, and relatively comfortable as internment camps went.
Tudor Wilkinson, as far as is known, was not detained. After the war, the American Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
Art Looting Investigation Unit wrote that he kept a watch on the Paris art market for Sepp Angerer, Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
's art agent, and that Dolores had been released from Vittel after Göring made a personal visit to the Wilkinsons' apartment. In his life of Göring, David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving (born 24 March 1938) is an English author and Holocaust denier who has written on the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany. His works include ''The Destruction of Dresden'' (19 ...
wrote that the visit took place in 1940, and that Wilkinson wrote to Göring a year later to thank him for interceding, and telling him that he should keep a painting of Juliana von Stolberg that he had admired in their apartment: "We both agreed that we wanted you to have 'Juliana' always, to thank you for what you so modestly did for s" In 1946, Tudor Wilkinson was placed on the OSS "red flag" list of people and organisations that were involved in the art trade under the Nazis, with the caveat that police reports indicated that he was active in the Resistance.[Post-War Reports: Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945–1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index.]
lootedart.com Retrieved 27 November 2014.
According to the memoirs of Drue Tartière, Dolores and Tudor Wilkinson were both heavily involved in the Resistance. Tartière had also been in Vittel, and had managed to obtain a release on the false grounds that she was dying of cancer. She went on to help smuggle at least 42 Allied airmen out of occupied territory. She wrote that a short wave radio had been concealed at 18 Quai d'Orléans so that the Resistance could communicate with London, and machine guns were hidden behind the fireplace and elsewhere in the apartment. Tudor Wilkinson's secretary, who had been a professor at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
, was active in organising sabotage by railway workers.[Tartière & Werner, 1946, pp. 241–242.]
/ref>
Even after the Americans liberated Paris, the situation in the city remained dangerous in the first few days. Isolated German units and snipers continued to be active. Dolores' sister Eva was shot in the stomach while standing in front of a window in the Wilkinsons' apartment. On the evening of the same day, there was a German bombing raid, and the apartment was hit by multiple incendiary bombs
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...
that started several fires. The Wilkinsons and Drue Tartière managed to throw the bombs out of the window or smother them in sand. As they were doing so, a large bomb exploded near Notre Dame and water from the Seine
)
, mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur
, mouth_coordinates =
, mouth_elevation =
, progression =
, river_system = Seine basin
, basin_size =
, tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle
, tributarie ...
splashed their faces. Dolores collapsed with a "heart attack" and her husband was burned on the arms and legs when he tried to extinguish an incendiary with water. The situation outside was just as bad, with whole buildings collapsing from fire while German snipers shot and killed French firefighters attending to the blazes. Tartière left Paris immediately after this attack, and her account provides no later information about the Wilkinsons or whether Eva survived her injuries.Tartière & Werner, 1946, pp. 310–313.
/ref>
Death
Dolores died in Paris on 7 November 1975.
by Peter S. Flint, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 20 November 1975, p. 44.
Selected stage appearances
*''Ziegfeld Follies of 1917''
*''Miss 1917
''Miss 1917'' is a musical revue with a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, music by Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern and others, and lyrics by Harry B. Smith, Otto Harbach, Henry Blossom and others. Made up of a string of vignettes, the show fea ...
''
*''Fleurette's Dream'' (1917)
*''Ziegfeld Follies of 1918''
*''Midnight Frolic of 1918''
*''Midnight Frolic of 1919''
*''Ziegfeld Nine O'Clock Review'' (1919)
*''Midnight Frolic of 1920''
*''Sally
Sally may refer to:
People
*Sally (name), a list of notable people with the name
Military
*Sortie (siege warfare), Sally (military), an attack by the defenders of a town or fortress under siege against a besieging force; see sally port
*Sally, ...
'' (1920)
Notes and references
External links
Historical Ziegfeld Group
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolores
1893 births
1975 deaths
Ziegfeld girls
English female models
People from Wimbledon, London
British expatriates in France
British expatriates in the United States
Models from London