Alice Henriette Lapize (3 March 1889 – 10 February 1979), better known by her stage name, Alice Delysia and sometimes Elise Delisia,Alice Delysia at Internet Broadway Database was a French actress and singer who made her career in English musical theatre. After performing in the chorus at the Moulin Rouge and other theatres in Paris from the age of 14, she became a chorus girl in Edwardian musical comedies, briefly on Broadway in 1905, then in London for several years and back in Paris in 1912.
She got her big break in 1913, when she was offered a leading role in a revue presented by the impresario C B Cochran. The show was a hit and established Delysia as a star. During World War I, she starred in a string of West End revues and an operetta, all of which consolidated her success. In the star vehicle Afgar, from 1919 to 1921, first in London, then New York and on tour in the U.S., Delysia's fame was at its height, and her lively performance was celebrated by the critics. Returning to London in 1922, Delysia fell ill and was forced to withdraw temporarily from the stage.
From 1924, she was again starring in revues, including the successful 1925 London show On With the Dance, which helped to establish Noël Coward's fame. Another highlight, in 1926, was Princess Charming. In the later 1920s and the 1930s she played in a range of musical theatre and, increasingly, in non-musical comic plays in London, earning further critical accolades. During the Second World War she abandoned the West End and devoted herself to entertaining British and allied troops, marrying a naval officer in the Free French Forces. After the war, she retired completely, accompanying her diplomat husband on various overseas postings. She returned to England in her last years.
Life and career Early years Delysia was born Alice Henriette Lapize, in Paris, the daughter of Henri Lapize, a sculptor, and Mathilde Douce."Delysia, Alice", Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 3 February 2012 She was a cousin of French bicyclist Octave Lapize.Bobet, Jean. "Lapize, celui-la était un As", La table ronde, April 2003, p. 186 Delysia was educated at the . In 1903, at the age of 14, she made her stage debut in the chorus for the French premiere of The Belle of New York at the Théâtre du Moulin Rouge. During the next two years she was in the chorus of the Variétés and the Folies Bergère."Delysia, Alice" The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre, Ed. Phyllis Hartnoll and Peter Found. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online, accessed 3 February 2012
In 1905 Delysia was one of the French "Gibson Girls" in The Catch of the Season at Daly's Theatre, New York, with Edna May in the leading role. She moved to London, where she continued to appear on the stage until 1909, when she temporarily abandoned the theatrical profession. She lived for some years with the singer and songwriter Harry Fragson. In 1912 they parted, and she returned to France, resuming her theatrical career in Paris, in, among other shows, a French translation of The Quaker Girl."Delysia Alice", Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. Muze Inc and Oxford University Press, 2009, accessed 3 February 2012
In 1913, Delysia was spotted by the English impresario C B Cochran, who saw her playing a small role at the Olympia variety theatre in Paris. He was planning to stage intimate Parisian-style revue in London, and he offered Delysia £6 a week to appear for him in London.Short and Compton-Rickett, p. 256 He gave her the starring role in his first revue in 1914, Odds and Ends, by Harry Grattan at the Ambassadors Theatre. Cochran's biographer James Harding writes that Odds and Ends "set the standard of all his subsequent revues: beautiful dresses, taste, wit, elegance, brightness, and colour."Harding, James. "Cochran, Sir Charles Blake (1872–1951)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2005, accessed 3 February 2012 The Times called the show "a pleasant piece of nonsense and sense combined","A Play About Louvain", The Times, 17 October 1914, p. 11 The revue was originally the final part of a triple bill. The Daily Express commented on the first item:
The censor, the Lord Chamberlain, hastened to see the show, and demanded changes."Shocked the Censor", Daily Mirror, 23 October 1914, p. 2 After an uncertain start, the revue was a huge success; the song "We don't want to lose you, but we think you ought to go", encouraging young men to join the army, was a particular hit for Delysia. Within weeks the other items in the triple bill were dropped, and Odds and Ends was expanded to a full evening, with only a brief curtain raiser."Dramatis Personae", The Observer, 27 December 1914, p. 4 Within two months of the opening, Delysia was an established star, invited to take part with Muriel Foster, Charles Hawtrey, Oscar Asche and Isidore de Lara in a charity matinée attended by Queen Alexandra."Court Circular", The Times, 10 December 1914, p. 11 It was the first of many charity appearances that Delysia made during the war. Her biographer Anne Pimlott Baker writes that Delysia entertained wounded troops, and took many French refugees and orphans into her home. In 1916, she made her film début, and took a leading role in SHE, an adaptation of the Rider Haggard story, about a woman's passion for a young traveller."SHE", British Film Institute, accessed 13 February 2012
West End star Delysia was the star of the two further revues that Cochran staged at the Ambassadors, More, in 1915, again by Grattan, and Pell Mell by Fred Thompson and Morris Harvey in 1916. The authors of the latter announced that their show not only possessed no plot, but was "fully as coherent played backwards as it was played forwards."Short and Compton-Rickett, p. 257 It was nonetheless successful, and further enhanced Delysia's status. She had by now moved from earning £6 a week to £100.
In 1917 Cochran decided that the Ambassadors was too small to accommodate his planned productions, and he moved to the Prince of Wales Theatre, which with 1,000 seats had more than twice the capacity of the Ambassadors. He temporarily forsook revue and mounted an operetta, Carminetta, with music by Emile Lassailly, Herman Finck and Herman Darewski and libretto by André Barde and C A Carpentier."Carminetta", The Observer, 26 August 1917, p. 5; and "Carminetta at the Prince of Wales's", Manchester Guardian, 24 August 1917, p. 6 It starred Delysia in the title role as the passionate but prim daughter of Carmen and Don José. The Observer commented, "Mlle. Delysia raved and stormed and languished indefatigably in beads and short skirts." Delysia was not a trained singer, and nor were several other members of the cast; some critics commented on that fact, but it did not affect box-office business. The show ran from 23 August 1917 to 23 March 1918, transferring to the Garrick Theatre for the latter stages of the run."Theatres", The Times, 23 March 1918, p. 6
After the run of Carminetta, Delysia returned to revue in As You Were, composed by Herman Darewski and Edouard Mathe, with a book and lyrics by Arthur Wimperis, adapted from a French revue, Plus ça change by "Rip"; it ran for a year."Sir Charles Cochran", The Times, 1 February 1951, p. 8As You Were in The Play Pictorial, vol. 33, no. 199, p. 48 (8 March 1918). It opened in August 1918 at the London Pavilion, newly refurbished by Cochran ("transformed almost beyond recognition", according to The Observer)."As You Were", The Observer, 4 August 1918, p. 6 The show was structured around Delysia, giving her the chance to shine in a succession of roles including Ninon de l'Enclos, Helen of Troy, Elizabeth I, and Cleopatra. She also appeared as Lucifer, once again coming to the attention of the Lord Chamberlain for the skin-tight black costume in which she appeared. The Morning Post commented, "Never can an actress have worn so negligible a dress"."Morality in Stage Costume", The Daily Express, 9 October 1918, p. 2
Post-war Cochran's, and Delysia's, first new show after the war was Afgar by Fred Thompson and Worton David with music by Charles Cuvillier, which opened at the Pavilion in September 1919. It was an extravagant musical comedy set in a Moorish harem, with Delysia as Zaydee, who heads a harem strike leading to general monogamy."Afgar – Extravaganza at the Pavilion", The Times, 18 September 1919, p. 8 Of her performance, The Times said:
The show ran in London for 300 performances, after which Delysia sailed to New York at the end of 1920 for the Broadway production at the Central Theatre, for which she was paid £2,500 a week, a prodigious sum at that time."Alice Delysia in C.B.Cochran’s production 'Mayfair and Montmartre'", Victoria and Albert Museum, accessed 3 February 2012 The New York Times thought the show "sufficient-for-the-purpose" as a vehicle for the star, but declared Delysia to be "stunning"."Delysia Resplendent", The New York Times, 9 November 1920 After a holiday in France, Delysia returned to North America in August 1921 for a 30-week tour of Afgar. She told The New York Times that these would be her last appearances on the stage, as once the tour was over she was to marry "the best man in the world"."Alys [sic] Delysia Returns", The New York Times, 23 August 1921 It is not known who the man was, and no wedding took place.
Delysia remained on the stage, returning to London for Cochran's 1922 revue Mayfair and Montmartre. The show had a mixed reception,"Mr Cochran's New Revue", The Times, 10 March 1922, p. 10 and it suffered a fatal blow when Delysia lost her voice with a throat infection and had to withdraw from the cast six weeks into the run. She was ordered by a throat specialist to rest her voice for three months."Dramatis Personae", 21 May 1922, p. 11 Without its star, the show failed to attract the public, and Cochran closed it after less than two months, suffering a loss of £20,000.
In 1923 and 1924, Delysia made further Broadway appearances, in The Courtesan, a musical comedy, and in the Shubert revue, Topics of 1924. In 1925 she returned to the Cochran stable, starring in his revue On With the Dance, much of which was written and composed by Noël Coward. During rehearsals for the show, Cochran disliked Coward's song "Poor Little Rich Girl", written for Delysia, and he wanted to cut it. He backed down in the face of implacable resistance from the author and the performer, and it became Coward's first hit song.Coward, p. 193 Delysia became proprietorial about the number, and was outraged when Coward contemplated giving it to Gertrude Lawrence to sing in New York. Harding writes, "'Noel', she screamed with excellent command of idiom if not of accent, 'is a sheet and a boogairr.'"Quoted in Hoare, p. 143 Coward later wrote of Delysia, "Everything she did she did well, with a satisfying authority and assurance. She was occasionally temperamental and flew into a few continental rages but to me she was always easy to work with and extremely agreeable."Coward, p. 192 Cochran, too, found Delysia a congenial colleague; in his several volumes of autobiography he makes many references to her loyalty and good nature.
In 1923 and 1924, Delysia made further Broadway appearances, in The Courtesan, a musical comedy, and in the Shubert revue, Topics of 1924. In London, Delysia starred with George Grossmith, Jr and W. H. Berry in Princess Charming (1926), a Ruritanian musical comedy."Princess Charming", The Times, 22 October 1926, p. 16 In November 1928 she married Georges Emile Denis, the general manager of a newspaper. In 1929 she made her first appearance in a non-musical play, Her Past, a comedy by Frederick Jackson, co-starring Violet Vanbrugh. The Times said of her performance:
1930s