Stephanie Deste (22 January 1901 – 14 April 1996) was an Australian actor, dancer, radio broadcaster, and beautician. Deste made important contributions to Australian theatrical culture through her stage and radio work and was an influence and inspiration to other artists. She was a resident of Melbourne from 1936 to her death in 1996; with her flamboyant dress and mannerisms and a conspicuous public presence, Deste was considered to be one of the great characters of Melbourne.
Deste was born into a Jewish family in Belgium but settled in England as a child after the death of her father. She studied acting and dance and found regular work in London theatrical productions. By the early 1920s she had relocated to North America where she found work in Chicago and New York, often in roles portraying a sensuous exotic dancer. In 1925, Deste was engaged to play the Indigenous Canadian temptress Wanda in JC Williamson's Australian production of Rose-Marie, which proved to be highly successful, running for two years (which included a record-breaking season in Sydney followed by a tour of the Australian states and New Zealand). Deste's performance as Wanda, leading the spectacular Totem dancers, was considered a highlight of the show. In 1928 she featured in The Desert Song in Melbourne, before returning to Europe for about six years where she performed and organised theatrical productions, as well as studying modern methods of cosmetic treatments in Paris.
Deste returned to Australia in 1936 and settled in Melbourne where she operated and managed successful beauty clinics, made regular radio broadcasts and occasionally returned to the stage. She was well known in Melbourne due to a high public profile and her ostentatious and exuberant personal style.
Early life
Stephanie Deste was born Fanny Rosine Deitz on 22 January 1901 at Liège in Belgium, the daughter of Isidore Deitz, a linen merchant from a Sephardic Jewish family, and Christine Manheim, a musician from a Dutch family of goldsmiths and musicians. Fanny's father died when she was young and by 1911 she, her mother, and her younger sister, were living in England (at Eastbourne in county Sussex) with her maternal aunt, Flora van Lier, and her husband Simon (both professional violinists).Jeanne Pratt (1976), The 'Legend' Was No Tenor, Australian Jewish News (Melbourne), 23 April 1976, page 17.
Fanny's first acting roles were "playing child parts in Shakespearean presentations".Stephanie D'Este Introduces a New Version of Salome to Little Old New York by Elita Miller Lenz, The Billboard (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA), 16 August 1924 ('Fall Special'), Vol. 36 Issue 33, page 32. In 1914, aged thirteen, Fanny began studying acting and dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Career Theatrical career
Fanny Dietz adopted the stage name of 'Stephanie D'Este'.Engagements, Variety (New York), 24 May 1923, page 5.
By 1917, aged sixteen years, D'Este was a member of a company of actors in London performing two plays a week, presenting melodramas such as The Lights o' London and The Dangers of New York. As a fluent French speaker, she was also a member of a French company. D'Este played leading roles in the comedy play Masks and Faces and in 1920 she had a role in the bazaar scene of Chu Chin Chow in London, which she played "with a snake curled up on her shoulder".Music and Drama, The Telegraph (Brisbane), 26 November 1927, page 6.Plays and Players, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 30 October 1920, page 8.
In September 1921. D'Este travelled to Canada to perform in John Galsworthy's play The Skin Game. By her later account, the play "flopped"; when it was time to return to England D'Este "ran away" and eventually made her way to Chicago. D'Este had decided to remain in America because the theatres of London were "still recovering" from the effects of World War I. In a 1924 interview she "defined America as the land of activity and England as a nice land in which to be lazy". In Chicago D'Este was initially unable to find a job because of her English accent, a period she later described as involving "some starvation and several misadventures".
D'Este eventually relocated to New York "where the English accent was an asset" and found work with the Theatre Guild, appearing in many of their productions including Peer Gynt.Stage Notes, The Age (Melbourne), 25 June 1938, page 6. She also found work with the Marion Wilcox Company on Long Island. From November to February 1923 D'Este performed the role of "a gentlewoman" in Shakespeare's Hamlet, at the Sam H. Harris Theatre in New York's theatre district (with a cast that included John Barrymore in the title role and Tyrone Power Sr. as Claudius, King of Denmark).
D'Este was cast as Salome in Oscar Wilde's play of the same name by the Co-Operative Play Company in Chicago. While she was engaged with the company D'Este became ill and spent several months in hospital. After her recovery she found work as a model, before returning to New York where in 1924 she was engaged to again play Salome.
By July 1924 D'Este was performing in the title role in Salome, playing at The Triangle Theatre in Greenwich Village, New York.Stephanie D'Este Charms in New Triangle Bill, The Billboard (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA), 26 July 1924, Vol. 36 Issue 30, page 6; The Spoken Word by Windsor P. Daggett, The Billboard, 13 September 1924, Vol. 36 Issue 37, page 39. In her performances in both New York and Chicago, Stephanie D'Este ended up playing the title role in Oscar Wilde's Salome a total of 850 times.Stephanie Deste Heads Wonderful Dance in "Rose Marie", Sunday Times (Sydney), 6 June 1926, page 27. D'Este was forced to discontinue her role as Salome at The Triangle after she sprained her ankle, followed by a bout of influenza. After recovering, by about March 1925 she was playing The Woman in a one-act version of The Woman of Samaria at The Triangle Theatre, as well as performing dances at the Yiddish Art Theatre. During this period she found roles in motion pictures, including as a dancer in the silent film Soul Fire.Stephanie D'Este Busy, The Billboard (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA), 21 March 1925, Vol. 37 Issue 12, page 72. D'Este also had several small roles in films featuring Douglas Fairbanks.
From April to June 1925 D'Este had a prominent role in Aloma of the South Seas, a play by LeRoy Clemens and John B. Hymer, which was performed in the Lyric Theatre on 42nd Street in New York.
The operetta Rose-Marie, written by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, had opened in the Imperial Theatre in New York in September 1924. One day during 1925 D'Este was attending a matinee of the performance, sitting in the front near the stage, when an usher tapped her on the shoulder and told her Mr. Hammerstein wished to speak to her backstage. Hammerstein told her the leading lady had broken her jaw and the actress playing the mixed-blood Indigenous Canadian girl Wanda was to move into the leading role of Rose-Marie. He offered the role of Wanda to D'Este, to start the following afternoon. Stephanie accepted; as she later described, she "learnt the lines all night in a cafeteria", adding "I faked the dancing". The musical proved to be a success, running in New York until January 1926. Towards the end of the New York season Nevin Tait of J. C. Williamson's engaged D'Este for a three-month season of Rose-Marie in Australia.
To Australia
Stephanie D'Este arrived in Australia in February 1926 aboard the Sierra from San Francisco.For the Theatre: New Artists Arrive, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 24 February 1926, page 2. From her earliest weeks in the country, newspapers in Australia most often rendered Stephanie D'Este's name as 'Stephanie Deste', the name by which she became known in Australia.A search of Trove (Newspapers & Gazettes) gives 21 results for the phrase "Stephanie D'Este", compared with 1,987 results for "Stephanie Deste".
Rose-Marie opened in Sydney at His Majesty's Theatre on 29 May 1926. A critic writing for The Sun newspaper described the musical as having "been staged on a scale of such affecting magnificence that serious criticism is disarmed", adding that "the lavishness of the production left the audience blinking through a mist of gratitude". Stephanie Deste's performance "as the half-breed Wanda" was described as "one of the successes of the night"."Rose Marie": Expense No Object, The Sun (Sydney), 30 May 1926, page 2. She captured the attention of the audience "with her exotic looks and sensuous dancing". Deste's character performed the 'Totem Tom-Tom' song, which introduced the spectacular 'Totem Pole' ballet. A critic for The Sunday Times described the dancers in the following terms: "So bewilderingly beautiful is it, so dazzling in its kaleidoscopic changes, so startling and breath-catching in the novelty of its evolutions, that one is left gasping".Rose Marie's Triumph by 'J.G.V.', Sunday Times (Sydney), 6 June 1926, page 27.
In August 1926 Stephanie Deste and fellow-actor Arthur Greenaway performed the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet as part of the 'Daffodil Matinee', a charity event for 'Karitane', an Australian mothercraft society, at the St. James Theatre in Elizabeth Street in Sydney.Daffodil Matinee, The Sun (Sydney), 30 August 1926, page 5; Theatre Stars, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 30 August 1926, page 10.
The Sydney production of Rose-Marie was an "extraordinary success"."Rose Marie": Brilliant Musical Play, Weekly Times (Melbourne), 5 March 1927, page 16."Rose Marie", Weekly Times (Melbourne), 25 December 1926, page 16. In mid-January 1927 it was reported that Rose-Marie had run for 270 nights, with the 1,500-seat Her Majesty's Theatre booked out each night.Record "Rose Marie", Truth (Brisbane), 23 January 1927, page 10. An article in 1938 recounted the "excitement" caused by Rose-Marie in Sydney during "those comparatively carefree years", when "the totem-pole ballet and Stephanie Deste's fan-dance swept the town". Running from late May 1926 until late February 1927 in Sydney, the musical comedy held the record for the longest run of any play in Australia.Music and Drama, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 June 1938, page 20.
Rose-Marie opened in Melbourne on 26 February 1927 in His Majesty's Theatre in Exhibition Street. A critic who attended the opening night explained that beside the lead characters of Rose-Marie and Herman, the most prominent character in the musical was the "dark-skinned 'vamp'" Wanda, "strikingly portrayed by Miss Stephanie Deste, who dances with rare abandon". With her principal song 'Totem Tom-Tom', Deste introduced the Totem Pole Ballet, made up of fifty young women, who did "their work perfectly" and were comparable with "Ziegfeld's far-famed Follies".