Alice Delysia

Alice Henriette Lapize (3 March 1889 – 10 February 1979), better known by her stage name, Alice Delysia and sometimes Elise Delisia, was a French actress and singer who made her career in English musical theatre.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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."

The Times called the show "a pleasant piece of nonsense and sense combined", The revue was originally the final part of a triple bill.

The Daily Express commented on the first item:

"This is the startling disrobing act performed by Mlle. Alice Delysia, a pretty young Frenchwoman, in a travesty called "My Lady's Undress", Fortunately, the incident ended abruptly, and in pitch darkness, otherwise the Censor of Plays, if he were present, might possibly have been seen to blush."

The censor, the Lord Chamberlain, hastened to see the show, and demanded changes.

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.

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.

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.

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."

It was nonetheless successful, and further enhanced Delysia's status.

She had by now moved from earning £6 a week to £100.

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.

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.

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.

Delysia was born Alice Henriette Lapize, in Paris, the daughter of Henri Lapize, a sculptor, and Mathilde Douce.

She was a cousin of French bicyclist Octave Lapize.

Delysia was educated at the Convent des Sœurs de Nevers.

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.