GILDA GRAY

Gilda Gray was an actress from the 1920s to the 1930s. She had a fascinating life! She was born as Marianna Michalska in Poland in 1901 and her parents died, and she was adopted from an orphanage by a couple who took her to America in 1909, and had her singing in a saloon as a teen. She became a cabaret dancer in New York City, and she invented "The Shimmy", where she wiggled her hips and shoulders, while maintaining an innocent expression. This earned her the nickname of "The Shimmy Girl" and became a massive success, but she scandalized many people. Still, Miss Gray rode it to great fame, including appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1922. She entered movies, and had success in the middle 1920s. But she lost her life savings in the 1929 Stock Market Crash, and in 1931, she had a heart attack, and she had also had three failed marriages. She made one more film appearance in 1936 and she filed for bankruptcy in 1941. In 1946, she sued Columbia Pictures, claiming that their hit "Gilda" was based on her life, and after eight years, she received a "substantial" out of court settlement. She passed away in 1959 from food poisoning at the age of 58. Surely a movie of her fascinating up-and-down life will be made someday!