Arlette Dorgère (born Anna Mathilde Irma Jouve, 8 June 1880 – 1965) was a French

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, dancer, model, and singer, known internationally as a stage beauty before

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Early life

Anna Mathilde Irma Jouve was born in 1880, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Her father was a waiter.

Career

Dorgère began her stage career as a child, and she appeared in dozens of plays during her career. Her international celebrity was also focused on her beauty and off-stage activities. In 1907, she received $30,000 in damages when her legs were broken and her face was scratched in a traffic accident. She was billed as "the Parisian queen of Vaudeville" for her first London appearance in 1908. In 1909, her corseted waist was said to measure less than 20 inches. She made headlines again in 1911, when her

reticule Reticule can refer to: * Reticle, fine lines in the eyepiece of a sighting device * Reticule (handbag) A reticule, also known as a ridicule or indispensable, was a type of small handbag or purse, similar to a modern evening bag, used mainly f ...

and jewelry were stolen in a Paris shop. Dorgère was featured on a large number of postcards of the

Belle Époque The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...

. She was a popular model for posters and in French

magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

. Her clothing and hats were covered on fashion pages in newspapers. She was known for her love of perfumes; "It really is a sort of mania with me. I use perfume as perhaps no other woman of modern times uses it," she wrote in 1913. "Even my dog's fur is filled with sachet powder. My cats, my parrot and my horse all have their coats perfumed." In 1914, she was among the Paris actresses who volunteered to care for French troops wounded in World War I. She was in an Paris parade celebrating the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

in 1918.

Personal life

Dorgére was linked romantically with

Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia (; 24 November 1877 – 9 November 1943) was a son of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and a first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II. He followed a militar ...

in 1910. Between 1904 and 1929, she owned the Vigneux-sur-Seine chateau, also called the "château Dorgère". She died in Monaco in 1965.

Theatre appearances

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorgere, Arlette 1880 births French stage actresses Actresses from Paris 1965 deaths Belle Époque French models 20th-century French singers 20th-century French actresses 20th-century French dancers