Grace Palotta Explained
Grace Palotta |
Other Names: | Grace Parlotta |
Birth Date: | about 1870 |
Birth Place: | Vienna |
Death Date: | 21 February 1959 |
Death Place: | London |
Occupation: | Actress, Gaiety girl, writer |
Grace Palotta (c. 1870 – 21 February 1959) was an Austrian-born actress and writer. She was a Gaiety girl in London, and toured in Australia several times between 1895 and 1918.
Early life
Palotta was born in Vienna.[1] She explained of her origins that her mother was "French and English", her father "Hungarian and Italian".[2] She studied at the Royal Academy of Music.
Career
Palotta made her stage debut in London in 1893. She spent four years working for George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre,[3] where she often played roles that highlighted her comic timing, her beauty, and her accented English,[4] [5] [6] though her singing voice was not strong.[7] She also performed at the Tivoli Theatre in London. She sometimes played breeches roles, including the Prince in a pantomime based on Cinderella, and the principal boy role in Aladdin.[8] She toured in the United States in 1904,[9] and with the Hugh J. Ward company in Australia,[10] [11] [12] and New Zealand,[13] several times, from 1895 to 1918. Palotta had roles in The Shop Girl, All Abroad, Trial by Jury, The Circus Girl,[14] The Messenger Boy, A Runaway Girl, A Gentleman in Khaki,[15] Florodora,[16] Aladdin, The New Clown,[17] and The Man from Mexico.[18]
Palotta was a popular subject of picture postcards.[19] She also wrote light articles and stories for periodicals.[20] [21] [22]
Australian composer May Summerbelle dedicated a 1904 waltz titled 'Beaux Yeux' (Beautiful Eyes) to grace. Her photograph appears on the cover artwork.
Personal life
Palotta married Henry Samuel Kingston in 1888, in East Dereham, Norfolk.[23] She lived in Melbourne during World War I. She lived in Vienna and Jersey in her later years.[24] [25] She died at a nursing home in Notting Hill, London in 1959, in her late eighties.[26]
External links
Notes and References
- 1896. Miss Grace Palotta. The Strand Musical Magazine. 3. 223.
- August 1905. Plays and Players: The Women of the Tivoli. Sunset. 15. 396–397.
- Book: Hamilton, Lord Frederick Spencer. Here, There and Everywhere. 1921. George H. Doran Company. 978-1-4142-4702-1. 82–83. en.
- Book: Monckton. Lionel. A Runaway Girl: New Musical Play. Caryll. Ivan. Hicks. Seymour. Nicholls. Harry. 1898. Chappell. en.
- Palotta. Grace. 1900. My Friend the Prince. The Era Almanack. 58–59.
- Casamajor. George H.. October 1901. Beauty on the London Stage. Cosmopolitan. 31. 580–581.
- January 15, 1901. The Theatre Brought Home. The Australasian Pastoralists' Review. 10. 742.
- News: 1914-01-18. Grace Palotta.. 21. Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954). 2021-04-14. Trove.
- News: 1904-11-27. Vaudeville.. 27. Chicago Tribune. 2021-04-14. Newspapers.com.
- March 6, 1907. A Third of the Ward-Willoughby-Palotta Combination. The Sketch. 57. 5.
- News: Rambler. 1938-05-07. Melbourne's Gay Nineties; A Collection of Memories. 35. The Age. 2021-04-14. Newspapers.com.
- News: 1939-10-07. Melodious Memories; Grace Palotta Trip to Chinatown. 10. The Age. 2021-04-14. Newspapers.com.
- News: 25 April 1911. Miss Grace Palotta in Nurse's Guise. 2. Southland Times. April 13, 2021. Papers Past.
- Book: Wearing, J. P.. The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. 2013-11-21. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-9282-8. 231, 279, 300, 319. en.
- Book: Wearing, J. P.. The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. 2013-12-05. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-9294-1. 3, 17. en.
- Book: Tallis. Michael. The Silent Showman: Sir George Tallis, the Man Behind the World's Largest Entertainment Organisation of the 1920s. Tallis. Joan. 2006. Wakefield Press. 978-1-86254-735-3. 73. en.
- News: 1907-01-23. Miss Grace Palotta.. 34. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919). 2021-04-14. Trove.
- News: 1906-05-14. 'The Man from Mexico'. 4. The Sydney Morning Herald. 2021-04-14. Newspapers.com.
- Kelly, V. (2004). "Beauty and the market: Actress postcards and their senders in early twentieth-century Australia" New Theatre Quarterly, 20(78), 99-116.
- Palotta. Grace. 1 November 1907. In Praise of Simplicity. The Lone Hand. 2. 88–90.
- Palotta. Grace. 1 August 1907. The Woman's Way. The Lone Hand. 1. 400–403.
- Palotta. Grace. 1 May 1907. The Stage Kiss. Lone Hand. 1. 103–104. Trove.
- Norfolk Record Office; Norwich, Norfolk, England; Norfolk Church of England Registers; Reference: PD 86/27; banns of marriage dated certified September 2, 1888. via Ancestry.
- News: 1939-02-02. Actress Coming in Orcades; Many Friends Here. 26. The Sydney Morning Herald. 2021-04-14. Newspapers.com.
- News: 1928-06-03. Grace Palotta. 28. Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954). 2021-04-14. Trove.
- News: 1959-02-23. Grace Palotta. 2. The Guardian. 2021-04-14. Newspapers.com.