Blanche Deyo

Blanche Deyo (née Pixley, 1880?-1933), American dancer and actress
(photos: unknown, USA, circa 1895)

”’The Girl from Paris” proved a popular attraction to the out-of-town visitors last week. Miss Mabel Clark has been engaged to give a dance, in place of Mlle. Deyo, who sailed for England last week.’
(New York Daily Tribune, Sunday, 2 May 1897, p. 10e. Blanche Deyo was not in the original cast of The Girl from Paris, which began its run at the Herald Square Theatre, New York, in December 1896)

The Tivoli music hall, London, week beginning Monday, 17 May 1897
‘Mademoiselle Deyo, who made her début before an English audience at the TIVOLI this week is a little danseuse who had a considerable success in America. She is light and graceful, evidently an enthusiast in her profession, and may go far, for the public is becoming rather tired of the many travesties on dancing, which a wealthy of sit only half conceals.’
(The Graphic, London, Saturday, 22 May 1897, p. 634b)

The Palace music hall, London, week beginning Monday, 11 October 1897
‘… pretty, smiling Miss Deyo wins all hears by her dainty dancing and her bright and buoyant expression.’
(The Era, London, Saturday, 16 October 1897, p. 20a)

‘Mlle. Deyo, more familiarly known here as ”the Beautiful Deyo,” who was favorably received in The Girl from Paris, Excelsior, Jr., and 1492, and who left our shores for new worlds to conquer, has again been heard from. At the close of her London engagement of several months at the Palace she went to South Africa, where she opened at the Palace Theatre, Johannesburg, on Jan. 24, making a decided hit. Mlle. Deyo will return to London in April and opens in Paris May 1, after which she will begin a Continental Tour, playing the principal cities of Europe as far as Moscow, Russia. She will not be seen in New York again until 1900.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, 19 March 1898, p. 20b)

Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, London, Christmas 1899
‘The programme of Christmas holiday attractions at the Empire Theatre is long and varied. Belloni’s flock of white cockatoos perform some surprising tricks upon swing and miniature bicycles; this is followed by some clever character dancing by Miss Deyo and a gymnastic display by the ”Three Gladenbecks.” …’
(The Times, London, Wednesday, 27 December 1899, p. 8d)

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Blanche Deyo (née Pixley, 1880?-1933), American dancer and actress
(photos: unknown, USA, circa 1895)

”’The Girl from Paris” proved a popular attraction to the out-of-town visitors last week. Miss Mabel Clark has been engaged to give a dance, in place of Mlle. Deyo, who sailed for England last week.’
(New York Daily Tribune, Sunday, 2 May 1897, p. 10e. Blanche Deyo was not in the original cast of The Girl from Paris, which began its run at the Herald Square Theatre, New York, in December 1896)

The Tivoli music hall, London, week beginning Monday, 17 May 1897
‘Mademoiselle Deyo, who made her début before an English audience at the TIVOLI this week is a little danseuse who had a considerable success in America. She is light and graceful, evidently an enthusiast in her profession, and may go far, for the public is becoming rather tired of the many travesties on dancing, which a wealthy of sit only half conceals.’
(The Graphic, London, Saturday, 22 May 1897, p. 634b)

The Palace music hall, London, week beginning Monday, 11 October 1897
‘… pretty, smiling Miss Deyo wins all hears by her dainty dancing and her bright and buoyant expression.’
(The Era, London, Saturday, 16 October 1897, p. 20a)

‘Mlle. Deyo, more familiarly known here as ”the Beautiful Deyo,” who was favorably received in The Girl from Paris, Excelsior, Jr., and 1492, and who left our shores for new worlds to conquer, has again been heard from. At the close of her London engagement of several months at the Palace she went to South Africa, where she opened at the Palace Theatre, Johannesburg, on Jan. 24, making a decided hit. Mlle. Deyo will return to London in April and opens in Paris May 1, after which she will begin a Continental Tour, playing the principal cities of Europe as far as Moscow, Russia. She will not be seen in New York again until 1900.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, 19 March 1898, p. 20b)

Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, London, Christmas 1899
‘The programme of Christmas holiday attractions at the Empire Theatre is long and varied. Belloni’s flock of white cockatoos perform some surprising tricks upon swing and miniature bicycles; this is followed by some clever character dancing by Miss Deyo and a gymnastic display by the ”Three Gladenbecks.” …’
(The Times, London, Wednesday, 27 December 1899, p. 8d)

Blanche Deyo (née Pixley, 1880?-1933), American dancer and actress
(photos: unknown, USA, circa 1895)

“‘The Girl from Paris” proved a popular attraction to the out-of-town visitors last week. Miss Mabel Clark has been engaged to give a dance, in place of Mlle. Deyo, who sailed for England last week.’
(New York Daily Tribune, Sunday, 2 May 1897, p. 10e. Blanche Deyo was not in the original cast of The Girl from Paris, which began its run at the Herald Square Theatre, New York, in December 1896)

The Tivoli music hall, London, week beginning Monday, 17 May 1897
‘Mademoiselle Deyo, who made her début before an English audience at the TIVOLI this week is a little danseuse who had a considerable success in America. She is light and graceful, evidently an enthusiast in her profession, and may go far, for the public is becoming rather tired of the many travesties on dancing, which a wealthy of sit only half conceals.’
(The Graphic, London, Saturday, 22 May 1897, p. 634b)

The Palace music hall, London, week beginning Monday, 11 October 1897
’… pretty, smiling Miss Deyo wins all hears by her dainty dancing and her bright and buoyant expression.’
(The Era, London, Saturday, 16 October 1897, p. 20a)

‘Mlle. Deyo, more familiarly known here as “the Beautiful Deyo,” who was favorably received in The Girl from Paris, Excelsior, Jr., and 1492, and who left our shores for new worlds to conquer, has again been heard from. At the close of her London engagement of several months at the Palace she went to South Africa, where she opened at the Palace Theatre, Johannesburg, on Jan. 24, making a decided hit. Mlle. Deyo will return to London in April and opens in Paris May 1, after which she will begin a Continental Tour, playing the principal cities of Europe as far as Moscow, Russia. She will not be seen in New York again until 1900.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, 19 March 1898, p. 20b)

Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, London, Christmas 1899
‘The programme of Christmas holiday attractions at the Empire Theatre is long and varied. Belloni’s flock of white cockatoos perform some surprising tricks upon swing and miniature bicycles; this is followed by some clever character dancing by Miss Deyo and a gymnastic display by the “Three Gladenbecks.” …’
(The Times, London, Wednesday, 27 December 1899, p. 8d)

La Divine Amylla

La Divine Amylla (fl. early 20th Century), dancer
(photo: Hana, London, circa 1908/1909)

This real photograph postcard, probably dating from about 1908/1909, is by Hana, theatrical and music hall photographer, London.

‘Beauty and Classicism at The Empire [Johannesburg, South Africa].
‘The ”sensation” of the Empire season just now, the ”top-liner,” is Mdlle. Amylla, classic dancer. She brought a huge audience to the Palace [sic] on Monday, and there has been little or no falling off through the week. Opinions may clash as to the ”sensuality” of the lady’s show. I can see none. It is Art, pure unadulterated Art, of a kind that explains the furore created by Maud Allan and her imitators in England. The ”divine Amylla,” I should imagine, is unequalled in her own line. She is the embodiment of Moods – lithe, sinuous, graceful, sometimes snake-like in her dancing; reflecting the meaning of the music, subtly conveying its lesson without words. In her illustration of the Chopin Marche Funebre, she is the very abandonment of woe, crushed to the earth by calamity; a one bound she reaches the other Pole, when Mendelssohn’s Spring Song begins – she is the Spirit of Youth, the Nymph of dancing for sheer lightness of heart in ”meadows trim with daisies pied.” As the awakened statue she is a picture of unreasoning ecstasy in her dance before the shrine. But the masterpiece is her presentation of Herodia’s daughter, the young lady who so charmed her step-father by her dancing that he vowed a vow she should have whatso’er she wishes – and she took him at his word and got the head of John the Baptist, in disfavour with her mother because he had condemned that person’s marriage with her deceased husband’s brother Herod. This items is distinctly ”thrilly.” We have to imagine Herod sitting in the great hall, in ”bad eminence,” with his vindictive spouse by his side, surrounded by stern soldiery. Enter Salome, fit daughter of a wanton mother, very neglige as to costume. She dances after a fashion fit to wile the senses of any man, until once can fancy the enraptured Herod crying, ”with an oath,” that she could have her wish even to half of his kingdom. ”Being instructed of her mother,” she compasses the death of John, and presently receives the ghastly head, which she now fondles, now taunts, now spurns, a very Megæra tormented by the memory of her own crime. It is a wonderful, a magnetic illusion, lasting until the woman falls, exhausted as much by physical strain as by mental stress so it is presented. There was no questioning Amylla’s triumph. She gripped the crowded house from the first, and her hold grew stronger until the ”Salome incident,” which drew thunders of cheering and brought her again and again to the divided curtain.’
(The Transvaal Critic, Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, 4 December 1908, quoted in The Encore, London, Thursday, 28 January 1909, p. 9 advertisement)