Gabrielle Ray’s birthday, 28 April; views on the effects of motoring on kissing

Gabrielle Ray (1883-1973), English musical comedy dancer and actress, who celebrated her birthday on 28 April.
(photo: Bassano, London, circa 1909)

‘THE MOTOR MOUTH.
‘EFFECTS ON KISSING.
‘The medical specialist who recently had the hardihood to assert that motoring would ultimately put an end to kissing, because it made the lips hard, will find few supporters among lady motorists, who are practically unanimous in describing his prophecy as nonsense.
”’King goes by favor,” said one young lady, ”and perhaps it is because no one will kiss him or take him for a motor drive that the poor man is setting up to be an authority on something that we understand better then he does.”
‘From the many inquiries made recently a Daily Mail representative arrived at the conclusion that ladies will not accept as a scientific fact that statements of the medical pessimist.
”’Motoring will go out of fashion before kissing will,” said Miss Marie Studholme. ”The gold wind makes one’s face hard for a little while, but most of the kissable people in the world are now motoring.”
‘Miss Gabrielle Ray thinks the medical specialist is a very funny man; ”but as I don’t go in for kissing,” she said, ”I don’t know much about hard mouths. I have done a lot of motoring, but very little kissing. At the same time, I think it would be a pity to discourage those who like kissing because it seems to please them very much. If I have by accident kissed anyone I have never heard any complaint about my mouths; but there, you see, I put cream on my face when going out in a motor-car, because before I used to do so the wind made my face very dry.”
‘Mlle. Mariette Sully, the charming French actress at Daly’s Theatre [in <HREF=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merveilleuses>Les Merveilleuses], says it is very wicked of the doctor to talk like that. ”If he had said that motoring sops kissing because the automobile shakes so much,” she could understand him; ”but hard lips, oh, no, not at all.”
‘At the Apollo Theatre Miss Carrie Moore [who is appearing in The Dairymaids] holds the same views. ”Motor drives do not make the lips hard. Of course not. Motoring is lovely, and I am sure it won’t put kissing out of fashion.”
‘At the Gaiety Theatre [where The New Aladdin began its run on 29 September 1906] Miss Kitty Mason suggested that motoring will cause wrinkles round the eyes. ”People screw up their eyes when motoring,” she said, ”and I think that must eventually cause wrinkles.” ”Oh, I hope not,” said the other ladies so loudly that Mr George Edwardes had to call for order to allow the rehearsal to proceed.’
(The Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser, Grenfell, NSW, Australia, Saturday, 27 October 1906, p. 3c)

Gabys Deslys and Surye Kichi Eida in the Ju-Jitsu Waltz, Gaiety Theatre, London, 1907

A real photograph postcard of ‘Mdlle Gaby Deslys & S.K. Eida, in the new Ju-Jitsu Waltz at the Gaiety’ published in A. & G. Taylor’s ‘Reality’ series, no. 1300, 70 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC
(photo: Bassano, London, probably 1907; there were at least five photographs taken at this sitting)

Gaby Deslys and S.K. Eida introduced the Ju-Jitsu Waltz to London audiences during the run of The New Aladdin, a musical extravaganza, which ran at the Gaiety Theatre, London, from 29 September 1906 to 27 April 1907.

Surye Kichi Eida (1878-1918), who was born in Japan, appears in the 1901 Census as an assistant gardener, living in Acton, West London, with his brother, Saburo Eida (1858-1911), an importer of art, and his family. In 1909 he married Ellen Christina Brown (1886-1931) and together they toured United Kingdom music halls in a Japanese dancing and ju-jitsu act, billed as Nellie Falco and S.K. Eida.