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Gray, Gilda (Mary[anna] Michalska)

Film actress and dancer. Born in 1901 [1898 ?] in Krakow, Poland. In 1909 came with her parents to U.S. and settled in Bayonne, N. J.; then moved with her father to Milwaukee, Wis. Married John Gorecki, son of State Senator, Martin Gorecki of Wisconsin. In 1916 engaged as singer by Jack Litza in Milwaukee, Wis. for eight dollars a week. In Chicago she called herself "Mary Gray." In New York she danced at Maximi's. Sophie Tucker invited her to the Winter Garden in New York. In 1924 she married Gil Boag and they opened the Rendez-Vous on 45th St., New York, N. Y. Ziegfield made her co-star with Will Rogers in his Follies at 3,500 dollars weekly. In 1929 she divorced Gil Boag. In 1933 she married for the third time Hector Briceno de Saa, whom she divorced in 1936. Now connected with Diamond Horseshoe, New York, N. Y. As a singer she introduced the following songs: "The St. Louis Blues"; "Beale Street Blues"; "Memphis Blues." She originated the shimmy dance. She played in the films: "The Devil Dancer," "Aloha of the South Seas." Connected also with Ziegfield Follies.

From: "Who's Who in Polish America" by Rev. Francis Bolek, Editor-in-Chief; Harbinger House, New York, 1943

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Gray, Gilda (Maryanna Michalska) -- film actress, vaudeville star

Gilda Gray (1898-1959), whose real name was Maryanna Michalska, was a star in the vaudeville era which produced Al Jolson, Will Rogers, and Sophie Tucker. A native of Krakow, Poland, she fled to America when her parents were killed in a revolution. At the age of 14 she was singing and dancing in Milwaukee saloons where she introduced a new dance craze in America -- "the shimmy." She also pioneered the "Charleston" and the "Black Bottom." Her night club and stage show appearances led to a lucrative movie contract and stardom in a successful movie, "Aloha of the South Seas," in which she created a mainland version of the Hawaiian Hula.

From: Wally West

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