Grace Palotta | |
---|---|
Born | about 1870 |
Died | 21 February 1959 |
Other names | Grace Parlotta |
Occupation(s) | 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.
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.[1]
Palotta made her stage debut in London in 1893.[1] 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.[2] 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,[7][16] Aladdin,[8] 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.[5][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.[23]
Palotta married Henry Samuel Kingston in 1888, in East Dereham, Norfolk.[24] She lived in Melbourne during World War I. She lived in Vienna and Jersey in her later years.[25][26] She died at a nursing home in Notting Hill, London in 1959, in her late eighties.[27]