Gilda Gray

Gilda Gray
MGM

Stars

Gilda Gray
Film: South side of the 6600 block of Hollywood Boulevard
Actress | Dancer
Born Marianna Michalska on Oct. 24, 1901 in Krakow, Poland
Died Dec. 22, 1959 of heart attack in Gilda Gray residence, Calif.

Gilda Gray's famed shimmy dance epitomized the Roaring '20s.

She did her first professional work for Mike Fritzel in Chicago and introduced the shimmy dance into New York about 1919.

It caught on with such a rush that, Fritzel said, no chorus girl could get a job in a Broadway show unless she knew how to shake and shiver somewhat like Gray.

Later she appeared in "Ziegfeld Follies," in "George White's Scandals" and worked with such stars as Will Rogers, Mary Eaton and other fabled personalities.

The celebrated dancer also possessed a beautiful singing voice and introduced many of the top songs of the era.

—Los Angeles Times Dec. 23, 1959

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