This content was published on October 17, 2021 - 10:00

It was the star of the Russian ballets in the United States in 1916, the sensationalist press showed a living interest in its nails and hairstyles, even Charlie Chaplin had a portrait of his on his wall.But curiously in Switzerland, where he was born and died, he fell into oblivion.Who was Flore Revalles?

In the 50s Émilie Flora Cerf-Treichler rented a study in Geneva which he called "Paradiso".He decorated his interior with things from the past: a dissected crocodile that had accompanied her during her stay in the United States, Sables from North Africa, Egyptian tapestries, snake skins, scores and dozens of photos of her performances in stages around the world...Even from the Amazon.And in the midst of all that, two canaries stinging in a cage.There, in the "Paradiso", he also played the piano, sang the operas of his past and dreamed of the glorious days when he still toured the world like Flore Revalles.

In those years his name had already been forgotten in Switzerland, and today it is even more difficult to find information about her.The only one who throws some light on the artist is his godson, actor Guy Tréjan, who dedicates some pages in his own biography.In spite of all the tenderness placed in the description, compares to his beloved aunt in the last years of his life with the Diva of the Mute Desmond norm in Sunset Boulevard, and perhaps something ashamed tells how he told everyone: "Vous ne Pouvez Pas Savoir ce that J'ai ethé! "(You don't know what I have been!).Well, and who then was Flore Revalles?

From Flora Emilie Treichler A Flore Revalles

Flore Revalles was born as Emilie Flora Treichler on January 25, 1889 in Rolle, a small town on the shores of Lake Lemán.He had two brothers, one of whom he died soon of tuberculosis.Little is known about your childhood.In an interview in the US.UU.With "Motion Picture Classicenlace," says that when I was a child I was always singing: "And I Woold Want People to listen, that is a lot, Thee Audience" ("And I wanted people to listen to me, that there was a large audience").The journalist ridiculed her French accent in transcription.

At 16 he went to the Paris Conservatory to take singing classes, against his mother's opinion.His father could no longer say anything about it.Gustav Treichler had left for Abisinia (current Ethiopia) in 1903 to build a railroad through the country for King Menelik II.In the letters he sent home, Africa described as a place where the hyenas wore around the houses and the boas measured up to ten meters long.He did not return to Europe until 1914, and died of fever in Marseille.

In that same year his daughter, who now called Flore Revalles, sang at the Gran Teatro de Geneva.But soon he would also travel around the world, even more than his father.At the end of a performance called "Thais" in 1915, they called their dressing room.Leon Bakst, set designer and costume designer of the famous Russian ballets, who toured everyone with businessman Sergei Pavlovich Dhiagilev, appeared before her.

Flore was surprised when Bakst wanted to hire her as a dancer.He assured him that he would not need any education in classical dance, that what mattered was his "Allure, Vous Façon of Vous Mouvoir, Votre Plastiques..."(" His elegance, his way of moving, his plasticity ... ").Dhiagilev paid the Revalles contract with the Geneva theater and took it on tour.In January 1916 they left for the United States, first to New York and then to the west coast.

Femme fatale

In the United States, Émilie Flora Treichler, from Rolle, on the shores of Lake Lemán, was considered an exotic beauty, praised by her "dark hair" and his "sensuality".With the works "Scheherazade" and later with "Cleopatra", in which he played the main role, the Russian ballets filled the insatiable hunger of the western public for representations of Eastern style.The Russian ballets had nothing to do with the tutús and the white clothes;Now the girls danced barefoot with vaporous and colorful oriental dresses out of the fantasy of Léon Bakst, a style that became a trend between the American stars around the 1920s.

The work "Scheherazade" is set in the court of the SAH of Persia Sharyar.Convinced that his wives deceive him in his absence, he pretends to go hunting.Immediately after having left their wives ask the head of the Eunucos to open the door to the beautiful captive slaves to surrender to the pleasures of love with them.

At the peak of orgy, the Sah appears that orders slaves and women to kill.However, for a moment he doubts to condemn Zobeida, his favorite.Although she has not been able to resist the passionate caresses of the black slave, she asks for forgiveness to the king.Seeing that his pleas are in vain, he stabs and dies in the arms of the SAH.

East is presented as a place of brutal violence and wild sexuality.The Russian ballets portrayed the figure of the vampire, a fatal woman to which men could not resist, and who would later become a great success in Hollywood.

These st jacobs apples from Martin's Family Fruit Farme Sure Know How to Ferment!#Homebrew #Cider https: // t.co/eilityly

— Graeme K Thu Oct 20 00:35:08 +0000 2016

Flore Revalles would soon appear in magazines like "Vanity Fair" and "External Vogueenlace".Newspapers throughout the country praised their actions.And it became even more famous thanks to an Edward Bernayys campaign, the public relations inventor.It started as the "Caruso of Press Agents" helping stage artists, especially singers, attracting more attention.Later he would sell cigarettes to women as a symbol of freedom and to roasted state, beicon and orange juice as ingredients of a healthy breakfast.His motto was: with a good story anything can be sold.

From Flore Revalles it was said that he had haunted a snake with his beauty and used it to improve his Cleopatra dance.As he declared to Billboard magazine, he wanted his dance to be "even more dangerous, even more seductive than ever, studying the cold and sliding snake movements".The photo of Revalles in the Bronx Zoo playing with a snake had a national impact and made it a star overnight: in the following years it would be presented again and again with its snake, and later with a young Caymanwho gave him an admirer.

Known for its extravagant fashion style and its elegant public appearance, the sensationalist press echoed the external clothing that he had in his free time, his nails and the movement of his hands when he danced.

Becomes a ghost

After some productions in Broadway, which were also well received by the press, he played the role of unfaithful wife in two American mute films.One of them, "Woman" (Woman/1918), told the history of women from Eva to the present, a very daring project at the time.The other movie he played was "Earthbound" (with his feet on the ground/1920).Revalles represented a wife who sees her husband kills her lover when she discovers that relationship.Then, his lover's ghost appears to talk to her from the hereafter, in a kind of couple therapy.This second film was also the last one that rolled in the United States;Then, she herself became a certain sense in a ghost and became more difficult to continue her career.

His nephew, Guy Tréjan, writes in his book that he felt a great nostalgia for Europe and for singing, so he moved to Italy and sing again.Guy Tréjan briefly hints into his memoirs that Retalles sang in Galas for Mussolini and supported Italian fascism, but does not want to give more details.She continued to toured everyone, even in Cairo, playing the role of the famous Cleopatra.In 1936 he returned to Switzerland;The commitments were reduced and she also had to take care of his brother who suffered a mental illness and, after her death, a year later, of her son's.From time to time he continued acting in Paris.

After the war, he married a gin industrial businessman, although his factory was unfortunately about to close.In 1958, her husband died and Flore Revalles found himself in a bad economic situation, since her retirement pension was quite low.However, she tried to stay busy, she began to paint, and sought meaning to her life in the Mormons and in the Red Cross, and fought against those who "took away" the factory to her husband.In 1966 he died in a clinic near Leysin (VD) - his tombst.

Sources

Guy Tréjan: Ma Vie Est Mon Plus Beau Rôle.Paris 1993.

Jean-Pierre Pastoris: Nuit Soleil.The Renaissance des Ballets Russes.Lausanne 1993

Artem Lozynsky: Orientalism and the Ballets Russes.In: Situations 1/2007.

Larry Tye: The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & the birth of public relations.New York 1998.

German translation: Carla Wolff

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