Valeska Suratt
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Valeska Suratt (b. June 22, 1882 - d. July 2, 1962) was a stage and silent film performer from Terre Haute, Indiana.
In 1913 Suratt became noted for the New York Casino musical success, The Kiss Waltz. Suratt was known as The Vampire Woman of the silent screen.
She debuted as a performer in The Soul of Broadway (1915). The same year she made The Immigrant followed by The Straight Way (1916), Jealousy (1916), The Victim (1916), The New York Peacock (1916), and She (1917).
Suratt was noted for the high fashion clothes she wore. Among the items which were most commented about was an $11,000 cinderella cloak. She was sometimes called Empress of Fashions. Her name became synonymous worldwide for brilliant gowns. In the Fox Film drama, The Soul of Broadway, Suratt wore more than 150 gowns.
Suratt kept an apartment on Broadway (Manhattan) in New York City. She claimed to be the reincarnation of Cleopatra but was better known as the Queen of the Night. Her residence was on the right hand corner looking up from Broadway past Fifty-first street. The interior was done almost entirely in purple, including the cushions, furniture, carpet, and window hangings. Her ceiling was red and the paneling was both red and black. From the purple room one passed between a crouching lion sphinx and her crouching mate in white marble into Suratt's bedchamber. Inside there was black carpeting, draperies, wall paper, telephone cord, and door. There was a black man and woman of Indian feature in controversial squares of white in the design of the wallpaper.[citation needed]
Valeska Suratt died in Washington, D.C. in 1962, aged 80.
[edit] References
- Cedar Rapids Republican, Startling Secrets of the World's Most Famous Self-Made Beauty, June 16, 1912, Page 13.
- Fort Wayne Journal, Valeska Suratt Thursday, July 29, 1917, Page 37.
- Oakland Tribune, A Journey Through Queen of Night's Apartment, April 5, 1914, Page 10.
- Racine, Wisconsin Journal-News, The Kiss-Waltz, February 5, 1913, Page 10.
- Wichita Falls, Texas Daily Times, Star In The Soul of Broadway, Page 16.
