Cat. #00145311: GILDA GRAY

Scarce and superbly campy 8x10-inch sepia-tone dance costume portrait by Murray Korman, boldly signed and inscribed to inveterate collector Jess Hoagland in 1942.  A gentle crease running down the left side, and light creasing to the upper left- and right-hand corners, but, overall, in fairly good condition, and nifty for display.  The comely Polish-born dancer and singer of the vaudeville and burlesque circuits launched a terpsichorean sensation with her "shimmy" in the 1920s.  She also appeared in motion pictures of the silent era through 1931, including Aloma of the South Seas (1926), Cabaret (1927), The Devil Dancer (1927), Piccadilly (1929), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), and Rose-Marie (1936).  In 1959, she died tragically of a heart attack, aged only 58.