Nattova and "Myrio" partnered for years in Britain before crossing the pond in late 1925 for a gig in the Greenwich Village Follies in New York (starting in December). But at the end of that run, the duo
broke up and Nattova was compelled to find another partner. Myrio's replacement, it seems, was G Rodion.
Illustrierte Magazin has a photo of
that duo as well, also from 1928:
Myrio, Desha, and Barte in London, 1931
Two excerpts from
an earlier post:
1. Who was G. Rodion?
Natacha's partner c. 1927-8
Records found on Ancestry.com:
-- Gritzanov Rodion (naturalization) Russian Pol Age 32
Feb 4 1929
Manger Hotel
Unmarried
-- April 17, 1928
Petition for Naturalization Gritzanov Rodion ALSO Rodion Gritzanov
Has resided in New York since Jan. 1, 1914
Dancer and Actor, Manger Hotel
B. Oct 22, 1896 New Macshanitza, Russia
Renounces citizenship, Russia, Poland
Witnesses: Suzanne Barse, dancer; Martha Arnold, dancer
--
Radion Gritzanov
b. Oct 22, 1896
d. April 1968
ss 125-09-1924
10024 New York, New York, New York, USA
2.
Who was Jean Myrio? I've done further looking and have found that, in Britain, Natacha Nattavo (two t's) had a male dance parter, Jean Myrio, and, together, they were called "Myrio and Natacha" or "Natacha and Myrio." The partnership seems to have existed on both sides of the Atlantic, for I've found records of the two in Britain up through September, 1925, but then in the New York area in 1926. By late 1927, however, she was dancing with G. Rodion and Harry Glick. She fired (or had fired) the latter, who sued but lost the suit (see elsewhere). (She explained that Glick was not strong enough to catch her or toss her around and that, besides, there was no need for a second man.)
- It appears that Myrio's real name (but who knows what's real with this crowd) was
Jean Henry [or Henri Jean] Raoul Delteil, a classically trained dancer (and Russian? French?), who later married a famous artist's model, known as
Desha Delteil (1899-1980). The two formed their own dance duo and performed in Britain and France in the [1920s and] 1930s:
- [Desha Deltiel] married Jean Henry Raoul Delteil, known as Jean Myrio, another classically trained dancer from [Michel] Fokine's company. In the 1930s she and Myrio performed at a number of nightclubs in Paris and London, and their dance interpretation of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at the Kit-Cat Club was recorded in a Pathé motion picture review. In 1939 they worked at the Casino de Paris together with Josephine Baker. Jean had a small house in the Dordogne where Maurice Chevalier, with friends Nita Raya and Josephine, were hidden from German invaders during World War II. After the war, Desha and her husband established the first classical dance school in the French town of Bergerac. A French source claims she died in 1980 and is buried in Bergerac.
[This is a quotation. Citation?]
- Myrio's mentor, Fokine, hailed from St. Petersburg and studied at the Vaganova Dance Academy. You'll recall that Nathalie Hoyer studied under Agrippina Vaganova and that she, too, hailed from St. Petersburg, as did our girl Natacha (Petrograd). Good grief.
- Oddly (or?), our girl Natacha was also a famous model, having modeled for famous artists by (I believe) 1923 (Serge Yourievitch, Emile Arthur Soldi-Colbert). In fact, Natacha Natova (or Nattova) was voted as having the most beautiful figure of any "foreigner"--not sure when. About 1927? Photos of her during that period testify to her beauty.
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| This, of course, is a photo of Myrio and Nattova's act in London, c. 1925 |
No doubt this kind of speculation is unfair, but here goes. It is easily imagined that tensions will crop up for any dancing duo (or trio, etc.) that gains fame. Typically, one person gets more attention than the other(s), justly or unjustly. It is easily imagined that such was the case for Myrio and Nattova (or Nattova and Myrio!) in their years together, starting (I believe) in London and ending in mid-1926 New York. There are indications (see previous posts) that Myrio was irked that Nattova got as much attention, or praise, as she did, drawing light from his own star, and that he sought another arrangement, including his top (or sole) billing with someone less annoyingly captivating. Perhaps these kinds of concerns explain the Nattova-Myrio breakup of 1926.
On the other hand, there are indications (again, it is easy to be unfair, working with such sketchy information) that Nattova was a difficult person and difficult to work with: her odd episode with Toots Pounds in London, the violent episode with her protégé (who declared that Nattova was "insane") two years later, the frequent litigation, the peculiar public threats to would-be plagiarists, etc. Perhaps Nattova's demanding and difficult ways grew as her fame grew and, by mid-1926, Myrio had had quite enough. And perhaps that happened with Daks, too.
Who knows. A very different (and more flattering) picture is also consistent with the facts as I know them.
For what it's worth, though Myrio might have insisted on top billing in the post-Nattova act, he eventually (and soon) commenced flourishing as part of a duo ("Myrio and Desha"), with double billing, with his wife, a real attention-grabber. That lasted for quite some time it seems.
Was our girl, Nattova, difficult? That is easily imagined. The evidence is strong but not overwhelming that she was.
We are compelled to ask: Why did Nattova's career decline as it did (if indeed it did, and it seemed to)? Had she burned too many bridges? Was it simply a case of the passing fancies of a fickle public?
Did she expect more from Daks than the journeyman-like career that he seemed to settle into in the 30s? Did she herself expect to maintain her "star" and then diminish amid the reality of her declining standing? Had she been, for a brief time, a kind of "it" girl—one whose stature depended on manipulation of the press/public or, alternatively, a perfect storm of accident and fortuity? That can be a difficult epoch to live through. Many do not survive it. And some, no doubt, cannot live happily, or at all, when it passes. And perhaps she was a truly outstanding artist whose fame and stature was in some simple sense deserved. But that, too, typically fades—I mean either the artistry or that art's relationship with an always foolish and mercurial public.
I cannot imagine Nattova's years, starting in the mid-30s, as anything but sad. It is possible, I suppose, that she sought only to make a living dancing for a motley and inconstant public. Perhaps her increasing distance from stardom, or goddesshood, was no burden for her. But I doubt it.
Evidently, by 1940, she lived with Daks in a New York apartment, putatively (or actually?) as his wife. A housewife. But the circumstances suggest that the situation was sadder still. Had she gone (back?) to Daks, not as wife, but only for a place to live, as his career and life marched on essentially without her, as, indeed, it seemed to?
But she did survive. Fifteen years later, she settled in Southern California, and she lived a good thirty years longer in the Golden State. How she fared in her obscure second act we'll likely never know. I do hope she fared well, or well enough.
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From the New Yorker, Nov 19, 1927.
Evidently, Myrio had partnered with Desha and Barte |
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Desha Eva Podgoršek (Desha Delteil) Jean Henry Raoul Myrio and [Leon] Barte, Kit-Cat Club, Oct 1928 (Desha was originally Serbian, came to US at age 12; was a well-known artists' model)
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