Screenland (Nov 1937-Apr 1938)

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"At the conclusion of my first number," she says, "I heard this very enthusiastic applause, and the first thing crossing my mind was that I might be accused of having a claque, just as though 1 might at the moment have been in a theatre and fearful that someone might say, or write in a newspaper criticism, that applause for my work was started by an interested cheerleader. The truth was that it was the King who was first to offer his generous response to my work. I felt better then, you may be sure, but in a little while I was again at my wit's end. "After finishing my dances, I raced, dripping perspiration, to the dressing room down the corridor. I hurriedly slipped out of my costume, and had thrown a huge bath towel around me and was about to walk toward the shower, when the door opened and Princess Mafalda, followed by a group of her friends, men as well as women, came in. Of course, I had been instructed in the proper way to address members of the court, but confusion became worse confused as I tried to curtesy, wondering 'should I, or shouldn't I curtesy as I stand here wrapped in towelling with only my trunks on underneath?' But again fears were unfounded, as these distinguished visitors told me how much they enjoyed my dancing. "Then," Gamby continued, "I was invited to be a guest at dinner. From the King and Queen right on through the group of seventy guests everybody was very charming. But still I couldn't seem to realize which of it was real and which something happening in a dream. I had many times danced in stage settings that might have been something like this, with all the footmen and butlers and servants garbed in satins and wearing wigs, but not once did I feel sure I was using the right fork. Far more than the pomp, such as there was of it, I was confused by the extreme modesty of my royal hosts and their distinguished guests." All doubt that the little Gambarelli's court appearance was a personal as well as a professional success is put at rest by the fact that the queen has arranged for her to return in the near future and dance at a festival she is arranging for the young prince, son of Humbert, Prince of Piedmont and heir to the Italian thrown. Gamby did seven dances in the program she gave at the Villa di Savoia the home of Italy's king and queen, who prefer this villa of the family of Savoy to the official residence of the Italian Monarchy, the Quirinal Palace, with its more imposing but less home-like halls and apartments. Gambarelli, product of ballet training and experience gained entirely in this country, had appeared in Europe, but this was her first visit as a dancer to Italy, where she was born but whence her parents brought her to America when Maria was a child. "I had no plans to dance on the stage when I went over, because my trip was for the purpose of acting in the picture, 'Dr. Antonio,' the first of several I had contracted, to do at a studio in Rome," she assured us. "The part I play in the film is not that of a dancer. It is a straight actingpart, the character being that of an English girl of high social standing. "But I was asked by Ambassador Phillips of the United States, and Sir Eric Drum mond, British Ambassador to Rome, to dance at a charity event in which they were interested. Then I decided to give a concert at the Teatro Valle, the opera house in Rome. As a solo artist I thought one performance would be most certainly all for w hich there would be a demand, but I had to repeat the concert and gave three performances, which I believe is a record for a ballet artist at this theatre in Rome. "The Princess Mafalda took a great interest in my dancing, and brought the Queen to see me. That was how I received the invitation for the appearance at court. "The Queen permitted me to select the salon in which I was to dance. She suggested four of the halls of the Villa di Savoia as being suitable, but thought I should make the choice. I chose a salon in which many of the portraits of the Royal Family are hung. It has a marble floor, and I asked that a rug be spread for me to dance on. When I arrived and saw what a beautiful setting had been arranged for me, I was almost overcome with joy. Down toward the far end of the salon a dais, or raised platform had been placed and on it were the chairs for the King, the Queen and the Queen Mother. Ranged back of them were rows of seats for the members and guests of the Royal Family. "As a background for my dances there were flowers from the Queen's own hothouse, a profusion of delicate colors forming a lovely setting and further enhanced by floodlighting from behind. "Later, when I met the Queen I found that she is tremendously interested in growing flowers. I was to await her in a room in her apartment and was, of course, rehearsing my recently acquired court etiquette. It left me entirely when the door opened and instead of seeing a lady in waiting or some member of her court precede her into the room, the Queen admitted herself, leading instead of being preceded by a retinue. "She took me to show me her terrace, a beautifully landscaped area just outside her own reception room. It was covered with a blue flower that grows close to the ground and seemed more like the delicate pattern of a lovely rug than real floral growth. "Then she told me the plans she was making for me to dance at the party she is arranging for the young Prince. There is a beautiful reflecting pool, and this Her Majesty told me would be covered with a sheet of heavy glass, so I can do my 'Swan' dance on a surface that will give it the illusion of being danced on water." No wonder this little dancer says she still can't make out what of all this was a dream and what actually took place! Through all the evening of her performance at the Italian Court she says she kept feeling that the midnight hour would strike and she'd wake up to find she had been playing Cinderella instead of living an actual experience. Dressed in a very simple, tailored sort of frock, the little Gamby looked very happy and as eagerly alert and sparkling as ever she did when we used to see her, a premiere danseuse at the ripe old age of fourteen years, dancing in those well remembered stage presentations at the Capitol theatre, with Erno Rapee on the conductor's podium leading the Capitol Theatre Symphony Orchestra in Lizst, Delibes, Debussy, Saint Saens, Tschaikowsky, and other composers whose music Gamby and her supporting company interpreted in terms of the ballet. You probably recall that the personal romantic interest note now so popular in Hollywood's coupling of boys and girls who are supposed to be romantically inclined each toward the other in picture acting combinations, was started in the Roxy "Gang" radio broadcasts, with 86 SCREENLAND