Irène Bordoni

Biography

Corsican Irène Bordoni was one of several Broadway stars who failed to translate their success to the screen. Born to Italian parents, she was an assured child actress in her native country before emigrating to the United States. There, she established herself on the Great White Way in musical revues and adaptations of spicy French farces. Beginning in 1913, she notched up a string of hits and accumulated fame and fortune over the next sixteen years. At this time, she was married to the composer and theatrical impresario E. Ray Goetz who promoted her as a successor to the late Anna Held. Often described as 'volatile', Irène made the most of her oo-la-la French appeal, her accent, flamboyant costumes, brunette bangs, pursed lips and rolling eyes becoming her trademark. In 1929, Irène arrived arrived in tinseltown 'quietly' with a carload of trunks and an entourage which included a chauffeur, a secretary, a chef and two maids. She established herself in Beverly Hills while maintaining a lavish home off Park Avenue in New York (her other real estate included a villa on the French Riviera and an apartment in Paris). Her movie debut was a First National picture co-produced by her husband, fittingly entitled Paris (1929). Based a Cole Porter musical, it gave Irène the chance to recreate her Broadway success opposite English star Jack Buchanan. The rather moderate response at the box office was likely because the original Cole Porter score had been unaccountably dropped (incidentally, Porter thought so highly of Irène that he wrote the line "You're the eyes of Irene Bordoni" in his lyrics for "You're the Top"). In the same year, Irène appeared in an all-star revue,Show of Shows (1929), but this did not ignite her film career either. Irène returned to Broadway but resurfaced a few more times on the silver screen, notably warbling the title number in the animated Dave Fleischer short Just a Gigolo (1932) and as Madame Bordelaise (according to New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, she wore "the tag most refinedly") in the supporting cast of Louisiana Purchase (1941), again reprising her stage role. When not appearing on stage, La Bordoni maintained a high profile in America's court rooms through a series of well publicised litigations.