Valeska Suratt

Valeska Suratt
from The Girl with the Whooping Cough Broadway play 1910
Born	(1882-06-28)June 28, 1882 Owensville, Indiana, U.S.
Died	July 2, 1962(1962-07-02) (aged 80) Washington, D.C.
Resting place	Highland Lawn Cemetery
Nationality	American
Other names	Valeska Surratt
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1906–1922
Spouse(s)	Billy Gould (m. c.1905–c.1911) Fletcher Norton (m. 1911–41)

Valeska Suratt (June 28, 1882 – July 2, 1962) was an American stage and silent film actress. Over the course of her career, Surrat appeared in eleven silent films all of which are now lost.

Suratt was born in Owensville, Indiana to Ralph and Anna Suratt. Her paternal grandparents were French immigrants and her maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from England. She had one stepsister, one older brother and a younger sister. At the age of six, her family moved to Terre Haute. She dropped out of school in 1899 and worked at a photographer's studio. Suratt later moved to Indianapolis where she worked as an assistant in a millinery at a department store.

Suratt began her career as an actress on the Chicago stage. Around 1900, she began appearing in vaudeville. She soon paired with performer Billy Gould (whom she later married) and the two created a successful act that included an exotic Apache dance performed by Suratt. In 1906, she made her Broadway debut in the musical The Belle of Mayfair, followed by a role in Hip! Hip! Hooray! the following year. By 1908, Suratt and Gould had parted ways and Suratt began a successful solo act which featured her singing and dancing while wearing glamorous costumes and gowns. Suratt's success in vaudeville continued and she began billing herself as "Vaudeville's Greatest Star" and "The Biggest Drawing Card in New York". In 1910, she appeared in the show The Girl with the Whooping Cough. New York City mayor William Jay Gaynor claimed that the show was "salacious" and had it shut down because of its sexually suggestive themes. In December 1910, she teamed up with Fletcher Norton (who became her second husband) in a playlet titled Bouffe Variety. She became noted for appearing in playlets where she played a variety of roles in comedies and melodramas.

During her years on the stage, Valeska was noted for the high fashion clothes she wore on stage and her name became synonymous with lavish gowns worldwide. Among the items which were most commented about was an $11,000 Cinderella cloak. She was sometimes called the "Empress of Fashions". She possibly was another model for the famous Gibson Girl sketchings. Vogue magazine later named her "one of the best dressed women on the stage" and routinely wrote about the gowns she wore in her stage shows in detail.