The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-11-06
THE VOICE OF
Broadway
BY Louis SoboI
Stories of Manhattan!

A VlVaClOuS lIdlllC dAOL dORS 40
the petite bundle of electricity
known as Fleurette, currently
something of a minor sensation
at the local LIE Mirage. So ut
terly, utterly French in the cute
and talented manner. She is
billed as "fantaisiSt" which is
impressive enough and there is
no doubt she will get somewhere
as the saying goes. After watch
ing her and hearing her, you
leave fully convinced that some
producer or some cine-mogul will
snatch her for bigger marquee
incandeScentS or poster billing.
Fleurette-and she has clippings
to prove that for six months she
headlined the Folies Bergere in
Paris.
But if the eyes are mirrors
of the soul, it is also true, they
are guides to the memory. The
rheumy but experienced OrbS of
this observer senSed something
familiar in the manner and
speech and gestures of the
stranger from PariS-the girl
SO thrilled to be in New York
for the first time in her life.
1t puzzled him Leaving LIE
Mirage Monday night, he
stopped for a few seconds to
study the pictures of the
mademOiSelle - some in her
dainty feminine fluffS-One pic
turing her in her neat mannish
attire-tails and jaunty tOphat.
And then we know.
Fleurette, the wide-eyed immi-
grant, the impetuouSly ambitious
sweetheart of Paris, the little girl
who wants to make good and go
on to bigger things is none other
than Flora LIE Breton who in
1925 arrived here, hailed as the
English Mary PiCkford. The SEN
Sation Of the year, she was, and
the late Percy Hammond tabled
her as the most divinely beautiful
feminine bric-a-brac he had ever
seen and the usually conservative
Alexander Woollcott insisted she
was a delight to the masculine
eye. They made quite fuss about
her but the thunder died out
somehow and she went back to
England, appearing in several
plays there, to return again to
these shores to take minor part
in THE Cat and the Fiddle"
My memory falters. bit here
but I am sure it was then that I
met her and talked with her and
learned from her how she had
started on the very top and step
by step had gone down. And now,
here she is, step by step, climbing
up again and nothing should stop
her now.
But here is what will puzzle
you as it puzzles me. Told point
blank that she was not a French
girl but the English star Of for
mer years, FIeurette, who speaks
such perfect French and such,
feeble and heavily accented
English denies vehemently that
she is Flora LIE Breton of Lon
don who spoke such perfect
British English in the years
that were. Denies-with tears
and protests that she has ever
been anyone else but Fleurette
of Paris. Why?
More than a brace of decades
ago, he was the ace Scribbler on
a local gazette (now defunct-1
adore mystery, don't you9 when
a by-line signified more than
long term contract. His father
died. bequeathing him a large
estate in the South.
Five years later he had dtSSi-
pated his fortune and the plan
tation went under the hammer
Shortly after his wife Shuttled
out of his life, leaving him his
last bottle of pre-war Bourbon
and two sons. He drifted back
to Park Row Park Row meant
something to newspapermer in
those days. and ran the CANT
let Of Snubs until he encOunt-
cred a city editor who had once
rushed copy for him.
You can rip off five calendar
years during which this fellow
was shunted from one subordi-
nate beat to another, never quite
catching up with himself. Most
Of his anemic pay check went for
the support of his kids and a few
Speakeasy proprietors. Three days