Gabrielle Ray – Engagement – The Daily Mirror – Wednesday 10th January 1912

 

MISS GABRIELLE RAY ENGAGED.

 Gaiety Theatre Dancer to Wed Mr. Eric Loder.

 QUEEN OF THE POSTCARD.

 

Brother of ex-Guardsman, Whose Wife Was

 in Mr. Seymour Hicks’ Company.

 

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

 

PARIS, Jan. 9 – Another famous actress beauty is to marry into the ranks of the aristocracy.

I am able to announce the engagement of Miss Gabrielle Ray, the popular dancer and singer of Mr. George Edwardes’ companies, to Mr. Eric Loder, son of the late Mr. Alfred Loder, and grandson of the late Sir Robert Loder, first baronet.

Mr. Eric Loder – a tall, fair. good-looking young man, twenty-three years of age -smilingly confirmed the news of his engagement to Miss Gabrielle Ray when I saw him this afternoon. He looked very happy, but said he did not desire any fuss to be made.

No date has been fixed for the marriage, and the engagement was announced here because they happened to be in Paris at the same time. Mr. Loder is said to be very wealthy.

Miss Gabrielle Ray to-night occupied a box with her fiancé at the Olympia music hall. They were a typical good-looking English couple, Miss Ray looking radiant in an exquisitely pretty pink evening frock. “Please, no interview,” she said, in speaking to me of her engagement.

Yesterday evening Miss Gabrielle Ray, the married lady who is chaperoning her, Mr. Loder, and Mr. Eustace Parker, a friend, dined together at the Hotel Meurice.

Mr. Loder has been in Paris for four or five days, and has several times accompanied Miss Gabrielle Ray to the theatre.

 

BROTHER MARRIED “GAY GORDONS” GIRL.

 

A remarkable feature of this latest stage romance is that Mr. Loder’s brother also married a musical comedy actress.

Four years ago Mr. Basil Loder resigned his commission in the Scots Guards and married Miss Barbara Deane, one of the most charming singers in Mr. Seymour Hicks’ “Gay Gordons” company.

It is a strange coincidence that while the elder brother married one of the most accomplished singers in Mr. Seymour Hicks’ company, which added so many charming brides to the pages of Debrett, the younger brother should wed one of Mr. George Edwardes’ most delightful dancers.

But though Miss Ray is in the front rank of England’s dainty dancers, and is as well known as a singer, she must rank first and foremost as the queen of picture postcard beauties.

(Photographs, on page 9.)

 

LODER’S UNCLES.

 

Mr. Eric Loder is the nephew of many well known men.

The eldest is Sir Edmund Giles Loder, the second baronet, who succeeded his father in 1888, and has seats at Worthing and Horsham, where he preserves kangaroos and other exotic animals.

Mr. Gerald Loder, who was Unionist M.P. for Brighton from 1889 to 1905, but was defeated at a by-election after being appointed Junior Lord of the Treasury, is another uncle of the bridegroom elect; while a third is Major Eustace Loder, who won name and fame on the Turf as owner of Pretty Polly and Spearmint.

Mr. Eric Loder’s father, who died in 1905, was his day a famous athlete, and for many years was one of the only three who had run the hurdles in 16s. dead.

Mr. Loder himself is a keen motorist, and is well known to frequenters of Brooklands motor track.

 

PICTURE POSTCARD FAVOURITE.

 

Miss Gabrielle Ray, who is in her twenty-seventh year, but does not look it, made her stage debut as a child of ten at the old Princess’ Theatre.

Subsequently she played many child parts, including Cupid in “Little Red Riding Hood,” at Richmond.

Her first big part was on tour with “The Belle of New York,” when she played Mamie Clancy, in 1899 and 1900.

After understudying Miss Gertie Millar in “The Toreador” at the Gaiety, she succeeded to Miss Letti Lind’s part of Ellen in “The Girl from Kay’s,” and returned to the Gaiety in “The Orchid.”

Since then she has been associated with many of Mr. George Edwardes’ biggest successes at both his theatres, reaching the zenith of her popularity in the scene at Maxim’s of “The Merry Widow.”

 

OVER 1,000 POSES.

 

The manager of the Rotary Photograph Company told The DailyMirror last night something of Miss Gabrielle Ray’s popularity in the picture postcard world.

“It has been more than a craze, you could almost call it a fever, for at a careful estimation my firm alone has sold between 7,000,000 and 10,000,000 of her postcards.

“We have photographs of her in over a thousand poses. It is impossible to say which has been the most popular, but over 10,000 copies have been sold of her dressed as Millais’ ‘Bubbles.’

“Large photographs of her for framing purposes are sold like hot cakes at 2s. 6d. each, not in dozens, but in thousands, and the craze applies not only to London, but to every little town and village through the kingdom.”

 

The Daily Mirror – Wednesday 10^th January 1912

Gabrielle Ray – Engagement – The Daily Mirror – Wednesday 10th January 1912

 

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