Gaby Deslys is widely acknowledged to have been one Marie-Elise Gabrielle Caire, born in Marseilles, France, to French parents - Marie Victor Hippolyte Caire, a minor government official and fabric trader of modest means, and his wife Mathilde Caire (nee Terras). But during the latter part of her life, and in the years immediately following her tragic early death, this identification was put very much under scrutiny, and an altogether different origin was commonly ascribed to her.
It transpires that, just a few years after Gabrielle Caire was born in Marseilles, there was born in the little Bohemian peasant town of Horni Mostenice in Moravia (in October, 1885) one Hedwig (or Edwige) Navratil, daughter of Jean (Johan) Navratil and Anna Fesper, who in her mature years bore an uncanny resemblance to Gaby Deslys. As a young woman, Hedwig spent several years as a chambermaid in private houses and hotels in Klagenfrut before eloping with an actor to pursue a career on the stage. She subsequently got a job in the chorus line of the Apollo music hall in Kattowitz (Katowice, Poland) under the assumed name of Hedwig Rogee. In the years that followed she utilised a number of other names, and went on to gain some popularity on the stage in Vienna as "Little Haerakih". There it may be that she first met, or at least saw, the woman she so uncannily resembled, as the real Gaby played there for a short time in 1910. Certainly it appears to have been around this time that the confusion of identity between the two women first began to manifest.
Eventually Hedwig made her way to France and, it was claimed by her family some years later (following the death of Gaby Deslys), it was here, sometime around the outbreak of war in 1914, that Hedwig took over the identity of Gaby Deslys from Gabrielle Caire and went on in that guise to win considerable fame and fortune, whilst Gabrielle Caire died or retired in obscurity.
When the Navratil story first broke, many newspapers took it at face value.
The Washington Post
5th August, 1914
... the young woman who styles herself 'Gaby Deslys,' ..... is not an exponent of Parisian art of dancing or of Parisian chic and elegance. In fact, she is not a French woman at all, but a Bohemian peasant girl, a native of the village of Horni Mostenice in Moravia, where she was born in the year 1884, that is to say 30 years ago. Her real name is not Gaby Deslys, but Hedwig Nawratil.
Many later perpetuated the spy nonsense claimed by her Moravian 'family'
Revelation that the late Gaby Deslys ... was a daring spy for the Allies during the World War may result in the erection of a statue in her memory in Paris ... it was disclosed that Gaby had filched the Hungarian girls identity papers, passports and other documents and with their aid had gone into Austria and Hungary during the war as a spy.
(syndicated USA 1930)
The Navratils produced much evidence to support their case. First and foremost were a number of letters and postcards they had received from Hedwig, written in Hungarian and signed "Your loving daughter. Gaby Deslys," and therefore they had taken it for granted that the famous Gaby was indeed their Hedwig. Next was a bankruptcy report from a Viennese jeweller which listed amongst his debtors a claim for 900 crowns against one Hedy Navratil, otherwise known as Gaby Deslys, an actress living at 33 Kartnorstrasse in that city. In addition they produced sworn statements from a number of Austrian and Hungarian actresses to the effect that they knew and had played with Gaby Deslys, and that she was positively a Hungarian. One in particular, Miss Gilta Vera, said that she was Gaby's closest friend and confidante for a number of years and that Gaby had told her confidentially that she was indeed Hedwig Navratil, but that she feared to let this become known because "the public only respects Countesses and Marchionesses on the stage." Then there was the alleged confession of a French physician that he had faked a birth certificate for Gaby to fraudulently establish her French nationality.
The mystery only deepened further when the Navratils made bizarre claims that Gabrielle Caire had stolen Hedy's identity papers, passports and other documents in order to go into Austria and Hungary during the war to operate as a spy for the allies, hoodwinking the foreign officials because of the remarkable resemblance she bore to the Hungarian girl she impersonated.
There is no question that Hedwig Navratil and Gabrielle Caire both existed, nor is there much doubt that they bore an uncanny resemblance one to the other. And the claims of Mrs. Navratil, Hedy's mother, that the woman known as Gaby Deslys was her daughter do seem to have been founded on a genuine belief that that truly was the case. Mrs. Navratil even went to see her once when, not long before her death, Gaby Deslys was again playing at a Viennese theatre. Amused, Gaby admitted the old woman to her dressing room where Mrs. Navratil threw herself on Gaby's neck and, after kissing her, explained through an interpreter, since she spoke no French and this Gaby knew no Hungarian, that she (Gaby) was her longlost daughter. Gaby kindly explained that she had only mother, and pointed to Madame Caire who was with her in the room. Years earlier, in London during the war, Hedy Navratil's sister had sought Gaby out and, in an attempt to prove her identity, had denounced her to the police, causing her to be brought before the Intelligence Service to prove that she was indeed a French woman and not a Hungarian spy. The claim was taken seriously, but after hearing testimony from numerous witnesses the authorities had been fully satisfied as to the truth of her identity.
So could there have been any basis of truth in any part of the Navratils claims? If Hedy Navratil ever was the internationally celebrated Gaby Deslys it could only have been after Gabrielle Caire had already made that name famous. But why then would Gabrielle Caire hand over the mantle that had brought her fame and fortune to simply disappear into obscurity. And why did the Gaby Deslys that died so tragically in 1920 own Madame Caire as her mother? How could she have hoodwinked the British Intelligence authorities in time of war? Could it be that Gabrielle and Hedy had willingly traded identities during the war years so that Gabrielle could, as claimed, work as a spy for the French government? But if Hedy were an accomplice to that, as a Hungarian it would have made her as much a traitor as it would have made Gabrielle a heroine. And if they did trade places did they then subsequently trade back? The Gaby Deslys that died spoke fluent French and numerous witnesses were available to attest that she introduced Madame Caire to them as her mother.
And if Hedy was not Gaby Deslys then what happened to her? Did Hedy herself become a spy for the French government against her own people? Or a spy for her own people against the Allies? Or was the whole spy story just a complete nonsense? And if Gabrielle Caire was always Gaby Deslys, why did she never take steps to quosh the mis-identification that was made so public in the final years of her life, or even publicly deny it? Could it be that she thought it enhanced her appeal by giving her an air of mystery? Or did she perhaps think it was simply too ridiculous to legitimise with a response?
For a number of years before her death until a number of years after, many newspapers did in fact take the Navratil story at face value, and accepted the assertion that Gaby Deslys was Hedwig Navratil. But France was so proud of its daughter that even the Minister of Foreign Affairs stepped in to institute an enquiry, whose report, some nine years after her death, left little doubt that Gaby Deslys was, from beginning to end, Gabrielle Caire.
Nor would the World be required to wait much longer for an answer as to the fate of Hedy Navratil. The publicity in the French press surrounding the inquiry had come to her attention and she re-emerged, alive and well, after sending a telegram to 'Le Journal' of Paris admitting her identity. In an interview, at which she produced sure proof of her identity, she gave the following explanation:
"I lived in Paris for five years and was in the capital when the war broke out. I then went to San Sebastian, where I have lived for 16 years with a friend. Before the war I traveled through Russia, Poland, what is now Czechoslovakia and Germany as a dancer, under the name of Miss Roger. While in San Sebastian I sent two express letters to my father, but they were returned unclaimed and are still in the post-office there. What my sister has said about me is correct except that I never took the name of Gaby Deslys and there must be no confusion about it. Gaby Deslys is dead and the true Edwige Navratil is very much alive. I knew Gaby Deslys in Vienna, later in London and in a gambling casino on the outskirts of Paris, which we both frequented, but only casually. Simply enough to exchange greetings and common politenesses."
So it was that, some ten years after her death, the vexed question of Gaby Deslys true identity was, it seems, finally settled. But did Hedy at any time fuel the confusion by claiming to be the famous woman she resembled so closely as even to fool her own mother? Did she indeed obtain a false birth certificate from the French physician, as her own family claimed, to establish French nationality - or perhaps to aid her impersonation of the famous French woman? She denied any such action in the statement she gave following her reappearance, but other evidence seems to suggest some probability that she did in fact use that resemblance to her own advantage. The 'Gaby Deslys' that was indebted to the Viennese jeweller for example was positively identified as a Hungarian and was also known to her associates in Vienna by the name of Hedwig Navratil - was that Hedy?. Then there were the letters to her family, signed 'Gaby Deslys', that began their crusade. Did Hedy write them, perhaps having noticed her striking resemblance to Gaby Deslys, to impress her family or perhaps to put their minds at ease that she was doing well? The full truth will probably never be known - even today, some ill-informed sources still perpetuate the Navratil myth.