The Curse of "Suzette"

"Suzette", 'a musical affair' by Austin Hergon and George Arthurs, opened at the Globe theatre in London on 29th March, 1917, and ran for 255 performances. It's star at the outset was the popular French actress, Gaby Deslys. Her understudy was Sophie "Babs" Taylor, and Mrs. Hallye Peck, a brilliant socialite with rich and powerful acquaintances, had a place in the chorus. These three women were all close friends and were known inside the theatre as "The Allies", on account of their nationalities being French, English and American respectively (the three major Allied nations then at war with Germany). Also close friends with this group were dancer Eva Luscombe (wife of Victor Luscombe, the son of a baronet), actress Phyllis Maude (who had married the Marquis de Sain) and the popular actress and rising starlet Billie Carleton. Incredibly, within a space of two years, all six of these ladies would die in tragic circumstances - victims, according to some, of an alleged gypsy curse placed upon them all one night in the Globe theatre.

This strange story first unfolded at Bow Street Police station, London, on January 24th, 1921. It was brought out through the testimony given by employees of the Globe theatre in the case of an old woman who had been arrested outside that theatre for causing a breach of the peace. The woman was subsequently remanded to an asylum for the insane, but in the course of the hearing an incredible story was told in which it was claimed that the woman had not only foretold the aforementioned deaths, but had, in fact, invoked a terrible curse that had brought them about.

The woman, it was said, had once been a member of a travelling troupe of gypsy acrobats and musical entertainers, but was forced to leave the troupe following an accident that necessitated her receiving treatment in London for an injury to her spine. Subsequently unable to rejoin her former companions, she was forced to take whatever work she could find in London's theatre district, working at times as a seamstress for various costumers and in the wardrobe departments at the Covent Garden and, later, Drury Lane theatres.

Such engagements did not run smoothly however. Her state of mind was at best erratic, and her sudden mood changes and intemperate behaviour soon earned her the joky nickname of "Barmy Elsie". Over the years, her temperament only worsened, inevitably leading to dismissals until eventually she could no longer find work and she took to begging in the streets, whatever the weather, usually in the vicinity of the Globe Theatre. At the end of a performance she could always be found at the stage door, telling fortunes for the actors, actresses, and chorus girls in return for whatever coppers they were prepared to part with. At the Globe she acquired a new nickname, given her by members of the French company of Madame Rejane. This was "La Mere Araignee" or "Old Mother Spider" - inspired by her gaunt appearance as her body twisted with age and, probably, malnutrition. Her vile temper, when crossed, was legendary and she was arrested on numerous occasions for causing late night disturbances near the theatre.

In giving evidence against "Barmy Elsie" over the incidents that had led to her latest arrest, Thomas Leighton, the Nightwatchman at the Globe Theatre, was asked by the crown prosecutor "did you ever before observe the prisoner in an excited mental condition that would lead you to believe she was entirely irrational and irresponsible?" He replied that he had and began to relate the incredible story of an incident that had occurred a few years earlier.

One fateful night, the six actresses had all arranged to meet in Gaby Deslys dressing room after their evening performances in order to go out to supper together. Miss Carleton, who had been appearing at a different theatre nearby, was the last to arrive at the designated meeting point and had run into Elsie (who had somehow evaded Leighton's vigilance and slipped inside) whilst making her way through the Globe theatre to meet up with the others. Miss Carleton came face to face with Elsie in the corridor leading to the dressing room where her friends were waiting. Elsie demanded money from her and, when Miss Carleton refused, voices were raised in anger. Leighton, who had been making his rounds in another part of the theatre, was alerted by the shouting and immediately rushed to the site of the commotion. There he found Elsie, who was well known to him, at the centre of the fracas. The old woman was arguing with Miss Carleton, who was standing just outside Miss Deslys dressing room. Miss Deslys herself, having also been alerted by the sound of the argument, was standing in the doorway to her dressing room with the other ladies in the supper party standing just behind her.

Seeing Leighton, Miss Taylor immediately stepped forward and called to him to eject the old woman from the theatre, to which Miss Carleton added "yes Leighton, please put her out. She seems to dislike me because I will not turn over my purse to her." Leighton then placed his hand on the old woman's shoulder and motioned her to come with him, but she shook free and vented her rage one last time at the young actresses. "She cursed them," he said, "and called them terrible names. She said she hoped they would become diseased and that they would all be outcasts in the streets with nothing for food and no-one to give them aid. She told them that they would all die suddenly and in agony."

This remarkable story was verified by two other witnesses who testified at the hearing, Thomas Price, an electrician at the theatre, and Rosa Iorrio, a cleaning woman. Iorrio was in fact the next witness called to the stand and in corroborating Leighton's testimony she added "and, it was almost two months to the day your worship, that poor Miss Carleton died". The magistrate prevented her from going further by saying that such matters were of no concern to the case in hand, but there was no denying that by the time of this hearing the old woman's prophecy had indeed come to chilling fruition.

In only three years, all six of those ladies she had cursed had, indeed, died in tragic circumstances:

• November 1918 - Billie Carleton, then at the very zenith of her career, died of a mysterious drug overdose on the night of the Grand Victory Ball at the Royal Albert Hall celebrating the end of the Great War. Miss Carleton returned home in the company of friends that evening and spoke with them for some time before they left and she in turn took to her bed. Her maid found her sleeping peacefully the next morning but did not disturb her. Later in the day, the maid checked on her again only to find that she had stopped breathing. A doctor was called but it was too late - Miss Carleton had died from an overdose of cocaine. The news surrounding the circumstances of her tragic death created a media sensation, leading to revelations of London's seedy underworld that shocked not only England but the rest of the World.
• February 1920 - Gaby Deslys became ill from a streptococic throat and lung infection. All attempts to clear the infection failed and doctors recommended an operation to excise the infected tissue from her throat. Miss Deslys refused the operation on the grounds that it would have scarred her beautiful neck. Without it, the infection spread and within three months of that fateful decision it took her life.
• December 2nd, 1920 - Eva Luscombe died in a tragic fire accident. Having established herself as one of the leading dancers in England, she found herself in America, drawn by the promise of work in films. Miss Luscombe leased an apartment near New York's fashionable Fifth Avenue, but had not been there ten days before a fire originating in an adjoining building spread to the structure. Unfamiliar with the exits, Miss Luscombe became lost in the smoke-filled interior and died from the effects of smoke. Her charred remains were found in a hallway, one floor below her apartment and only a few feet from a passageway that would have led her to safety. Betty Jones, another English dancer with whom Miss Luscombe shared the apartment, also died in the fire.
• December 16th, 1920 - Phyllis Maude met her demise under mysterious circumstances. She was in Scotland with a touring company presenting a musical comedy in Glasgow. One day, on her way to the theatre for a matinee performance, she was taken suddenly ill and instructed the cab driver to return her to her boarding house where she retired to her room to rest. Her body, still clothed as it had been the day before, was discovered by a chambermaid the following morning. The coroner's verdict was death by heart disease.
• December 18th, 1920 - Babs Taylor was the fifth victim, shot to death in her apartment by a jealous beau - a cuban/american aviator who had taken the name of George Augustus Kelly. Whilst Miss Taylor was dying in a hospital where she was taken after the shooting, her assailant turned the gun upon himself and died a suicide. On that same day, by fateful coincidence, Miss Luscombe's widower, who was the son a baronet, fell dead at his dressing table.
• December 25th, 1920 - Last to die was Hallye Peck, in perhaps the most tragic circumstances of all. Miss Peck was a socialite whose career had never matched her grandiose ambitions. She had become accustomed to a lifestyle that far exceeded her modest means, funded by an army of rich friends and admirers. But one by one those admirers had deserted her and she fell upon hard times. Gaby Deslys found work for her in Paris where she found new rich friends that temporarily restored her fortunes, but again they tired of her and the hard times returned. Destitute and alone, she deliberately took her own life with an overdose of Veronal on christmas day.

And so ends the story, with the old woman's curse brought chillingly to it's ultimate conclusion. Was there any substance in the curse? Or was it just the rantings of an old woman deranged by the cruel tricks that life had played upon her? Were these womens deaths in some way influenced through the black arts? Or were they just the result of terrible coincidence? These are the questions that remain unanswered. Certainly, even today, many people believe in the power of Gypsy curses, but then this was not the first time the old woman had cursed someone. According to the witnesses, in fact, it was quite a common occurrence, and not all her 'victims' had died. Why then should her curse on this particular occasion have had such remarkable efficacy? On the other hand, for so many young women so closely related by circumstances to have died in so short a space of time does seem to stretch the limits of mere random chance far beyond breaking point - whether or not you believe in the old woman's curse. Certainly, this was far above the average mortality rate for any random group of women in their age group, and successful actresses had it better than most - their work was not dangerous and they could afford to eat well and take good care of themselves. So the facts are before you - curse or coincidence? You must decide for yourself.