Helga in Hiding

Authors NoteThe Gaiety Theatre was a London institution and the Gaiety Girls were unique over the whole world. Lovely as Goddesses, they floated to the theatre borne as it were on immortal sandals, whether they rolled up in hansom cabs, came in their own private broughams or were escorted by gentlemen with tail coats, top hats and white ties. As they passed by they left a glimpse of grace and beauty and a fragrance of femininity which the world does not know today. There were all classes in their ranks, some of them from what was almost the gutter and some from the aristocracy, but each one had the polish and stamp of The Gaiety. They were selected by George Edwardes, who was the best judge of female charm the world has ever known, just as he was the best judge of talent. He was the supreme Manager of his time and his name on the bill of a play was the equivalent of a hallmark of quality. Nobody since George Edwardes’s days has meant what he did and one name only since his time has stood for something like the same thing in the minds of the public and that was C. B. Cochran. The Gaiety shows shone and glittered and all of London flocked to see them. They gave London its lighter moments, its laughter and its glorious girls. It is difficult now for us to realise, when everything has become dull and mundane, what these beautiful exotic women meant to the men who watched them from the stalls and prayed that they would be lucky enough to take them out to supper after the show. The Gaiety Girls were all beautiful and wonderful women, they not only had charm and glamour but many of them had genuine talent as well.