The $2,000,000 willed to the poor of Marseilles by Gaby Deslys, the internationally known Jewish dancer who died in 1920, is the subject of investigation now by Parisian newspapermen who are seeking to prove that she was French in order to ward off a suit brought by Jean Navratil of Budapest who claims she was his daughter and hence he is entitled to a share in her estate.
The suit brought by the Hungarian claims that Gaby Deslys real name was Hedwige Navratil and that she was born at Hatvan, Hungary, in 1884. At the bottom of her will the dancer signed herself as Gabrielle Caire and on her death certificate the date of her birth was given as 1885. The records at the city hall in Marseilles indicate that she was born in 1881. M. Navratil asserts that his daughter Hedwige was substituted for Gabrielle Claire, whom she strongly resembled, when the latter was dancing in 1906 and became too ill to appear on the stage.
He further declares that when the real Gabrielle Claire died his daughter continued to dance under that name. M. Navratil points to the discrepancies in the birth date as an argument in his favor. On the other hand the lawyer who drew up Gaby Deslys’s will declares that the dancer herself altered the birth certificate to make herself four years younger.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
