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| MLLE. GABRIELE |
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| Gabriele Gunther was born in 1884 in Basel, Switzerland, a city located on the border with Germany and France. She states in her bio pamphlet (right) that she was taught by nuns indicating she may have been raised in a Catholic orphanage. She began in the show business as a teenager at age 16 when she was seen at the Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris in 1900 and was successful on the Continent many years. She came to the States from Dresden, Germany in 1911. In 1914 she was working for Ringling Bros. Circus. Apparently she found Etats Unis much to her liking because for the next thirteen years (at least) she continued to exhibit there with various shows. |
| As her publicity photos indicate, Gabriele loved to adorn herself with expensive bangles, necklaces, headbands and flowers. Her clothes, which appear to have been hand made, were tight-fitting to accentuate her cinctured waist. Gabriele's beauty and charm could not be ignored. The "half-lady" was married no less than three times. Once in her youth to John Gunther, the 2nd time in 1925 to New York businessman John de Fuller (the news reported she left him three months later) and finally to a German nobleman, making her a Baroness. I do not know whatever became of her. Some speculate she retired back to her hometown, a wealthy woman. |
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