Bertie Gordon

(b. **/**/**** - d. **/**/****). Actress, dancer. Bertie Gordon is said to have come out to South Africa with H. Lisle Lucoque and took the part of Foulata in the African Film Productions version of King Solomon’s Mines (1918). After Lucoque returned to England towards the end of 1919, she probably went with him and acted in two of his British films, namely Lorna Doone (taking the title role and acting with South African-born Dennis Wyndham) and Castles in Spain, both in 1920. In Castles in Spain she appeared with Hayford Hobbs, who was to come to South Africa to act in Leander De Cordova's Swallow (1922). In 1923 a Bertie Gordon appeared in a theatre in Cape Town, with Variety calling her “one of the daintiest dancers seen on the Tivoli stage". (FO)

Notes

According to IMDb, she was originally Bertha Hetty Gordon, born in London on 29 August 1905. If that is so, she must have been about 12 when she came out to South Africa with Lucoque, which seems unlikely.

Stage & Cinema of 23 November 1918 consistently refers to Foulata as being acted by Miss Bertie Solomon. Her sister, Phyllis Solomon, was the leader of the dance troupe in the film. There is a photograph of both of them together with H. Lisle Lucoque.

Sources

Stage & Cinema, 23 November 1918

Le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla – Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm

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