Queer Places:
Effingham, Leatherhead KT24 5AF, UK

Image result for Teddie GerardTeddie Gerard (born Thérése Théodora Gérard Cabrié, May 2, 1890[2] – August 31, 1942) was an Argentine film actress[1] and entertainer of the early 20th century. She was a friend of Tallulah Bankhead, and introduced her to Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge. Teddie Gerard stunned audiences in 1915 with her appearance in a backless gown while behind her a chorus of male crooners sang, ‘Glad to see You’re Back, Dear Lady’. The defection of Teddie’s lover Etheline to Eileen Bliss got everyone gossiping, but Teddie herself seemed unperturbed. She was a hard-drinking, promiscuous adventuress with a drug habit.

Gerard first performed at the Casino Theatre on Broadway in New York City, in February 1909. She appeared in the chorus of Havana. Later she followed Gaby Deslys as the dancing partner of Harry Pilcer.[1] Gerard was in a Flo Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic production on the New Amsterdam Roof in New York City, in August 1920.[3] She was a singer and dancer in revues in London, England, and Paris, France, during the 1910s and 1920s. She performed in The Wedding Glide and Eclipse, written by E. Phillips Oppenheim. In 1921 Gerard was cast in the motion picture The Cave Girl. She acted in The Rat, a theatrical production taken from a work penned by David L'Estrange. The presentation was staged at the Colonial Theatre in London in 1925.[1]


Doddy Durand; Teddie Gerard, by Bassano Ltd, whole-plate glass negative, 1914

She wed Joseph Raymond, an American theatrical agent, in Newark, New Jersey, in 1908.[2] She was engaged to actor Tom Douglas in 1926.[4] In October 1928 Gerard announced her engagement to Captain Archie Grant of the Grenadier Guards, a son of the Scottish laird. The wedding was planned for a fortnight later, at Effingham, Surrey, where Gerard owned a cottage since 1923.[2] Gwen Farrar leased a property called Grove Paddock, near Gerard. Farrar’s lease ended in 1938, however Gwen and her partner Norah Blaney returned to Effingham in later years, paying a visit to the very ill Teddie Gerard, sometime before her death at the end of August 1942.

Gerard became seriously ill with an infection of her right lung in March 1929. She was confined to a nursing home in the West End of London.[5] She died following an extended illness in London in 1942. She was 52 years old.[2]

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