“I was in vaudeville. I played here on the coast in 1928. It was good for me, the time I spent in vaudeville. It’s the best training you can have for the talkies, unless it is burlesque.” — Fifi D’Orsay
“You know, I went to work very quickly after my test in New York. Very few get to work quickly after their screen test. Just three weeks after my test, I was working here on the Fox lot.” — Fifi D’Orsay
“Look! I don’t say ‘z’ when I talk. Only in pictures when I must be a French girl. I say ‘zis’ and ‘zos’ and everything. See, I can say ‘thing.’ Soon with a little, what do you say, a little concentration, I will play straight American parts. Then you will see. I can talk American. I will not have an accent.” — Fifi D’Orsay
Photo: C.S. Bull (1933)
“It is difficult to speak English with a French accent when it does not come naturally. So many girls tried out for these parts, but either they did not speak enough English or they were Americans who spoke fluent French, but their accent was not right.” — Fifi D’Orsay
Photo: Three French Girls (1930)
“You won’t believe me but I am really almost blonde. But not really blonde and not really dark. So I make me black.” — Fifi D’Orsay
Source: 1930
Photographer: Maurice Seymour
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