Paulette Duval was a French dancer and actress of the silent film era and early sound motion pictures. She was born in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, in 1900 and raised in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. She was considered one of the most beautiful women in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in the early twentieth century. Paulette was recruited by Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...

 for the Ziegfeld Follies

Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....

, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York, New York, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, on October 15, 1923. Before joining the Follies, the French beauty was engaged with the Scandals dance productions of George White

George White

George White may refer to:*George A. White Maj.-Gen., U.S. Army*George E. White , U.S. Congressman from Illinois*George Henry White , Republican Congressman from North Carolina...

.

Fashion conscious film actress

Paulette was in Hollywood film production from 1919-1933. She is widely known for her role Madame de Pompadour in Monsieur Beaucaire. Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...

 starred opposite Duval in the 1924 production based on a novel written by Booth Tarkington

Booth Tarkington

Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...

. In 1925 she played the role of a vamp in the film version of Cheaper To Marry

Cheaper to Marry

Cheaper to Marry is a 1925 film starring Conrad Nagel, Lewis Stone, Marguerite de la Motte and Paulette Duval. The film was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, and written by Alice D.G...

. The movie was based on the noted stage play written by Samuel Shipman. Paulette played a lovely young woman who was embittered by the cynicism of the man she intended to marry. The MGM
motion picture featured many of the clothes the French actress brought from Paris as well as evening attire and furs furnished by the studio costume department. From her own possessions Miss Duval gave Norma Talmadge

Norma Talmadge

Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...

 a $5,000 headdress. Paulette introduced knee muffs to Hollywood in 1926. A fur importer, Maurice Gebber, made the muffs from Russian sable after a design by Paulette Duval. She appeared with Marion Davies

Marion Davies

Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....

 in Beverly of Graustark

Beverly of Graustark

__notoc__Beverly of Graustark is a silent film directed by Sidney Franklin, starring Marion Davies, Antonio Moreno and Creighton Hale. The film's screenplay was written by Agnes Christine Johnston based on the novel by George Barr McCutcheon, and set on the fictional land of Graustark. The movie...

in the spring of 1926.
Her final film was Lidoire (1933) in which she played the character
of La Dame.

Daughter in movies

In 1952 Paulette's daughter, Jacqueline, made her motion picture debut in Red Ball Express. The film featured Jeff Chandler

Jeff Chandler (actor)

Jeff Chandler was an American film actor and singer in the 1950s.-Early life:Chandler was born Ira Grossel to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Anna and Phillip Grossel. He attended Erasmus Hall High School, the alma mater of many stage and film personalities...

 and Alex Nicol

Alex Nicol

For the Distinguished Service Cross recipient, see Alexander Nicol.Alex Nicol was an American actor and director. Nicol appeared in many Westerns including The Man from Laramie...

. The uniqueness of her debut had to do with the camera shot, which showed the twenty-year-old Parisienne's derrière rather than the usual facial closeup. Jacqueline is shown pedaling away on a French bicycle in the opening shot of the Universal International feature. The irony is that the young actress was under contract to MGM for the previous two years. During this time more than 3000 feet of tests were made of her facial expressions.