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Viola Essen was a dancer principally associated with ballet and the Broadway theater who made a single feature-film appearance, in Specter of the Rose (1946). Essen was born in 1925 of Bulgarian parents who emigrated to the United States. She began training as a dancer during childhood. In 1940, in her mid-teens, she became one of the original members of the Ballet Theatre, which later evolved into the American Ballet Theater. In 1946, the 21-year-old Essen made a move that anticipated the later career arc of British ballerina Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes, when she was selected by writer/producer/director Ben Hecht to star in
Viola Essen was a dancer principally associated with ballet and the Broadway theater who made a single feature-film appearance, in Specter of the Rose (1946). Essen was born in 1925 of Bulgarian parents who emigrated to the United States. She began training as a dancer during childhood. In 1940, in her mid-teens, she became one of the original members of the Ballet Theatre, which later evolved into the American Ballet Theater. In 1946, the 21-year-old Essen made a move that anticipated the later career arc of British ballerina Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes, when she was selected by writer/producer/director Ben Hecht to star in his film Specter of the Rose. Essen portrayed a young ballerina who is nearly destroyed by her love for a psychotic dancer (Ivan Kirov). The film was a financial disaster, though it has become an object of curiosity over the decades for movie buffs. For Essen, whose career was mostly focused on the stage, it was simply an odd credit amid her theater work. Her career went along in fits and starts as the 1940s wore on, and Essen spent part of her later life in financial trouble. Her only other screen credit was the role of Azuri in Max Liebman's 1955 television production of Desert Song. During the 1950s, she married actor Gabriel Dell, and the two had a son.
Viola Essen became living proof that stardom in ballet does not generate equal success on screen. Signed by Republic boss Herbert J. Yates on the strength of her dance pantomime in the short-lived Broadway musical 'Hollywood Pinafore', the diminutive twenty-one year old ballerina was cast in one of the studio's biggest-ever productions, Specter of the Rose (1946). The picture was launched amidst an extensive publicity campaign with ads in most of the major periodicals, including 'Life', 'Cue' and 'Look' , and it was written, directed and produced by the prodigious academy award winner Ben Hecht. Unfortunately, the tale of 'dark terror and strange love' failed to generate box office in spite of moderate critical plaudits for being offbeat. The New York Times Review (September 2,1946) more scathingly urged Hecht "having satisfied his unconventional soul" to return to "writing the kind of conventional film he dislikes doing but does so with such resourcefulness that everyone else has a good time".
Viola returned to the Ballet Theatre and later appeared on Broadway in 'Along Fifth Avenue' (1949), starring Jackie Gleason. She married actor Gabriel Dell of 'Dead End Kids' fame, sometime in the early 1950's. Professionally, she was destined never to appear on the big screen again and in her later life suffered financial hardship. She died in 1970, aged just 44.
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