Actress Jetta Goudal. Photo  By United Artists – Wikimedia

Top 10 Amazing Facts About Jetta Goudal   


 

Jetta Goudal was a Dutch-American actress. She acted in Hollywood movies during the silent film era that is between the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Those days, motion pictures had no synchronized recorded conversations. Instead, pianists and organists would play either from sheet music or improvisation. 

Silent films conveyed narrative and emotion visually but when necessary, title cards were used to convey the various plot elements or key dialogues.  

Here are the top 10 amazing facts about Jetta Goudal. 

1. Jetta Goudal Was Not Her Real Name 

Jetta Goudal’s birth name was Julie Henriette Goudeket. She was born on 12th July 1891 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  

Her parents, Geertruida and Wolf Mozes Goudeket were both Jewish plus her father was Orthodox. She had an older sister and a younger brother who passed on when he was four months old.  

In 1918, she left Europe to settle in New York City in the United States of America. On an information sheet for the Paramount Public Department, she changed her identity from Julie Goudeket to Jetta Goudal to hide her Dutch Jewish ancestry.  

Her new identity, Jetta, was French, 10 years younger, and the daughter of a fictional Maurice Guillaume Goudal who was a lawyer in Versailles. 

2. She Lost Almost All Her Family Members 

A mass grave at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945. Photo by No 5 Army – Wikimedia Commons

Apart from her younger brother not making it to his first birthday, her mother passed on in 1920 and her father remarried 9 years later. 

Her father was murdered at the Sobibor extermination camp when he was 82 years old. Almost all of her Dutch-Jewish relatives met the same fate during the infamous holocaust.

Her sister Bertha died in 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and Bertha’s husband Nathan Beffie had died at the same place the previous year.

Jetta’s nephew Eduard Beffie (Berta’s son) was killed at the Sobibór extermination camp. Jetta Goudal’s stepmother, Rosette Citroen, was also killed at Sobibor in 1943.

The only relative who survived The Holocaust was her niece Geertruida (Truus) Beffie, Bertha’s Daughter. She survived the war and lived a full life. Truus died in 2013 in Pennsylvania, United States.

The Holocaust was the systematic mass killings or genocide of Jews that took place between 1933–1945.  

3. She Started on The Broadway 

Jetta Goudal. Photo by Unknown Wikimedia Commons

Her first show on  Broadway was in 1921. It was the first time she was using the stage name Jetta Goudal. She met director Sidney Olcott, who encouraged her to venture into film acting. 

Jetta did a part in his film production, Timothy’s Quest, in 1922. Convinced to move to the West Coast, she appeared in two more Olcott films in the ensuing three years. 

Her first role in a movie was in The Bright Shawl in 1923. Other films that she did include The Coming of Amos, The Forbidden Woman, The Road to Yesterday, White Gold, and Lady of the Pavements. 

She also acted in Paris at Midnight, The Green Goddess, Salome of the Tenements, and Tarnished Youth. 

4. Jetta Was an Activist in a Labour Union For Actors and Actresses 

Jetta was a high-profile activist in the Actors’ Equity Association. Actors Equity is an American labor union that represents those who work in live theatrical performances.     

At the time, Jetta was very vocal as she campaigned for the theatre and film industry to reset the movie stage under better working conditions for the players. 

5. She Sued Her Employer for Breach of Contract 

Actress Jetta Goudal. Photo  By United Artists – Wikimedia

Jetta was a good actress and she quickly earned praise for her film work and especially for her excellent performance. the attention of producer/director Cecil B. DeMille. 

They worked together in several highly successful and acclaimed films for DeMille before he made claims that Goudal was very difficult to work with.  

He eventually fired Jetta and canceled their contract. After this, the actress filed a lawsuit for breach of contract against DeMille and his Pictures Corporation. 

In his defense, DeMille claimed Jetta’s conduct had caused numerous and costly production delays but he was not willing to provide his studio’s financial records to support his financial losses claim.  

Jetta won the lawsuit in a landmark ruling. 

6. Winning The Case Hurt Her Career 

Because of her activism in the labour union and her win against DeMille in the lawsuit, some Hollywood studios refused to employ Jetta.  

In 1932, at age forty-one, she made her last screen appearance in a talkie, co-starring with Will Rogers in the Fox Film Corporation production of Business and Pleasure. She retired in 1933 but she remained active in Actor’s Equity. 

7. Jetta Got Married to an Art Director 

Jetta Goudal. Photo by Unknown Wikimedia Commons

In 1930, Jetta married Harold Grieve, an American born in Los Angeles, California. He was working in the film industry as a set designer and art director and he was also a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

Jetta and Harold remained married for 55 years till death did them part in 1985. They had no children. 

8. Jetta and Her Husband Designed the Famous Dollhouse 

In 1930, Harold gave up working for a film studio to set up an interior design business. When Jetta’s film career ended, she joined her husband in running the successful design business. 

Among other things, they designed the interior of a dream home for crooner Bing Crosby and the interior of Toujours Eblouissante.  

They also worked on the Palm Springs estate of French opera star Lily Pons which was featured in Architectural Digest.   

The two also designed the interior of actress Colleen Moore’s famous dollhouse that toured the U.S. and which can now be seen on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.  

9. There is a Hollywood Star and Bridge In Her Honour 

Walk of Fame stars on Hollywood Boulevard. Photo By Benoît Prieur – Wikimedia Commons

In 1960, Jetta was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6333 Hollywood Boulevard for her contribution to the motion picture industry.

In April 2019, the city council of Amsterdam named bridge 771, which was previously nameless, the Jetta Goudal bridge. The name tag was installed the following year. 

10. Jetta Was 94 Years When She Passed On 

Jetta died of natural causes in 1985 in Los Angeles. She had requested for no funeral and so she was interred quietly.  

When Harold died in 1993, he was buried right next to her in a private room at the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of the Angels, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.