The fascinating Haitian-Polish singer, dancer, sculptor and actress, Didi Fortunia was born Louie Marguerite Verna on January 27th, 1928 in the Prussian port city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) to a Polish mother and Haitian father Felix Auguste Verna (April 17, 1896-after 1952).
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| Berlin (1932) |
Her father, Felix, originating from Port-au-Prince, had migrated to Brooklyn in 1917 and married his first wife, Catherine Clarke before fleeing to England three years later after being drafted at the outbreak of WWI. From 1919-1922, he studied music in London and traveled with an African-American Jazz band throughout Europe and the British Isles. In 1923, while engaged in Vienna, he began appearing in several unknown Austrian films.
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| Berlin 1936 |
Eventually his travels brought him to Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), where he met and married a local ballet dancer. Late-1928, shortly after the birth of their daughter, the family settled in Berlin, where Felix appeared at Johnny's Nightclub and starred in three German films. In December 1931, Felix partnered with Jacques Perroux, opening the Rio Rita Restaurant at 12 Kaiserstrasse, where Felix's orchestra appeared nightly. Around May 1936, after the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Germany's chancellor and the rise of antisemitic and racist sentiments across the country, the Verna household relocated to Warsaw. During her time in Poland, young Louise was enrolled in a dance academy attached to the Warsaw Opera.
After the German invasion and occupation of Poland in September 1939, Felix Verna was listed as a Belgian citizen and deported to Antwerp, where he remained until August 1947, when he returned home to Haiti. Around 1941, Louise and her mother were arrested and deported to Germany, where they were held at infamous Buchenwald Concentration Camp until September 1944, when they were separated and Louise was transferred to the Jena sub-camp, performing forced labor for the Reich Railways Repair Works. There she repaired railways and performed other factory tasks.
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| Aunt Fortuna la Créole |
After the camp was liberated in April 1945, Louise traveled to Paris under the name Anita Verna (or Anita Averna) where she reunited with a family friend (sometimes referred to as her aunt) Fortuna la Créole. Born Emilia Falaye (June 2, 1906-after 1960) in French Guiana, Fortuna had traveled to Paris during the 1920s to study medicine but decided instead to become a cabaret artist, touring across Europe before settling back in Paris in 1942, where she opened her own cabaret, La Pergola behind the Moulin Rouge. In the summer of 1945, the Pergola was renamed the Arizona and 18-year-old Louise debuted as Didi Fortunia.
During her engagement at the Arizona, Fortunia was spotted by Hungarian director and costume designer, Michel Gyarmathy and given a leading role at Folies Bergère's latest revue, “C'est de la Folie”. Opening March 1946, the show ran for three years before closing February 1949. During her engagement at the Folies Bergère, she became an overnight sensation. Seen as the new Joséphine Baker, she appeared in American and French magazines and newspapers. During the summer of 1948, she appeared as a dancer in the film, Une Femme Par Jour (released February 1949).
In February 1949, after “C'est de la Folie” closed, Fortunia appeared as a chorus girl in the Casino de Paris’ revue, “Exciting Paris”. During its run, she became acquainted with French restaurant owner, Auguste Paul Bénazet (June 13, 1907-December 6, 1971). The couple married in Paris on December 15th, 1949 and settled at Bénazet’s villa in Fontainebleau, where he also ran the Table de la Ravine Hotel-Restaurant.
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| May 1951 |
In March 1950, Fortunia departed for London, where she performed for nine months in the London Casino revue, “Latin Quarter” as a replacement for the Afro-Brazilian entertainer, Miss Bartira. By the time she had returned home to France that December, she was three months pregnant. Retiring briefly from the stage, she gave birth to her son, Jean-Paul Bénazet in June 1951. A month after his birth, she was a contestant in the Miss Automobile of 1951 contest, winning first place. In December, she returned to the stage, performing in the “Nuit du Far West” revue at the Crazy Horse Saloon, appearing there for four months.
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| March 1952 |
During her run at the Crazy Horse, in March 1952, she was reunited with her father who read an article about her success in an American magazine. The following month, she appeared for a few weeks in the A.B.C. musichall’s “Autre chose…!” revue. By May, Paul Bénazet had pressured his wife to refrain from performing semi-nude onstage. Thus, the following month she appeared more subdued in the play, “Paris Galant” at the Théâtre des Capucines, which ran for 16 months. In the meantime, she had another minor film role in, Plaisirs de Paris (released November 1952). During the winter of 1953, she performed at the Ba-Ta-Clan cabaret in Geneva, Switzerland.
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| May 1955 |
In October 1954, she replaced Yvonne Ménard, in the last seven months of the Folies Bergère revue, “Une Vraie Folie”. Following her husband's wishes, she remained mostly covered onstage. In March 1955, Paul Bénazet filed for divorce from Fortunia, claiming she committed adultery with a member of Italian nobility. After being fined $28.56 for adultery, Fortunia married her Italian lover the following month. In May 1955, she returned once again to the Folies Bergère, as the star of the “Ah! Quelle Folie!” revue, which ran for nearly three years.
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| Milan (1959) |
After the revue closed in February 1958, Fortunia relocated to Milan with her new spouse. In September, she debuted at the Teatro Odeon in the musical, “Sayonara Butterfly” (based on the play, Madame Butterfly). After a month's run in Milan, the show toured Italy for the next six months. During this tour, she made her last film appearance in “Pensione Edelweiss” an French-Italian production (released February 1959). Sometime between 1959-1960, she gave birth to a second child. On April 4th, 1961, she signed with Remigio Paone's company. That July, she debuted in the musical, “Il Ragazzo con la Valigia” at the Teatro Nuovo, which ran for two months. After another month touring various Italian cities, the show traveled to Venezuela.
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| February 1962 |
In December, she appeared in the revue, “L'Astoria del Balordi” at the Teatro Alla Maschere alongside African-American musicians, George Joyner and Buster Smith. The revue ran for a month before closing in early February 1962.
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| Ponte Nizza (1992) |
From 1962-1963, Fortunia made several television appearances before disappearing entirely from the limelight. She eventually studied ceramics at the Centro Addestramento Professionale Scuola d'Arte Cova and participated in the 1967 International Art Ceramics Competition in Faenza. By 1990, she had relocated to the village of Pizzocorno, near the town of Ponte Nizza. In February 1990, she created a terracotta station of the cross for the nearby monastery, Eremo di Sant'Alberto di Butrio. On May 28, 1992, she was a witness to a deadly car accident on the highway near Ponte Nizza. Afterwards she disappears completely.
