FLAME DANCER'S FATE.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16427, 26 February 1925, Page 8

FLAME DANCER'S FATE.

HEYi IiL'SHAND’S STOUY. i 1111N!v AX D DOPE. An inquest was heM at Paddington on M Lnp.ie . Kate Rogers, aged sd. formerly known on the London music-hall stage as .Mile. Ladorn, a dancer, who was found dead in a gas-lilled mom in her flat at Bland ford-mews, Baker St. W. Mr Frederick Garibaldi Rogers, a motor-dealer, of Upper West bourne Terrace, Paddington, said that the dead woman was his wife. She used to appear as “She” and “The Flame of Life,” characters taken from Rider Haggard's novels, and in .another performance she Wits known as “The Dance Luminata.” She .achieved a triumph, he said, in the “Chameleon” dance, in which, by lighting effects, she seemed to change her costume 50 times in a few minutes. She was at the height of her success 2-1 years ago, when she suddenly gave up dancing. Mr Oswald, the coroner: Why did she do that? —Mostly through temper. She would lose' her temper in the middle of it scene and walk off the stage. They had been living apart for the last six -months. When dancing she used to have occasional illnesses, but rather than disappoint the public site used to overcome her weakness by drinking brandy. After she left the stage the habit thus formed grew upon her. Though he had no actual evidence of it, he believed that it led to, her taking drugs. She herself had admitted emoking doped cigarettes. Mr Oswald: You think her brain became affected?- —Yes. She became terribly jealous and caused all kinds of trouble. Mr Rogers, bursting into tears, added: My wife was a magnificent woman when she was all right. I would willingly have returned to her if she would only have gone straight. “When 1 had plenty of money I denied her nothing,” he declared. “I bought her a houseboat on the Thames, but she would not go and look at it. I gave her a yacht and she went in it once. Site was always one of the bestdressed women in Eondon." Her father was a farmer about 11 miles from Bristol. Medical evidence showed that death was due to gas poisoning. There were signs of chronic alcoholism. The verdict was suicide while of unsound mind.