Wanda Osiris – born Anna Menzio – was born in Rome on June 3rd, 1905, to Giuseppe, groom to the king, and Adele Pandolfi.

Her early interest in show business led to her debut in 1923 as a soubrette at the Eden Cinematheater in Milan, where she began her climb to success. She soon became an iconic figure, with her artificially ochre skin, marked makeup, bleached hair, feathers, sequins, heels and rivers of Arpège perfume, always clad in glitz and sensuality.

Her first real triumph was in the early 1930s, at the Excelsior in Milan, alongside Totò in Il piccolo café. With the advent of notoriety, her nicknames were also coined, the Wandissima and the Divina, which only Fascism would attempt to curb by italianizing her stage name into “Vanda Osiri.”

She worked alongside such great figures of the time as Carlo Dapporto, Macario, Nino Taranto, Walter Chiari, Renato Rascel and many others. But above all, her revues became famous for the eccentric sets and huge staircases she descended with grace and ease, always surrounded by a large corps de ballet that she chose herself.

Among his major successes are: Tutte donne (1939), Che succede a Copacabana? (1943), Grand Hotel (1948), Made in Italy (1953) and Festival (1954), which were joined by songs of great resonance, such as Sentimental (1949) and Ti parlerò d’amor (1944).

However, the advent of television slowly contributed to the fading of Wanda’s myth, also aided by the diffusion of a new prototype of beauty and variety making. Yet, even today Wanda Osiris embodies the emblem of the Italian soubrette of the first half of the twentieth century and for this reason recognized by the general public as the first true national diva.

She died in Milan in 1994, at the age of 89.

You can consult the birth certificate on the Ancestors Portal: Archivio di Stato di Roma > Stato civile italiano > Roma > 1905

The original is kept at the State Archives of Rome.

For more on the figure of Wanda Osiris, see the entry of Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani the edited by Gior edited by Giorgio Pangaro.