Ilon Bergere

Ilon Bergere as Mascha in The Chocolate Soldier, 1912.

Ilon Bergere (1871-1944) played Ozma, the Rose Princess, in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz for awhile during the post-Chicago tour. Born in Budapest, Hungary, she married businessman David Bauer of St. Louis, Missouri. When he died, Ilon pursued a stage career to support herself and her two young children. Her first role was in E. Van Alstyne's musical comedy The Broken Idol. She came to prominence on Broadway playing Mascha in Oscar Straus's The Chocolate Soldier with Charles Purcell, who later played Private Files starting in San Francisco. Ilon's pre-Tik-Tok Man career included roles in The Gay Hussars on Broadway as well as in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado at the Tivoli Theatre in San Francisco. By 1917 she and Charles Purcell were married. She died in San Bernardino, California. Her son Monroe Bauer Purcell was a pianist for Margarita Padula and Co.