Early Life
Born Mildred Elizabeth Sisk in Portland, Maine, she took the surname Gillars in 1911 after her mother remarried. At 16, she moved to Conneaut, Ohio, with her family. In 1918 she enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan University to study dramatic arts but left before graduating.
She then moved to Greenwich Village, New York City, where she worked in various low-skill jobs to finance drama lessons. She toured with stock companies and appeared in vaudeville but she was unable to establish a theatrical career.
In 1929, Gillars left the U.S. for France, where she worked as an artist’s model in Paris. In 1933 she left the US again, residing first in Algiers, where she found work as a dressmaker's assistant.
In 1934 she moved to Dresden, Germany, to study music, later being employed as a teacher of English at the Berlitz School of Languages in Berlin.
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