Roy Wallisch, who lit up Sea Point shopping strip, dies of a broken heart

The owner of Sea Point’s Balletique, who dressed pavement mannequins in bikinis, feuded loudly with the surf shop across the road, lit Cape Town’s stages for the Chippendales, and lost the shop when its building was sold for redevelopment, has died of a broken heart.

One of the Atlantic Seaboard’s most outrageous, beloved, hated and outré businesspeople, Roy Edmund Wallisch, is dead. Wallisch was the owner of the bright and multicoloured ballet boutique Balletique, in the bosom of Regent Road, Sea Point.

The shop was known for its kaleidoscopic, many-hued outfits such as bright pink, purple and orange speedos, bikinis, leotards, ballet shoes and tutus, in addition to tiny fairies, shimmering disco balls, and flickering bright red-and-green lights.

Wallisch died of a heart attack at the age of 69 while in a shop in the central business district in Cape Town. He would have turned 70 on 26 September.

He joined Balletique with his mother, the dance instructor Freda Fernandez, in 1979, nearly 50 years ago. The shop became known over generations for Wallisch’s flair for stories, knowing exactly what you wanted and bonding with little girls in tutus, their parents, and the elderly of the area who would just pop in for a chat.

As with many long-time businesses in Sea Point, he was told to shut shop more than a year ago and leave the building, built in 1929, to make way for a new multi-storey development. Balletique was one of many long-time businesses in the area that have had to make way for new buildings.

Others include The Corner Bar, the Cape Flats Development Association (Cafda) bookshop, the Seven Spur, Harry’s Supermarket and many more. Like Balletique, most of them were nearly or over 50 years old.

Wallisch tried to resurrect the business in Hout Bay, but to no avail. Market conditions and the clientele were too different from those of Regent Road in Sea Point, a main and pulsating artery of the suburb.

After Hout Bay he tried to move back to Sea Point, but found the new rents too high to make a business such as his viable. He tried, however, one last time after finding a small spot in Three Anchor Bay.

This obituarist visited him there and the venue was simply too small and dour, even after he tried to brighten it up. He confessed that after having to vacate the original premises, his mental and physical health had deteriorated.

He suffered from debilitating depression, acute financial stress and was prone to heart palpitations. Shortly after that conversation, the landlord sent the sheriff of the court to attach everything in the shop.

Friends of Wallisch turned to BackaBuddy. They wrote: “As the owner of Balletique, his little shop became so much more than a place to buy swimwear and ballet clothing. It was a welcoming space where generations of dancers, swimmers, families, and friends were greeted with kindness. 

“Many locals remember Roy sitting outside his shop, always ready with a warm smile, a friendly conversation, and genuine care for everyone who passed by. To so many people, Roy wasn’t just a shopkeeper, he was part of the heart of Sea Point.

“After decades of dedicating his life to Balletique, changing circumstances and redevelopment in the area meant that Roy lost the business that had been his livelihood. Like many longstanding small business owners, he has found it incredibly difficult to recover.

“Today, Roy is facing unimaginable challenges. He is being evicted from his home because he can no longer afford the rising rental costs, and he is battling serious health conditions, including heart disease and diabetes. The cost of the medication he needs has become an overwhelming burden.

“To make matters even more difficult, Roy is now relying on Meals on Wheels for support while trying to navigate this incredibly difficult chapter of his life. We are reaching out to everyone who remembers Balletique, everyone who shared a conversation with Roy, everyone who bought a swimsuit, ballet shoes, or dancewear from him, and everyone who believes that someone who has spent decades serving his community deserves a helping hand when he needs it most.”

Despite this, his brother Gary said, he had only R4,000 in his bank account when he died.

“After his death, a thick file with legal notices and summonses was found in his car,” he says.

His brother, while crying with grief over the phone, remembers him as an outspoken, vivacious child, one who could also be difficult. To many friends and customers, that was his charm.

They grew up in Camps Bay and attended schools in Vredehoek, Oudtshoorn and Cape Town. After leaving school, Wallisch showed a talent for running a business such as Balletique, albeit an unconventional one, his brother says.

“I worked with him at Balletique for a while, but had to stop. Nothing was priced; nothing was written down.”

But Wallisch had a kind streak and arranged for his brother to sell boerewors rolls late at night outside the old gay nightclubs in Green Point, such as Club 55, Angels, Bronx and Detour.

“He was good like that,” his brother said, and asked: “Did you know he was excellent with lighting? He worked with David Kramer, Lesley Rae Dowling and the Chippendales.”

A regular customer, Sam Payne, said he was her go-to from the age of five.

“Nearly 50 years ago. He was not afraid to flaunt those mannequins on the pavement in the teeny tiny bikinis and swimwear for men. He would smoke his Camels and talk to all who walked past.”

Sea Point resident Emma Donegan said: “I lived across the road from his shop and we waved to each other every day.”

Therese Kallie called him “the eyes and ears of a textured and eclectic Sea Point”, adding that the suburb was “sadly being dismantled brick by brick to build foreign visitor accommodation and soulless restaurants ad nauseam”.

Wallisch also had his funny moments. In 2002, the Weekend Argus wrote of him under the headline “Bad blood boils over in Sea Point feud”. War had broken out between Balletique and a neighbouring surf shop over masked mannequins, loud Samba music and disco mirror balls that apparently blinded passing motorists.

Plainclothes police had pounced on Balletique that week, grabbed the pavement mannequins and put them in the back of a police van because Wallisch had no permit to trade on the pavement.

He believed the complaint had come from the surf shop’s owner, with whom he had laid two charges of intimidation the previous year, after he put up a board reading “Coming soon, ballet shoes at cost price” during Eisteddfod week, when Wallisch sold about 150 pairs of ballet shoes.

Locals wrote their support into a complaints book outside the shop, with comments ranging from “The law has gone mad” to “Jealousy makes you nasty”.

Three weeks before the mannequins were seized, the traffic department had already been out over the disco mirror balls Wallisch hung outside the shop, which were said to be reflecting sunlight and blinding motorists.

“I came to work that day feeling a little tired and down,” he told the Weekend Argus. “So I put on a theatrical mask and decided to make it happen. I put out the mirror balls and played some Samba music.”

Pierre de Vos, an Atlantic Seaboard resident, in an email remembered the row after Wallisch's death.

“Do you remember, some years back, when he had a feud with the shop across the street and played extremely loud music from a boombox outside the door of Balletique every day just to irritate them?”

The Weekend Argus noted that the city’s mayor had previously honoured Wallisch for the way his colourful shop displays contributed to tourism. A neighbouring shopkeeper, Marilyn Goldberg of Propmark, told the paper: “All Roy has tried to do for us is try to light up the district, which was very dour. He tried to create sunshine.”

The article also captured Wallisch’s salesmanship. When a young woman asked the price of a scarf, he told her: “That depends on how nice you are to me. If you give me a kiss the price is R85. If not it is R120.”

Asked about his own life, he offered one more line for the record: “I’m not gay, but my boyfriend is.”

Friend and theatre-maker Bryan Hill first met Wallisch when Hill’s sisters danced in the seventh Sun City extravaganza, Movin’. Wallisch travelled to the resort with a bag stuffed full of G-strings and bathing costumes, which were swiftly bought by the performers.

On Hill’s first visit to Cape Town, in 1987, he walked into the Sea Point shop and found “this energetic gnome surrounded by pointe shoes, ballet leotards, surfboards and a mannequin, dressed in the finery of a showgirl, feathers and all”.

Hill last saw him about a month before he died. They reminisced over lunch about productions they had worked on together. Wallisch, as usual, deflected any praise and told Hill how proud he was of him instead.

Wallisch is survived by his brothers Gary and Godfrey. What remains of the old building in which Balletique was housed is the façade – like so much of the new Sea Point: the front still standing, but everything that gave the place its life gone. DM