Natacha Rambova

Wikipedia Biographical Summary:

"...Natacha Rambova (January 19, 1897 – June 5, 1966) was an American film costume and set designer, best known for her marriage to Rudolph Valentino. Although they shared many interests such as art, poetry and spiritualism, his colleagues felt that she exercised too much control over his work and blamed her for several expensive flops. In later life, she continued her spiritualist activities, as well as studying Egyptology.

Rambova was born Winifred Shaughnessy in Salt Lake City. Her father, Michael Shaughnessy, was an Irish Catholic who fought for the Union during the American Civil War and then worked in the mining industry. Her mother, Winifred Kimball, was a granddaughter of Mormon leader Heber C. Kimball.[1]
Winifred (senior) was four times married, settling eventually on millionaire perfume mogul Richard Hudnut, and becoming a well-connected interior designer in San Francisco. Rambova was adopted by her stepfather, making her legal name Winifred Hudnut. A rebellious teenager, Rambova was sent to a strict British boarding-school, where she proved especially gifted at ballet.[2] Her family had encouraged her to study ballet purely as a social grace, and were appalled when she chose it as her career. But an aunt intervened and took her to New York, where she studied under the Russian ballet dancer and choreographer Theodore Kosloff in his Imperial Russian Ballet Company,[3] and adopted the name Natacha Rambova. Although too tall to be a classical ballerina, she was given leading parts by Kosloff, who soon became her lover. Rambova’s mother was outraged at this affair with a much-older married man, and tried to have Kosloff deported. But when Rambova fled abroad, her mother relented and agreed to her continuing to perform with the company.

When Kosloff was hired by Cecil B. DeMille as a performer and costume designer for Hollywood films, Rambova carried out much of the creative work as well as the historical research. Kosloff would then steal her sketches and claim credit for them as his own. Both professionally and personally, her partnership with Kosloff was tempestuous. He was a controlling and abusive man with many other lovers, who once shot her in the leg when she tried to leave him. When Kosloff started work for fellow-Russian film producer Alla Nazimova at Metro Pictures Corporation (later MGM), he sent Rambova to present some designs. Nazimova requested some alterations, and was most impressed when Rambova was able to make these changes immediately in her own hand. So she offered Rambova a position on her production staff as an art director and costume designer, enabling her to leave Kosloff at last.

Rambova's first film for Nazimova was Billions (1920), followed by Uncharted Seas (1921), on which she first met Rudolph Valentino, and the two of them worked together on Camille. Although Valentino was still married to American film actress Jean Acker, he and Rambova moved in together within a year, having formed a relationship based more on friendship and shared interests than on emotional or professional rapport. They then had to pretend to separate until Valentino’s divorce was final, and they married on May 13, 1922 in Mexicali, Mexico. But the law required a year to pass before remarriage, and Valentino was jailed for bigamy, having to be bailed out by friends. However, their honeymoon at her adopted father’s romantic mountain hideaway at Johnsburg, NY, was an experience they would both treasure.[4] They legally remarried on March 14, 1923.

From 1927 Rambova ran an elite couture shop on Fifth Avenue, until she met her second husband Alvaro de Urzaiz, a British-educated Spanish aristocrat on a trip to Europe in 1934, and they went to live on the island of Mallorca. In the Spanish Civil War, Urzaiz was on the pro-fascist nationalist side, becoming a naval commander. Rambova fled to Nice, where she suffered a heart attack at age 40. Soon after, she and Urzaiz divorced. Rambova remained in France until the Nazi invasion, when she returned to New York. Her interest in the metaphysical grew during the 1940s, and she supported the Bollingen Foundation, through which she believed she could see a past life in Egypt. She published articles on healing and astrology, and helped decipher ancient scarabs and tomb inscriptions, which led her to edit a series titled Egyptian Texts and Religious Representations. She also conducted classes in her apartment about myths, symbolism and comparative religion. In the mid-1960s she was struck with scleroderma, and became malnourished and delusional as a result. A cousin brought her to Pasadena, California where she died of a heart attack on June 5, 1966 at the age of 69. Her ashes were scattered in Arizona.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natacha_Rambova

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Biography
Notables Project
Natacha (Shaughnessy) Rambova is Notable.
Costume and set designer, artistic director, screenwriter, producer, actress, fashion designer professionally known by the name Natacha Rambova.

When she was about 3 yrs old the family was living in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah with her parents Michael Shaughnessey age 51 and Winifred K age 27 and older half sister Mary V age 24. Her father was listed as a mine owner.

When she was 13 yrs old the family was living in San Francisco, California. Her parents are listed as Edgar S Dewolfe and Winifred.

Abt 1916 she was expelled from Leatherhead Court, a boarding school located in Surrey, England, United Kingdom for “conduct unbecoming a lady” which at that time could have been anything from short-sheeting beds to swearing like a sailor, a habit, she would be known for later

A talented dancer when she was young. "At the age of 17 she became a protégé and lover of Russian ballet Svengali Theodore Kosloff, a brilliant but manipulative dancer who shot her in the leg when she finally escaped from his dance company. She was engaged as an art director by Alla Nazimova, the exotic, histrionic bisexual actress. Rumors abounded that Rambova herself was sexually involved with Nazimova, but none have ever been proven, and Rambova professed to dislike the lesbian subculture."

In 1921 she designed the sets for Alla Nazimova's Camille 'starring Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino. "Rambova's style, a mixture of Art Nouveau and early French Deco, lent a dreamlike quality to the film."

In 1923 Ala Nazimova presented "Salome". Rambova not only designed the sets, but also co-directed the film and wrote the screen play under the name of Peter M. Winters. The sets were inspired by the prints of artist Aubrey Beardsley. "Unfortunately the film offended the censors and was a critical and financial failure. Nazimova's life savings were wiped out."

Marriage to Rudolph Valentino: Valentino and Rambova had to pretend to separate until Valentino’s divorce was final, and they married on May 13, 1922 in Mexicali, Mexico. But the law required a year to pass before remarriage, and Valentino was jailed for bigamy, having to be bailed out by friends. They legally remarried on March 14, 1923.

Although Rambova's screen work is imaginative and beautiful, she is mostly known by her marriage to Valentino. In 1925 she gave up her career to manage her husband's. Many film historians feel she did more harm than good as her interference on the set and influence over Valentino angered the studio to the point of threatening him with his job if Rambova didn't stay away.

"The painful end to their marriage in 1926 came though, because Valentino wanted to have children, while Rambova didn't. His career was back on track, but little more than six months later, he was hospitalized. On his death bed, he asked for Rambova wanting her by his side, but she was in Europe. When she heard of his dire condition, she too reached out to him, and she and Valentino exchanged loving telegrams. She believed that a reconciliation had taken place. But his condition worsened and he soon died of a ruptured stomach ulcer. Rambova was reportedly devastated. Natacha left America for Spain after her marriage to Alvaro de Urzaiz in the 1930s. Reporters remarked that her second husband physically resembled Valentino, suggesting that Rambova never got over her first husband.

On 5 Jun 1966 she died at 56 of scleroderma, a painful stomach condition which, to the modern eye, was clearly brought on by the anorexia nervosa from which she suffered all her life."

Her contribution to film has just recently been acknowledged on the Women Film Pioneers Project website. https://wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-natacha-rambova/

Travel
On 17 Nov 1926 Natacha Rambova age 29 travels aboard the Thomeric from Cherbourg and arrived in New York, New York on 26 Nov.

On 11 July 1929, Natacha Rambova age 32 was listed as single when she departed from Cherbourg, France aboard the S.S Olympic and arrived in New York on 17 Nov. Was listed as living at 45 W. 55th Street New York City.

On 19 Aug 1931 Natacha Rambova age 34 was single and traveling from Le Havre France aboard the S.S Ile De France and arrived in New York City Nov 25th. Was listed as living at 6 west 52nd street New York City.

On 10 May 1951 Natacha Rambova age 54 embarked at Alexandria 2 with one 2nd class ticket. Arrived in New York City 30 May 1951 aboard the S.S Exeter. She was traveling with 23 pieces of baggage.