Natacha Rambova (January 19, 1897 – May 6, 1966) was an American costume and set designer, art director, playwright, silent film actress, fashion designer, Egyptologist, collector of antiquities, and the second wife of the silent film star Rudolph Valentino. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and died in Pasadena, California at the age of 69. January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... Rudolph Valentino (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926) was an Italian actor. ... Salt Lake City redirects here. ... Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ...

Early life

Rambova, a great-granddaughter of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader Heber C. Kimball, was born Winifred Shaughnessy to Winifred Kimball and her first husband, Michael Shaughnessy. She was not adopted by her mother's third husband, cosmetics millionaire Richard Hudnut, and was thus not, as is sometimes claimed, appropriately known as Winifred Hudnut, the name some news reports used during her lifetime. Her mother was also briefly married to Edgar Sands de Wolfe, a brother of the pioneering American interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe, whose business partner she became. The Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest attraction in the citys Temple Square. ... Heber C. Kimball Heber Chase Kimball (June 14, 1801 – June 22, 1868) (commonly known as Heber C. Kimball) was a leader in the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ... Richard Hudnut is a jointly held French and American trademark, created in 1880. ... Elsie de Wolfe (Lady Mendl, occ. ...

She was educated in the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, at a school recommended by her step-aunt, Elsie de Wolfe. Motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right)1 Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Capital London Language(s) English Gaelic Welsh (Wales) Scottish Gaelic (parts of Scotland) Government Constitutional monarchy Monarch  - 1801–1820 George III  - 1920–1922...

Personal Life and Career

After a tumultuous love affair with the dancer Theodore Kosloff, with whose dance company she performed, Kosloff's Imperial Russian Ballet, Rambova worked as an art director for an extended period with the Yalta-born film and stage star Alla Nazimova. There were rumors that Nazimova and Rambova were involved in a lesbian affair (they are discussed at length in Emily Leider's biography of Rudolph Valentino, Dark Lover), but they have never been definitely confirmed. Theodore Kosloff (left) in the 1921 Cecil B. DeMille directed Fools Paradise. ... The Mariinsky Ballet is one of the most famous ballet schools in history (formerly the Kirov Ballet, and also the Academic State Theatre), located in St. ... Alla Nazimova, born Mariam Edez Adelaida Leventon (May 22, 1879 – July 14, 1945) was an American theater and film actress, scriptwriter, and producer. ... A lesbian is a female emotionally and/or sexually attracted only to other females. ...

Nazimova, however, recognized her professional talent. The innovative Art Deco sets she designed for Camille and the sets and costumes Rambova created for Salomé (which were based on the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley) are highly regarded today. Asheville City Hall. ... Camille is a Latin name that means an attendant at a religious ceremony. ... Salomé is a 1923 film which tells the story from the Bible of how Salomé seduces her stepfather/uncle, King Herod Antipas, with a dance, in order to gain the head of John the Baptist. ... Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (August 21, 1872 – March 16, 1898) was an influential English illustrator, and author. ...

Rambova met Rudolph Valentino on the set of Camille in 1921 and they married on March 14, 1922, in Mexicali, Mexico. Their marriage resulted in Valentino's being arrested and charged with bigamy because his divorce from his first wife, actress Jean Acker, was not final. Rambova and Valentino remarried in 1923. Camille is a Latin name that means an attendant at a religious ceremony. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... For the Lebanese political coalition, see March 14 Alliance. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... Mexicali is the capital of the state of Baja California, Mexico. ... Jean Acker (October 23, 1893–August 16, 1978) was an American film actress with a career dating from the silent film era through the 1950s, though she was perhaps most notorious as the estranged wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

When, following a dispute with Paramount Pictures, Valentino was legally barred from working for any other studio, he and Rambova embarked on a dance tour across the United States and Canada. Later, Rambova's involvement with such of her husband's films as Monsieur Beaucaire came to be resented by many at Paramount who accused her of driving up production costs and felt she was pushing Valentino into static, arty films with little box office potential. Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... Monsieur Beaucaire is a 1924 silent film drama based on the Booth Tarkington novel. ...

Their marriage broke up in 1925 shortly after United Artists offered Valentino a contract with a clause forbidding Rambova from being present on any of his film sets. Valentino died in 1926 at age 31 following surgery for a perforated ulcer. 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... The current United Artists logo (a variant was used during the 1980s). ...

After Valentino

For several years thereafter, Rambova worked as a mildly successful fashion designer [1] in New York City. She also starred in her only feature film When Love Grows Cold (1925). Also during this time, she designed costumes for and appeared in Broadway shows. She was also heavily involved with the Roerich Museum. Rambova married her second husband, Count Alvaro de Urzaiz, a Spanish aristocrat, in 1934 and went to live on the Balearic isle of Majorca off the Spanish coast. Her second marriage would end in divorce as well. Both her marriages ended, probably because her husbands wanted children and she didn't. Majorca (Mallorca in Catalan and Spanish, sometimes also encountered in English),: from Latin insula maior, later Maiorica, (major island) is one of the Balearic Islands (Catalan: Illes Balears, Spanish: Islas Baleares), which are located in the Mediterranean Sea and are a part of Spain. ...

In 1962, Rambova gave the Utah Museum of Art a large collection of Egyptian artifacts, and also edited books about Ancient Egyptian art for the Bollingen Foundation. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Her collection of Nepali and Lamaistic art now belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Nepali could mean: Nepali — A citizen of the country of Nepal. ... Tibetan Buddhism is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the Himalayan region (including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim), Mongolia, Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia (Russia), and northeastern China (Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin). ... The Philadelphia Museum of Art, located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphias Fairmount Park, was founded in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year and is now among the largest and most important art museums in the United States. ...

Sources

Emily Leider, Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino (2003) ISBN 0-374-28239-0

• Contains much material about Rambova

External link

• Natacha Rambova at IMDB