Alla Nazimova (Marem-Ides/Adelaida Yakovlevna Leventon, 1879?-1945) by Melbourne Spurr (1888-1964)
The Bryant/Nazimova ménage was more complicated than it appears. According to her Russian divorce decree from 1923, Nazimova was married to fellow-actor Sergei Golovin from 1899, so for almost the entire period she lived with Charles Bryant. Her interests lay predominantly with women, in any case: her most important relationship appears to have been with [Catherine] Glesca Marshall (1906-1987).
Nazimova, was an actress of great character and multi-talented.
ReplyDeleteStarting as a renowned actress of the Russian stage in Moscow and St Petersburg, and on to the Broadway stages of New York, performing in the works of Ibsen and the Russian classics. Then she starred in motion pictures produced in New York and in 1917 followed the film studios to Hollywood, where she started her own production company. Not an easy accoplishment, when at that time women were refused loans by banks and insurance companies would not write policies for buisnesses owned by women. In 1922 Nazimova created her most famous film Salome, a controversial flop then and now considered a landmark film. Her home Havenhurst, she later made into the famous Garden of Alla Hotel, popular with the Hollywood set and visitors from Broadway. When Sunset Boulevard was re-zoned under emanate domain for commercial use, property owners either had to vacate or repurpose their homes. Nazimova was smart, and her hotel was born in 1927. Sadly, she had to sell the Garden of Alla in 1930 due to poor business investments and near bankruptcy, she then returned to Broadway. In 1938 Nazimova returned to Hollywood and once again lived at the Garden of Allah as a tenant until her death in 1945. Complex in her personal life as being either lesbian or bi-sexual, Nazimova coined the term sewing-circle to describe an itimate group of lesbian friends and lovers. -Rj
Certain photos are a joy to handle, and this is one of them: the weight of the paper, the tone of the image … not quite Nazimova herself, but one gets an almost tangible sense of her.
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