57th Issue: Natacha Rambova

Content warning for statutory rape, and domestic violence.

Natacha Rambova was born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy on January 19, 1897, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Her father was an alcoholic, so her mother divorced him and moved to San Francisco where she remarried in 1907.  Natacha spent her summers in France with her step-aunt. Her mother then got divorced again, and remarried a perfume mogul named Richard Hudnut, who adopted Natacha. She was a rebellious teen, and was sent to boarding school in England. She was really good at ballet and wanted to become a ballerina. Her family was appalled by this choice. Natacha’s aunt supported her though, and took her to New York, where she studied in the Imperial Russian Ballet Company, and changed her name. Technically she was too tall at the time to be a classical ballerina, but her teacher Theodore Kosloff, who was 32, became her lover and cast her as lead. Natacha was only 17, and her mother was upset when she heard about it, trying to deport Theodore for statutory rape. It didn’t work, and Natasha fled abroad, continuing to perform with the ballet company.

 

 

Natacha and Theodore were later hired by Cecil B. DeMille as a performer and costume designer for his films. She had to move to Lost Angeles with him, and the two of them did historical research and creative work – Theodore ended up stealing all the credit though. Natasha switched to go work for Alla Nazimova at MGM, and worked as an art director and costume designer. She began to create a career in her own right. When she told Theodore she was leaving him, Natacha shot her, and the bullet was stuck above her knee. She ran away to the film set she was working on, and a cameraman helped her remove the bullet from her leg.

 

 

In 1921, Natacha met Rudolph Valentino. They began working together on a movie together, and fell in love. Even though Rudolph was married to Jean Acker, he moved in with Natacha. They were super into psychics and seances. Unfortunately they were not compatible. Rudolph wanted her to be a housewife and a mother, but Natacha wanted to carry on her career. Rudolph wanted kids, and Natacha wasn’t interested. Rudolph’s career began to tank, and Natacha was being blamed for it. In 1925, they separated. Three months later, Rudolph died unexpectedly, and Natacha was devastated.

 

 

There were a lot of rumors that Natacha was gay or bisexual. She supposedly had a relationship with Alla Nazimova, above, who helped kick start her career in film. She also had a social circle including Marlene Dietrich, and Greta Garbo, so the rumors have circled for decades.

Natacha moved back to New York and performed vaudeville as well as writing a play. She published a memoir of her time with Rudolph as well, including a letter that was sent by Rudolph’s spirit from the astral plane. In 1928, she opened a couture shop with Russian clothing designed by herself, and she catered to Broadway and Hollywood actresses. She retired and moved to France during the Great Depression. There she met her second husband, Alvaro de Urzaiz, a Spanish aristocrat. They lived together in Mallorca.

Natacha visited Egypt in 1936, visiting ancient monuments and meeting an archaeologist, becoming totally fascinated with the history and culture. When she got back to Spain, her husband decided to fight for the fascist side during the Spanish Civil War, so she fled to France and had a heart attack. She divorced her husband, and stayed in France, only leaving when the Nazis invaded. She moved back to New York City.

Natacha kept exploring past lives and psychics. She now believed she had lived a past life in Egypt. She studied and taught mythology and comparative religion. She wrote articles about astrology and yoga, publishing them in Harper’s Bazaar. She was awarded a grant to research these topics, and wanted to write a book on the topic about theosophy, astrology, and Atlantis. Natacha also spent time trying to decipher ancient scarabs and tomb inscriptions, sometime after World War II. She wanted to find a connection between ancient Egyptian and ancient American cultures. She travelled back and forth to Egypt many times, and connected with archaeologists and historians. Natacha won several more grants which she used to study in Luxor, and photograph shrines that had once held the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen.

In 1954, Natacha returned to the United States and donated her collection of Egyptian artifacts to the University of Utah. This in my opinion is super messed up – she basically stole important historical artifacts from Egypt and brought them to Utah for … what? Studying? Sure. Egyptians could study their own artifacts that have historical significance to them.

Anyway, Natacha moved to Connecticut, and began working on translating and editing books on Ancient Egypt. She worked up to twelve hours a day, even when she got older. She became sick, and was diagnosed by paranoid psychosis due to malnutrition. She was brought to California, where her cousin took care of her. Unfortunately she passed away soon after, at the age of 69.