PIC OF THE DAY

AN AMERICAN GIRL IN ITALY


I love love love this Photo

An American girl in Italy 1951 by Ruth Orkin

Visually I love this photo
Its the place... Italy
Its the style of dress, boho even for 1951
It's the fact that this is not a model but a real girl traveler

The photo was taken by

Ruth Orkin (1921 – 1985)

Here are a few more pics taken on the same day, same girl

This fabulous non model was called Jinx...suits her I think

INTERESTING PERSON OF THE WEEK

ANITA PALLENBERG

Anita Pallenberg....what a Gal !!
I have been fascinated by this women for as long as I can remember....
What is she ? Who is she ?
Legend in her own life, the epitome of Rock Chic, Muse to many, famous for just being who she is.
My life long love of "The Rolling Stones" was started by my parents, who actually saw them perform live at the height of their fame in 1972.
But my obsession with Anita started after I had seen the 1970 film "Performance" in which she stared with Mick Jagger and James Fox, of course it was a bit before my time but it was playing in an Art House cinema when I was about 17.
I was awe struck.... by the opulence of the film, the decor, the clothing, the times and the androgynous relationship between Anita and Mick.
I fell in love with both !!
To this day I think my taste is influenced by that movie.

I am going to try and wing it here, without copying someone else's write up so if I get dates and other things wrong... don't sue me !! I am no good writer...

Anita was born in Rome during the 2nd World War in 1944... her Father was Italian and her Mother German or visa versa.
She became a model and actress quite early, and traveled the world, she could speak quite fluently in 3 or 4 languages.
She first met "The Stones" around 1966 when backstage after a show, she offered them some hash.
Soon after Brian Jones... one of the founding members of the group took a fancy to her and they got together, at that stage she had already found her fashion footing, and she influenced the whole band in dress style, especially after they traveled together to exotic places like Morocco.
Brian was a bit of a handful... and at times abused her verbally and physically.
So Keith Richards...good ole "Kif" comes to the rescue on more than one occasion.
And then he fell for her hook line....

Keith and Anita got together...around 1968 ? and lived the very high life...very high... indeed they were together at Redlands ? Keith's estate in the country, when there was a drug bust, that was the talk of the town....and pretty soon both were addicted to Heroin, and using lots of Cocaine..... they had a son together Marlon, around that time.

Kieth and Anita attend court after the Redlands drug bust

Around 1970 The Stone's went to France as tax exiles, because of the amount of money they were loosing to British tax at that time.
Brian Jones was by then dead...he drowned in his swimming pool after being sacked by the band....more than likely it was drug related.
They choose the South of France as a base and decided to make an album there...that album was to become the much acclaimed "Exile on Main Street"
Keith and Anita rented The Villa Nellcote near Nice as their home away from home.
Villa Nellcote was where a lot of the album was recorded, in the basement of the house.... that during the war was a Nazi Headquarters.
It was a very famous... opulent and debouched time in the legend and history of the band.
As well as most of the band living there while recording was going on, there were a lot of visitors, John Lennon, Gram Parsons and Spanish Tony the resident drug dealer... among others.

 

The frictions between band members at that time are legendary.... most of it having to do with Keith and Mick, did Mick and Anita get it on ? I say yes without a doubt, there are rumors that the sex scenes in Performance were real ...and there was some debate as to who was the Father of Keith and Anita's next child...called Dandelion..but now known as Angela.
The couple struggled on after the long awaited final release of the double album, traveling the world, using drugs and at some stage loosing another child [Tara] to cot death or phenomena at 6 weeks , their turbulent drug fueled life together came to an end around 1980 after Keith was arrested in Canada in possession of Heroin.
After a bit of hard work Keith cleaned up his act to a degree, and became at least not quite so dependent on Heroin, but unfortunately Anita didn't.
Kieth's lawyer told him Anita was not a good influence apparently... and that was the end of that...they never married.

Kieth went on to marry and have more kids, Anita continued her lifestyle for quite a while, until she too got clean.
She lives... I think.. in London and Paris today, she has a good relationship with Kieth her kids and Grand kids she is still a fascinating women, and muse to many, including that other iconic women Kate Moss.... and is still good mates with Mick's ex Marianne Faithfull another legend in her own time.

Anita and Kate

Anita today ...what a life.. but she is still here

Publishers are begging for her to write a tell all book...but her mystic is still intact, she has refused so far... unlike Keith Richards.

INTERESTING PERSON OF THE WEEK

Natacha Rambova

I love this photo of Natasha Rambova, from the early 1920's ...she was famous for being married to Rudolph Valentino The great movie star matinee idol of early non speaking movies.
But she was much more than that and led a very interesting life:
A BIT ABOUT HER:
Primarily famous as the wife of screen idol Rudolph Valentino, Natacha Rambova was also a talented dancer and an innovative set designer, bringing the Art Deco style to Hollywood for the first time. 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. Rumours abounded that Rambova herself was sexually involved with Nazimova, but none have ever been proven, and Rambova professed to dislike the lesbian subculture.

Rambova's set designs and costumes were enormously innovative, influenced by Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Legendary French artist Erté professed himself a fan of her work. Her dramatic set and costume designs for Nazimova's Salome (1923/I) were based on Aubrey Beardsley's famous illustrations for Oscar Wilde's play.

She met Rudolph Valentino when he was working with Nazimova on Camille (1921/I). At the time he was relatively unknown, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) (made the same year) being the hit that propelled him into the stratosphere. Soon, the shy Valentino began wooing the exotic former ballerina, and they eloped in May 22nd 1922. This event was to produce a scandal, as it was revealed that Valentino was not legally divorced from his former wife Jean Acker. After being charged and fined for bigamy, the couple quietly re-married the following year.

Valentino's association with Rambova was to prove both his greatest pleasure and his greatest pain. She immediately took over the management of his career, rejecting his usual stereotypical roles as a grunting Italian Stallion in favor of highbrow pictures such as the disastrous Monsieur Beaucaire (1924), a powdered-wig drama which did nothing to allay rumors that theirs was a 'lavender marriage' - a union of convenience between two homosexuals. Despite Natacha's admirable aim to free her husband from the constraints of the studio and eventually begin a production company of their own, his career was in tatters. Anxious to get his career back on track, he signed contracts with producers, who expressly forbad Rambova to come to his film sets.

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. She lived through the Spanish Civil War with him, but her second marriage ended in divorce, for the same reason that her first marriage ended, because her husbands wanted children, while she didn't. Her interest in mysticism evolved into scholarly study of ancient cultures and Jungian psychology. Her collection of Far Eastern and Egyptian art was of museum quality.
Thank you to IMBb for the write up.


More Photos

Taking long hair to new lengths !!

With Rudi what a beautiful couple !!

What a fabulous women!!

FAVORITE PIC OF THE WEEK

This is a favorite photo of the iconic Kate Moss, I love everything about this photo including all the jewelery.

INTERESTING PERSON OF THE WEEK

MICHELLE HARPER
Have I gone to Art Deco Heaven ? What style. what pizzaz what a collection !!
if only I had a 1/4 of what she own and was that organized.
Read about  HERE Thank you to Tales of Endearment blog