Alla Nazimova facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alla Nazimova
Nazimova in 1913
Born	Marem-Ides (Adelaida Yakovlevna) Leventon (1879-06-03)June 3, 1879 [O.S. May 22] Yalta, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	July 13, 1945(1945-07-13) (aged 66) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Nazimova Alia Nasimoff
Occupation	Actress director producer screenwriter
Years active	1903–1944
Spouse(s)	Sergei Golovin ​ ​ (m. 1899; div. 1923)​
Partner(s)	Charles Bryant (1912–1925) Glesca Marshall (1929–1945)

Alla Nazimova (born Marem-Ides Leventon; June 3, 1879 – July 13, 1945) was a talented Russian-American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. She became famous for her work in classic plays on Broadway, especially those by Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov. Later, she moved into making films, where she took on many roles, even writing and directing movies using different names. Her film Salome (1922) is still seen as a very important movie today.

Nazimova was known for her independent spirit. She had relationships with women while also being married to a man. She also created the Garden of Allah hotel, which became a popular place for many famous people to stay. She is also known for using the phrase "sewing circle" as a secret code for actresses who preferred relationships with women.

Alla Nazimova: Early Life and Beginnings

Alla Nazimova was born Marem-Ides Leventon in Yalta, Crimea, which was part of the Russian Empire. While 1879 is the most accepted year for her birth, some sources suggest it might have been 1878 or even 1876. Her stage name, Alla Nazimova, came from combining "Alla" (a shorter version of Adelaida) with the last name of a character from a Russian novel. She was often simply called Nazimova.

She was the youngest of three children. Her parents, Yakov Abramovich Leventon and Sarah Leivievna Gorowitz, were Jewish and had moved to Yalta in 1870. Her parents divorced when she was eight years old. After this, she lived in different boarding schools, foster homes, and with relatives. As a teenager, she became very interested in theatre. She began taking acting lessons at the Academy of Acting in Moscow. She later joined Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, where she first used the name Alla Nazimova.

Nazimova pictured in an ad for a film

Alla Nazimova's Career Highlights

Nazimova's career in theatre grew quickly. By 1903, she was a major star in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. She traveled around Europe, performing in cities like London and Berlin. In 1905, she moved to New York City with her partner, Pavel Orlenev, who was also an actor and producer. They started a Russian-language theatre, but it was not successful. Orlenev went back to Russia, but Nazimova stayed in New York.

An American producer named Henry Miller signed her. She made her Broadway debut in New York City in 1906. She was very successful with both critics and the public. Her first performance in English was in November 1906, playing the main role in Hedda Gabler. It's said that she learned English in just five months! She quickly became very popular, and a theatre, Nazimova's 39th Street Theatre, was even named after her. She remained a big star on Broadway, often performing in plays by writers like Ibsen and Chekhov.

Nazimova in the 1911 Broadway play The Marionettes

Nazimova started her film career when she was 37 years old. She was well-known from a 1915 play called War Brides. Because of this, she made her first silent film in 1916, which was a movie version of the play. She was paid $1,000 per day, and the film was a success. A young actor named Richard Barthelmess had a small part in the movie. His mother had taught Nazimova English. Nazimova encouraged him to try out for movies, and he later became a star.

In 1917, she signed a contract with Metro Pictures, which later became MGM. This contract gave her a weekly salary of $13,000. She moved from New York to Hollywood. There, she made many successful films for Metro, earning a lot of money.

Nazimova Productions and Bold Filmmaking

From 1917 to 1921, Nazimova created her own company, Nazimova Productions. She did many jobs in making films, not just acting. She worked as a director, producer, editor, and even designed costumes for the film Revelation. She wrote screenplays using the name Peter M. Winters. She also directed films that were credited to her partner, Charles Bryant.

Nazimova made film versions of works by famous writers like Oscar Wilde and Ibsen. She used filmmaking techniques that were very new and daring for her time. However, her film projects, like A Doll's House (1922) and Salomé (1923), did not do well with critics or financially. Even so, Salomé has become a cult classic. It is seen as an important film for women's rights in movies. In 2000, Salomé was added to the National Film Registry, which keeps important films safe. By 1925, she could no longer afford to make more films, and her financial supporters stopped helping her.

Elliot Cabot and Nazimova in the Theatre Guild production of A Month in the Country (1930)

In 1927, she became a citizen of the United States.

Return to Stage and Later Films

With fewer options in film, Nazimova returned to performing on Broadway. She had notable roles, such as Natalya Petrovna in A Month in the Country in 1930. She also gave an acclaimed performance as Mrs. Alving in Ibsen's Ghosts. A critic named Pauline Kael called it the greatest performance she had ever seen on the American stage.

In the early 1940s, Nazimova returned to movies. She played Robert Taylor's mother in Escape (1940) and Tyrone Power's mother in Blood and Sand (1941). This later return to films means we can still see Nazimova's acting on sound film today.

Alla Nazimova: Personal Life

This 1922 Vanity Fair caricature by Ralph Barton shows the famous people who, he imagined, left work each day in Hollywood; use cursor to identify individual figures.

Nazimova and actor Charles Bryant in 1912

In 1899, Alla Nazimova married Sergei Golovin, who was also an actor. From 1912 to 1925, Nazimova had a public arrangement with Charles Bryant (1879–1948), a British actor. To make this arrangement seem more real, Nazimova kept her marriage to Golovin a secret from the public and even her friends. In 1923, she arranged to divorce Golovin without traveling to the Soviet Union. Her divorce papers arrived in the United States that summer. They stated that her marriage to Sergius Arkadyevitch Golovin, which happened on June 20, 1899, was officially ended on May 11, 1923.

A little over two years later, on November 16, 1925, Charles Bryant, then 43, surprised everyone by marrying Marjorie Gilhooley, 23, in Connecticut. When the news found out that Charles had said he was "single" on his marriage license, it was revealed that Alla and Charles's marriage had not been a typical one from the start. This caused a scandal that affected Nazimova's career.

Relationships and Friendships

From 1917 to 1922, Nazimova had a lot of influence in Hollywood. She helped start the careers of both of Rudolph Valentino's wives, Jean Acker and Natacha Rambova. Nazimova was very impressed by Rambova's skills as an art director. Rambova designed the unique sets for Nazimova's film productions of Camille and Salomé.

Nazimova was known to have close relationships with other women, including actress Eva Le Gallienne, film director Dorothy Arzner, writer Mercedes de Acosta, and Oscar Wilde's niece Dolly Wilde. It is believed that Nazimova created the phrase "sewing circle" as a secret way to talk about actresses of her time who preferred relationships with women.

Nazimova with Herbert Brenon, 1916

Nazimova lived with Glesca Marshall from 1929 until Nazimova's death in 1945.

Edith Luckett, a stage actress and the mother of future U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan, was a friend of Nazimova. They had acted together on stage. After Edith's daughter Nancy was born in 1921, Nazimova became her godmother. Nazimova remained friends with Edith and her second husband, Loyal Davis, until her death. Nazimova was also the aunt of American film producer Val Lewton.

The Garden of Alla Hotel

Nazimova on the grounds of the Garden of Alla

Nazimova's private life led to many rumors about wild parties at her mansion on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. This mansion was known as The Garden of Alla. She leased it in 1918 and bought it in 1919.

By 1926, she was facing financial difficulties. She decided to turn her 2.5-acre estate into a hotel. She built 25 villas on the property. The Garden of Alla Hotel opened in January 1927. However, Nazimova was not well-suited to run a hotel. She eventually sold it and went back to performing on Broadway and touring with plays. By 1930, a company called Central Holding Corporation bought the hotel and changed its name to the Garden of Allah Hotel. When Nazimova moved back to Hollywood in 1938, she rented Villa 24 at the hotel and lived there until she passed away.

Death and Legacy

Alla Nazimova died on July 13, 1945, at the age of 66. She passed away from a coronary thrombosis at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. Her ashes were buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Her important contributions to the film industry are honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Nazimova has been shown in films and plays many times. She appeared in two biographical films about Rudolph Valentino: The Legend of Valentino (1975) and Valentino (1977). She was also featured in two silent films from 2013 about Hollywood's silent movie era: Return to Babylon and Silent Life.

Nazimova as Marguerite Gautier in Camille

The character of Nazimova also appears in Dominick Argento's opera Dream of Valentino. Make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin featured her in his 2004 book Face Forward, where he made up Isabella Rossellini to look like Nazimova.

Actress Romy Nordlinger has portrayed Alla Nazimova in several stage productions. The Garden of Allah cabaret, a famous LGBTQ+ venue in the mid-20th century, was named after and inspired by Nazimova's original Garden of Alla. Nazimova also appears in Medusa's Web, a novel by fantasy writer Tim Powers.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Alla Nazímova para niños

• List of American film actresses
• List of film producers
• List of Jewish actors
• List of people from California
• List of people from New York City
• List of people from Ukraine
• List of Russian people
• List of women writers