Natacha Rambova

Natacha Rambova was an art designer, Egyptologist, fashion designer, dancer, business woman and author. Born to the daughter of a mormon patriarch, her mother left the church and married her way into high society. Insistent on making it on her own Rambova first studied dance, which eventually led to being an artistic director for silent film star Alla Nazimova. In 1920 she met up and comer Rudolph Valentino. The pair would marry in 1922, leading to bigamy charges against Valentino due to his previous marriage. They remarried in 1923. Though more successful professionally than Valentino when they met, many accused Rambova of clinging to his fame and making him do 'artsy' films, while in reality these were Valentino's choices. Between the public scrutiny and infidelity, the marriage ended in 1925. As Valentino lay dying in 1926 the pair believed they had reconciled. With the divorce Rambova set out to make her own film "What Price Beauty?". She also acted in a film that, to her horror, was retitled "When Love Grows Cold". The experience soured her on filmmaking and she eventually opened her own fashion house in 1927. Between 1926 and 1927 Rambova wrote two pieces: a play titled "All That Glitters" and her memoir now retitled "Rudolph Valentino: A Wife's Memories of an Icon". After these pieces she never publicly spoke of Valentino again. In her later life she became a renowned Egyptologist and wrote books on her Spiritualist beliefs.