1919: Photo of Anna Mae Wong by Alla’s Pool

Anna Mae Wong by the pool at the Garden of Alla, circa 1919

Joyce Ralston Payton, who is a member of the Hollywood’s Garden of Allah Novels Facebook Group, posted this photo of Anna Mae Wong to the group. She rightly suspected the photo was taken at the Garden of Alla.

Anna Mae Wong’s first appearance in movies was in Nazimova’s “The Red Lantern,” which was released by Metro Pictures in May 1919. We know that Alla had installed the pool at Hayvenhurst estate not long after she leased it in August 1918, so it’s likely the photo could have been taken in the spring of 1919.

The pool at the Garden of Alla — note the pool house to the left in this shot that is in the background of the photo of Anna Mae Wong

Born Today: Caroline Harris – Helped Nazimova Learn English

Caroline Harris and Richard Barthelmess

November 1 is the birthday of Caroline Harris. One of the legends of Alla Nazimova is that when she landed in the United States, she couldn’t speak a word of English. However, she managed to impress Shubert brothers so deeply that they hired her on the condition she learn English in six months. And she did! Yesterday, we came across a posting commemorating the birth of actress Caroline Harris who was credited in her obituary as being the person who taught Alla to speak English.

Nazimova’s Friend – the Singer Feodor Chaliapin

“[Feodor]Chaliapin, the famed Russian singer, came to Los Angeles for three seasons, 1923, 1924 and 1925. After his performances, he invariably went to Alla’s house to eat two big steaks, drink half a bottle of vodka, and tell dirty stories until morning.”

  • Shelia Graham, The Garden of Allah.
Alla Nazimova’s Iconic 1923 ‘Salome’ Wig Discovered in a Trunk in Georgia
Wig Was Designed by Natacha Rambova, Wife of Rudolph Valentino
Left: Screen capture of Alla Nazimova wearing the wig in "Salome" (1923); right: the wig as it appeared when it was discovered recently in a trunk (Jack Raines © 2014)

Left: Screen capture of Alla Nazimova wearing the wig in “Salome” (1923); right: the wig as it appeared when it was discovered recently in a trunk (Jack Raines © 2014)

West Hollywood, Calif. (March 10, 2015) A lost trove of early 20th century costumes and fashionable street wear from the estate of Broadway and silent-film star Alla Nazimova (“Nah-ZIM-oh-vah”) was discovered last fall in an unlikely place: a storage building behind a home in Columbus, Ga.

College student Jack Raines found the garments fastidiously packed in a steamer trunk stored on the grounds of his grandmother’s house. Four other trunks also once belonging to Nazimova were empty.

Among the items Raines found was a costume headpiece festooned with pearl-like beads. A note packed with it read, “Salome Wig.” It was immediately recognizable as the wig Nazimova wore in “Salome,” an independent film that she starred in, wrote, directed in 1923. The film’s sets and costumes, including the wig, were designed by Natacha Rambova, who was married to film star Rudolph Valentino. Nazimova based her script upon Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play, “Salome,” and Rambova’s costumes and sets were inspired by Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for an 1894 published version of Wilde’s play.

“The Salome wig is an invaluable artifact from the silent film era,” said Martin Turnbull, co-founder of the Alla Nazimova Society, and author of the Garden of Allah Novels. “Its discovery 90 years after the film’s release is a significant find for film historians and fans of Hollywood’s golden era worldwide.”

More after the jump »

Searchlights and Shadows, by Martin Turnbull

Searchlights and Shadows by Martin TurnbullReviews for Citizen Hollywood, by Martin Turnbull:

5 STARS
I embarrassed myself several times (in a good way) as I openly wept in public during several scenes in the book. I found them sensitively written and quite affecting. … I’m actually pretty blown away how much this series has swept me away and held my interest — there have been other series I’ve read that started off well and then lost my interest the further I got into it. Turnbull’s characters continue to grow and become richer as they mature and become (presumably) wiser. I recommend this book every bit as highly as the first three.

 

From the publisher’s description:

At the dawn of 1942, the dark days of Pearl Harbor still loom over Los Angeles. America is now at war, and posters warn home-front Hollywoodites that loose lips sink ships.

Wartime propaganda is the name of the game, and the studios are expected to conjure stories that galvanize the public for the war effort. Marcus Adler is an MGM screenwriter whose latest movie was stolen out from under his whiskey glass, and he’s determined it won’t happen again. He comes up with a sure-fire hit, but his chance to triumph is threatened by a vicious rumor: “Marcus Adler is a goddamned Commie.”

Gwendolyn Brick is the handiest gal with a needle this side of Edith Head. After losing her job at the Cocoanut Grove, she dreams of opening her own dress store. But banks don’t make loans to single girls. However, wartime in L.A. opens the door to an opportunity that will rake in the bucks. But will it be worth the trouble if it drags her back into the orbit of Bugsy Siegel?

At the outbreak of war, the Hollywood Reporter’s circulation starts to shrink like a food rations coupon book. Its lead columnist, Kathryn Massey, realizes she can no longer ignore the obvious: her boss, Billy Wilkerson, is gambling away his fortune—and her future. Could their very survival depend on a place nobody’s heard of called Las Vegas?

In the city of searchlights, suspicions can lurk behind every shadow.

Searchlights and Shadows is the fourth in Martin Turnbull’s series of historical novels set during Hollywood’s golden age.

Martin Turnbull is a co-founder of the Alla Nazimova Society.

Nazimova in Columbia University’s Women Film Pioneers Project

logo-women-film-pioneersThere’s an important overview of the location and status of Alla Nazimova’s papers and other research assets on Columbia University’s Women Film Pioneers Project, written by Jennifer Horne, including this bit:

There is no denying the intriguing power of a biographical narrative that traces connections between Alla Nazimova and almost every prominent lesbian in Hollywood, as well as gay male cultural icons such as Oscar Wilde, Rudolph Valentino, and Montgomery Clift, and ends with a penniless and ill Nazimova a tenant in the Los Angeles hotel she once owned. But the archival materials that have been collected over the years suggest that much more can be made of Nazimova’s life as performer, both on screen and off.

The personal correspondence and writings that constitute the Nazimova Papers at the Glesca Marshall Library in Columbus, Georgia, have not as yet been cataloged. The extensive collection of copyrighted publicity stills and family photographs, postcards, letters, and newspaper clippings at the Library of Congress in both the Kling-Lewton Papers and the Harry E. Vinyard, Jr., Papers offers to researchers a fragmented but illuminating documentation of the devoted following Nazimova’s celebrity attracted over the course of her career.

Nazimova on ‘Mysteries & Scandals’

Originally broadcast in September 1998, with commentary by the late Gavin Lambert, author of the definitive biography, “Nazimova: A Biography.”

Happy Birthday, Alla Nazimova

photo-nazimova-w-autograph
June 4 is Alla Nazimova’s birthday. She would be 135 years old today, but we suspect she’d only admit to 110. Here’s an astrological chart that someone prepared on her behalf. Some of the information is inaccurate — she never actually studied with Stanislavsky and she did eventually divorce her first husband, but close enough.

Citizen Hollywood, by Martin Turnbull

Reviews for Citizen Hollywood, by Martin Turnbull:Citizen Hollywood, by Martin Turnbull

5 STARS
I literally just finished Citizen Hollywood, the third in Martin Turnbull’s “The Garden of Allah” novels. Once again he has delivered. Gwendolyn, Katherine and Marcus are so well developed that you feel like they are old friends. The way Martin brings old Hollywood to life is a joy and I find myself wishing I had been a part of it. Since reading the trilogy, I can’t watch an old movie with Orson Wells, Tallulah Bankhead, Errol Flynn, Humprey Bogart, et al, without thinking about the residents of The Garden and wondering how Gwendolyn, Katherine and Marcus would feel about how their movies have stood the test of time and what Hollywood has become over the years… Please tell me there is a fourth book on the way.

More after the jump »

Los Angeles Playbill for production of Ibsen’s “Ghosts” starring Alla Nazimova at the Biltmore Theatre, 1936

Los Angeles Playbill for production of Ibsen's "Ghosts" starring Alla Nazimova at the Biltmore Theatre, 1936

Los Angeles Playbill for production of Ibsen's "Ghosts" starring Alla Nazimova at the Biltmore Theatre, 1936

Not only did Madame Nazimova star in the production, but she directed it too!

More information on Erlanger’s Biltmore Theater: