Discussions about Russian History > Russian Noble Families

A Romanov duchess in Hollywood?

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Ajimmo:
All:  You couldn't be more a princess than Nathalia Paley, albeit morganatic.  Surely everyone here knows her history from GD Paul through her poet brother's death to her escape with her mother and sister to Paris through her marriage to Lucien Lelong, couturier. It has been said that she had a brief film career -- perhaps as an extra.  Tragic lives -- all lost for the Revolution which imploded after badly damaging the cultural history of Russia, only exchanging one power for another with a nice cawl of greed and self-interest, unbound from righteous behavior. 

Rodney_G.:
The quote from Ballin's story, " she disguised herself as a Russian peasant and escaped to America after her whole family was massacred" certainly suggests the  Anastasia(Anna Anderson) scenario. Certainly  it was all bogus, but it  did play well,  and may have been readily received , especially in that land of fantasy, Hollywood. I don't doubt that similar asserted identities opened many a door to opportunities of some kind or other.

Parpar:
Just wanted to thank you all for your responses.

According to Robert K. Massie's The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, 17 other Romanovs were murdered, in addition to the Tzar, Tzaritsa, and their children (with a few faithful servants). The killings took place at different times, in different locations, from early 1918 to early 1919. (See beginning of Chapter 19, pp. 255-27.) A good number of Romanovs did manage to escape.

Kalafrana:
As to self-granted nobility, George Orwell recounts in Down and Out in Paris in London that during his time in the kitchens of Paris hotels he worked with various White Russians, and there was a running joke which went as follows:

'See that dishwasher over there? Well, in Russia he was a Count. See that waiter over there? Well, in Russia he was a Prince. and see that little dog over there? In Russia he was a Great Dane.'

Ann

JamesAPrattIII:
In 1920s and 1930s Paris many of the taxi drivers were Russian. One wag said one of the qualifications to be a Taxi driver in Paris at this time was to a be a former general in the Russian Army!

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