I am not sure that there will be any responses to this thread but does anyone know anything about a certain Princess Aimee Galitizine. I am starting to do some research about her. She appears in the history of my mother's family as the first wife of my Aunt's grandfather Porter Ashe of Ashville and San Francisco.
Aimee was born a Crocker of San Francisco and married Porter at first secretly and then openly. I think Porter had trouble with gambling. The marriage did not last even though they had a daughter and I believe Aimee got a divorce within a few years of the marriage.
In her autobiography, "And I'd Do It Again," she mentions her marriage to my Aunt's grandfather and details about the honeymoon, etc, but then she confines herself to stories of her romances with men like the King of Hawaii and her visit to him. He gave her an Island and she managed to shock all the good Christian women by her antics. She does mention husband's names in passing but never gives any details and uses her Galitizine title but never shares his name. I don't know whether she wrote her book hoping to have it made into a movie or not but it reads like the adventures of an untamed Asian Godesss.
I do know that she married the Prince and that they lived in the Passy near the Trocadoro on 20 Rue Vinuce? or Venice? One of my friends was able to find the house in the 1960's and said that it had been turned into an upscale apt house and a very old concierge still remembered a Princess Galitizine. At least that is what my friend said but his French was not too good at the time. He even managed to get a photograph of the building. It is on a wedged shape street and appears to be three blocks long, however I lost the photograph when I lent my photo file on Russia to a publisher. My Uncle said that the Princess bought the property because it had three stories, was three blocks long and had a triple basement and that this was all highly significant to the Princess and meant that somehow the place was destined for her.
Personally I have never heard of a triple basement or a house being three blocks long (how does someone determine that?) but this is why I am trying my best to finally get the courage to sort out fact from fiction. I really don't even know for sure if my friend just gave upp and photographed any building he could find, but he was a very kind hearted and honest man.
My father's brother, who was in Paris attending the Ecole de Beau Arts and was on a Fisher Scholarship to the Sorbonne (I know I am mispelling all these names) was introduced to the Princess and she became his patron. He kept his studio at 75 Blvd. Montparnasse but he moved into the Princess' town house.
I know that address is accurate as I have some of the letters he wrote to my father from Paris. My Uncle was to be the next great ex patriot American portrait painter and studied under the famous Lucian Simon.
I do know that my Uncle, though he lived in a wing of the Princess' town house was never invited to her parties as he was not considered a peer but he was often included in her fabulous luncheons in the Bois.
He was given a valet and car and driver however and according to one of his letters he was a member of the Russian Basket Ball Club. He even included sketches of his excellant performance and they have been lost. I don't know if he was joking about the existence of such a club or not. He did see many of the exiled Romanoffs and Royalty and did recieve at least one commission to paint the portrait of an Italian Princess. He had many wealthy young friends and he told me many fabulous stories about the Princess, her passion for pearls, for men, for excitement etc., just as my Aunt did, but I have never been able to trace her marriage to the Prince.
My family was split by sharp divisions created by wealth and poverty and vastly separate social status and I have lived in fear of them most all my life. Now as most all of the family is dead, I feel less afraid to find out as much as I can. I simply do not like to be lied too and misinformed and I find my entire family to be very fascinating. There has been so much disimulation in the family on both sides that my cousins and sister simply refuse to believe anything and have no connection to their own history.
My feeble attempts, within my family, to find out more about the Princess have been roughly rebuffed by the few surviving senior members who have been further embittered over multiple divorce suits. But as so much of my life has been directed by my fascination in the stories of the Princess that I started hearing as a little boy and the eventually led me to reading my first Russian memoir at twelve, has made me want to openly search for more information about her.
Does anyone have a clue as to how I should start. My Uncle said that there is a line of the Galitizine family that is not very nice and he thinks that Aimee married a member of that line. I hope that I am not repeating something that will be interpreted as slander, I am just trying to get as much information out there as I have.
Thanks griff, see bluetoria I am actually trying to go forward!!!!
