La Belle Otero

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Carolina Otero (La Belle Otero)
A 1905 postcard of La Belle Otero.
Born	November 4, 1868
Died	April 12, 1965
Occupation	dancer, actress, courtesan

Carolina Otero, La Belle Otero born Agustina Otero Iglesias [1] (November 4, 1868 - April 12, 1965) was a famous Spanish born dancer, actress and courtesan.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Courtesan lifestyle 3 The world's first film star (possibly) 4 Later life 5 Bibliography 6 Movies 7 Notes and References

[edit] Early life and career

Otero was born in Ponte de Valga Pontevedra, Galicia (Spain). Her family was poverty-stricken, unstable, and as a child she moved to Santiago de Compostela working as a maid. At ten she suffered a rape which left her sterile, and at fourteen she left home with a boyfriend and dancing partner and began working as a singer/dancer in Lisbon.

In 1888 she found a sponsor in Barcelona who moved with her to Marseille in order to promote her dancing career in France. She soon left him and created the character of La Belle Otero, fancying herself an andalusian gypsy. She wound up as the star of Les Folies Bèrgere productions in Paris. [2]

[edit] Courtesan lifestyle

Within a short number of years, Otero grew to be the most sought after woman in all of Europe. She was serving, by this time, as a courtesan to wealthy and powerful men of the day, and she chose her lovers carefully. She associated herself with the likes of Prince Albert of Monaco, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Kings of Serbia, and Kings of Spain as well as Russian Grand Dukes Peter and Nicholas, the Duke of Westminster and writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. Her love affairs made her infamous, and the envy of many other notable female personalities of the day. [3]

Six men reportedly committed suicide after their love affairs with Otero ended, although this has never been substantiated beyond a doubt. It is a fact, however, that two men did fight a duel over her. She was pretty, confident, intelligent, with an attractive figure, and was famed for her voluptuous breasts, and one of her most famous costumes featured her breasts partially covered with glued-on precious gems, and the twin cupolas of the Hotel Carlton built in 1912 in Cannes were modeled after her breasts. [4] [5] [6] [7]

It was once said of her that her extraordinarily dark black eyes were so captivating that they were "of such intensity that it was impossible not to be detained before them". [8] [9]

[edit] The world's first film star (possibly)

In august 1898, in St-Petersburg, the french film operator Félix Mesguich (an employee of the Lumière company) shoots a one-minute reel of Otero performing the famous "valse brillante", making of her possibly the first movie star in history. The screening of the film at the music-hall Aquarium provokes such a scandal (an officer of the Tsar's army appearing in this frivolous scene) that Mesguich is expelled from Russia. ^[1]

[edit] Later life

Otero retired after World War I, purchasing a mansion and property at a cost of the equivalent of 15 million modern day US dollars. [10] She had accumulated a massive fortune over the years, about twenty-five million dollars, but she gambled much of it away over the remainder of her lifetime, enjoying a lavish lifestyle, and visiting the casinos of Monte Carlo often. She lived out her life in a more and more pronounced state of poverty until she died in 1965 in Nice, France. [11]

[edit] Bibliography

• Arruíname pero no me abandones. La Bella Otero y la Belle Époque. De Marie-Helène Carbonel i Javier Figuero. Ed. Espasa Calpe, 2003. In Spanish
• A Bela Otero, pioneira do cine, Miguel Anxo Fernández In Galician

Fiction

• La passion de Carolina Otero Ramón Chao, 2001. French novel about the fictional life of the dancer.

[edit] Movies

• La Belle Otero Richard Pottier, 1954. French movie starring the great Mexican actress María Félix in the main role.

[edit] Notes and References

1. ^ Jacques Rittaud-Hutinet (1990). Le cinéma des origines: Les frères Lumière et leurs opérateurs, pp.176-177. ISBN 2-903528-43-8 (in french)