Marcel Dragusanu Nieuport pilot
Marcel de Sano (Marcel Dragusanu )
The newspapers brought the news that a Romanian who settled abroad many years ago committed suicide in a strange and horrible way. Marcel Dragusanu was found dead near Ville d’Avray in his car set on fire. At first it was thought that it was an ordinary accident as his car hit a concrete pillar and the engine exploded. Research police found out that Marcel Dragusanu fixed a rubber tube to the car’s exhaust and giving way, the tube inserted in his mouth, the poisonous gases suffocated him. As he fainted, the car hit the concrete pillar and the engine exploded. Within minutes there was nothing left of the most beautiful Paris car, nor of the most charming adventurer who ever lived.
Marcel Dragusanu chose the original death as was original all his life, putting a sudden end to it, in full force and youth.
In 1914, then a pupil of the Evangelical Lutheran high school in Bucharest, Marcel Dragusanu disappeared one day from home. He embarked on a ship carrying wheat from Constanta to Marseille and crossed la Mediterranean Sea in 14 days without eating anything but crackers and drinking fresh water found in the lifeboat where he stood hidden. Arriving exhausted at Marseille, he barely managed to get out of the boat in a night fog. He came to France with the precise purpose to join the Foreign Legion.
Although he was only 17, Marcel Dragusanu was admitted and passed to the air force where he advanced quickly to the rank of second lieutenant. He was a “hot head” as the French say and achieved several remarkable brave acts. In 1916, at the age of 19, he had on his chest the “Legion of Honor” and “Croix de guerre” medals and he was seven times quoted on the “Order of the day”.
In 1917, when Romania was undergoing difficult days of distress, when we knew nothing of what was going beyond the iron circle in which Mackensen’s armies surrounded us, one fine morning at the primitive airport of the Moldova headquarters landed an airplane with the three colors of France on the wings. It was Marcel Dragusanu, who, risking his life, passed from Thesaloniki on a fighter over the enemy lines and landed safely in Moldova. General Sarrail sent by Marcel Dragusanu , French officer and Romanian citizen, important messages, the first mission of the victory that was on the verge.The compatriots made Marcel Dragusanu an enthusiastic reception. He has been personally decorated by the King Ferdinand I with the “Michael the Brave” medal and was quoted on the “Order of the day”.
The end of the war was a moment of considerable hardship for him. So much accustomed to the exciting atmosphere of the aviation, he no longer understood life than near the fighter with which he had fought in countless air battles. He tried to remain in the army, nevertheless it was not the same. The war was over and his service became common like any other job. So, after six month he resigned from the army with the lieutenant rank. He went to Paris and then to Rome where he dealt intensely with cinema production. At that time Italy was the center of European cinema. He played leading roles in several films along with Francesca Bertini, Pina Menichelli, Lyda Borelli etc. Between him and Lyda Borelli a beautiful romance of love was born which ended with marriage, but that was not to be a too happy one. Lyda Borelli went on a tour in South America and Dragusanu, alone and abandoned by all his friends, fell seriously ill. Fortunately for him, arrived in Italy the great Romanian statesman Take Ionescu who knew the heroic adventurer in Iasi an loved him as a father. He cared of Dragusanu and helped him to go to Paris where just started to assert the film industry of the brothers Nathan, also of Romanian origin. Marcel Dragusanu played no longer; he became director of production and married the beautiful actress Arlette Marchal. Neither this second marriage had to be happy. Dragusanu always wanted more than he had. The American Hollywood film industry was in increasingly large swing. One day he was gone just in the way the 17 years old boy from the Evangelical Lutheran school from Bucharest . Dragusanu disappeared from Paris , after divorcing from Arlette Marchal. Passing the Ocean, the adventurer staid for ten years in Hollywood. Here he became the right-hand man of the great film director Cecil B. de Mille who married his daughter with him. She was a girl of 18 who seemed to come admirably to terms with Dragusanu. This time not he was who left, but the little American who wanted to become at any price a film actress. Dragusanu had his first disappointment. But he was quickly reconciled by a new romance, a fatal one, which led to his ill-fated fact. He accepted to become the great singer Jeanette MacDonald’s “manager” for Europe. Dragusanu fell in love with the singer who responded to his love. They became engaged, but didn’t get married.
Being in Europe, Dragusanu left his fiancée for two weeks in Italy and came to see his parents and relatives in Romania. He came as a silver-haired, entirely Americanized man, his eyes shining an invincible will, a man who earned successes in life. He charmed everybody he met and left some female victims, of which, a cousin, tried to commit suicide. Dragusanu left to fulfill his destiny. The designed marriage with Jeanette Macdonald was over. He was seen in Paris and in fashionable spas driving alongside to a small Siamese woman who followed him everywhere like a faithful dog. This is the most troubled period in his life. And ends with the tragic suicide that nobody is able to explain. Marcel Dragusanu as a heroic adventurer couldn’t support the decay of the times. .
Sourse:(foto)- the Marcel de Sano (Marcel Dragusanu)'s nephew private archive
(story)-Romanian Academy Library-Ilustratiunea romana-1936
Marcel Dragusanu Nieuport pilot
Marcel de Sano (Marcel Dragusanu )
The newspapers brought the news that a Romanian who settled abroad many years ago committed suicide in a strange and horrible way. Marcel Dragusanu was found dead near Ville d’Avray in his car set on fire. At first it was thought that it was an ordinary accident as his car hit a concrete pillar and the engine exploded. Research police found out that Marcel Dragusanu fixed a rubber tube to the car’s exhaust and giving way, the tube inserted in his mouth, the poisonous gases suffocated him. As he fainted, the car hit the concrete pillar and the engine exploded. Within minutes there was nothing left of the most beautiful Paris car, nor of the most charming adventurer who ever lived.
Marcel Dragusanu chose the original death as was original all his life, putting a sudden end to it, in full force and youth.
In 1914, then a pupil of the Evangelical Lutheran high school in Bucharest, Marcel Dragusanu disappeared one day from home. He embarked on a ship carrying wheat from Constanta to Marseille and crossed la Mediterranean Sea in 14 days without eating anything but crackers and drinking fresh water found in the lifeboat where he stood hidden. Arriving exhausted at Marseille, he barely managed to get out of the boat in a night fog. He came to France with the precise purpose to join the Foreign Legion.
Although he was only 17, Marcel Dragusanu was admitted and passed to the air force where he advanced quickly to the rank of second lieutenant. He was a “hot head” as the French say and achieved several remarkable brave acts. In 1916, at the age of 19, he had on his chest the “Legion of Honor” and “Croix de guerre” medals and he was seven times quoted on the “Order of the day”.
In 1917, when Romania was undergoing difficult days of distress, when we knew nothing of what was going beyond the iron circle in which Mackensen’s armies surrounded us, one fine morning at the primitive airport of the Moldova headquarters landed an airplane with the three colors of France on the wings. It was Marcel Dragusanu, who, risking his life, passed from Thesaloniki on a fighter over the enemy lines and landed safely in Moldova. General Sarrail sent by Marcel Dragusanu , French officer and Romanian citizen, important messages, the first mission of the victory that was on the verge.The compatriots made Marcel Dragusanu an enthusiastic reception. He has been personally decorated by the King Ferdinand I with the “Michael the Brave” medal and was quoted on the “Order of the day”.
The end of the war was a moment of considerable hardship for him. So much accustomed to the exciting atmosphere of the aviation, he no longer understood life than near the fighter with which he had fought in countless air battles. He tried to remain in the army, nevertheless it was not the same. The war was over and his service became common like any other job. So, after six month he resigned from the army with the lieutenant rank. He went to Paris and then to Rome where he dealt intensely with cinema production. At that time Italy was the center of European cinema. He played leading roles in several films along with Francesca Bertini, Pina Menichelli, Lyda Borelli etc. Between him and Lyda Borelli a beautiful romance of love was born which ended with marriage, but that was not to be a too happy one. Lyda Borelli went on a tour in South America and Dragusanu, alone and abandoned by all his friends, fell seriously ill. Fortunately for him, arrived in Italy the great Romanian statesman Take Ionescu who knew the heroic adventurer in Iasi an loved him as a father. He cared of Dragusanu and helped him to go to Paris where just started to assert the film industry of the brothers Nathan, also of Romanian origin. Marcel Dragusanu played no longer; he became director of production and married the beautiful actress Arlette Marchal. Neither this second marriage had to be happy. Dragusanu always wanted more than he had. The American Hollywood film industry was in increasingly large swing. One day he was gone just in the way the 17 years old boy from the Evangelical Lutheran school from Bucharest . Dragusanu disappeared from Paris , after divorcing from Arlette Marchal. Passing the Ocean, the adventurer staid for ten years in Hollywood. Here he became the right-hand man of the great film director Cecil B. de Mille who married his daughter with him. She was a girl of 18 who seemed to come admirably to terms with Dragusanu. This time not he was who left, but the little American who wanted to become at any price a film actress. Dragusanu had his first disappointment. But he was quickly reconciled by a new romance, a fatal one, which led to his ill-fated fact. He accepted to become the great singer Jeanette MacDonald’s “manager” for Europe. Dragusanu fell in love with the singer who responded to his love. They became engaged, but didn’t get married.
Being in Europe, Dragusanu left his fiancée for two weeks in Italy and came to see his parents and relatives in Romania. He came as a silver-haired, entirely Americanized man, his eyes shining an invincible will, a man who earned successes in life. He charmed everybody he met and left some female victims, of which, a cousin, tried to commit suicide. Dragusanu left to fulfill his destiny. The designed marriage with Jeanette Macdonald was over. He was seen in Paris and in fashionable spas driving alongside to a small Siamese woman who followed him everywhere like a faithful dog. This is the most troubled period in his life. And ends with the tragic suicide that nobody is able to explain. Marcel Dragusanu as a heroic adventurer couldn’t support the decay of the times. .
Sourse:(foto)- the Marcel de Sano (Marcel Dragusanu)'s nephew private archive
(story)-Romanian Academy Library-Ilustratiunea romana-1936