Carolina Otéro
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 193/11. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
Carolina Otéro (1868-1965), or La belle Otéro, was a Spanish actress, dancer and courtesan. She had a reputation for great beauty and was famous for her numerous lovers. In 1898, she became “the first star in the history of cinema”. Countless postcards with her circulated.
Carolina Otéro was born Agustina del Carmen Otéro Iglesias in 1868 into a poor family of modest social status in Valga, in the province of Pontevedra in Galicia. She moved with her family to Santiago de Compostela while still a child, where she began working as a maid. She suffered - as she later revealed - a rape at the age of 10 that made her sterile, and at the age of 14, she left home with her boyfriend and dance partner, Paco, to work as a singer and dancer in Lisbon. She made her debut in cabaret in 1888 in Barcelona, moving soon after to France, first to Marseille, and then to Paris. There she became a star of the Folies Bergère. Within a few years, she became one of the most famous women on the entire continent, the sought-after mistress of many powerful and prominent men of the time, such as Prince Albert I of Monaco, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, the royals of Serbia and Spain, the Grand Dukes of Russia, Peter and Nicholas Nikolaevič, and the famous writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. In 1890, Otéro was the star of a triumphant tour of the United States, and by the time she returned to Paris two years later, she was the undisputed star of the French stage. She performed in sumptuous gowns and jewellery that enhanced her form to support her reputation as a provocative and fatal woman. One of her most famous stage costumes involved glueing precious gems onto her breasts, and it was also said that the domes of the Hotel Carlton in Cannes, built in 1912, were modelled on the shape of her breasts.
In August 1898, in St. Petersburg, the French cinematographer Félix Mesguich, who worked for the Lumière Brothers' company, filmed a one-minute clip showing a dance number by La belle Otéro to the tune of the 'Valse Brillante'. This made Caroline Otéro probably “the first star in the history of cinema”. An officer of the tsarist army also appeared in the film, and when it was shown at the Music Hall Aquarium, the scandal was such that Mesguich was expelled from Russia. She became close friends with the writer Colette and the famous Belle Époque dancer Liane de Pougy, with whom she developed a rivalry. In the 1900s countless postcards with her circulated. After the First World War ended, Otéro retired from the stage and bought a property with a sumptuous home for the equivalent of about $15 million. The actress had amassed a considerable fortune over the years, which amounted to around 25 million dollars, but she used it up over the years to support a sophisticated and expensive lifestyle. She died in extreme poverty, supported by a pension from Monaco's Société des Bains de Mer - in Nice, France, in 1965 at the age of 96. Caroline Otéro is depicted in the Monte Carlo Casino, in a painting in the White Room. In 1954, the Mexican actress María Félix played her in Richard Pottier's film La Belle Otero.
Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Carolina Otéro
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 193/11. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
Carolina Otéro (1868-1965), or La belle Otéro, was a Spanish actress, dancer and courtesan. She had a reputation for great beauty and was famous for her numerous lovers. In 1898, she became “the first star in the history of cinema”. Countless postcards with her circulated.
Carolina Otéro was born Agustina del Carmen Otéro Iglesias in 1868 into a poor family of modest social status in Valga, in the province of Pontevedra in Galicia. She moved with her family to Santiago de Compostela while still a child, where she began working as a maid. She suffered - as she later revealed - a rape at the age of 10 that made her sterile, and at the age of 14, she left home with her boyfriend and dance partner, Paco, to work as a singer and dancer in Lisbon. She made her debut in cabaret in 1888 in Barcelona, moving soon after to France, first to Marseille, and then to Paris. There she became a star of the Folies Bergère. Within a few years, she became one of the most famous women on the entire continent, the sought-after mistress of many powerful and prominent men of the time, such as Prince Albert I of Monaco, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, the royals of Serbia and Spain, the Grand Dukes of Russia, Peter and Nicholas Nikolaevič, and the famous writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. In 1890, Otéro was the star of a triumphant tour of the United States, and by the time she returned to Paris two years later, she was the undisputed star of the French stage. She performed in sumptuous gowns and jewellery that enhanced her form to support her reputation as a provocative and fatal woman. One of her most famous stage costumes involved glueing precious gems onto her breasts, and it was also said that the domes of the Hotel Carlton in Cannes, built in 1912, were modelled on the shape of her breasts.
In August 1898, in St. Petersburg, the French cinematographer Félix Mesguich, who worked for the Lumière Brothers' company, filmed a one-minute clip showing a dance number by La belle Otéro to the tune of the 'Valse Brillante'. This made Caroline Otéro probably “the first star in the history of cinema”. An officer of the tsarist army also appeared in the film, and when it was shown at the Music Hall Aquarium, the scandal was such that Mesguich was expelled from Russia. She became close friends with the writer Colette and the famous Belle Époque dancer Liane de Pougy, with whom she developed a rivalry. In the 1900s countless postcards with her circulated. After the First World War ended, Otéro retired from the stage and bought a property with a sumptuous home for the equivalent of about $15 million. The actress had amassed a considerable fortune over the years, which amounted to around 25 million dollars, but she used it up over the years to support a sophisticated and expensive lifestyle. She died in extreme poverty, supported by a pension from Monaco's Société des Bains de Mer - in Nice, France, in 1965 at the age of 96. Caroline Otéro is depicted in the Monte Carlo Casino, in a painting in the White Room. In 1954, the Mexican actress María Félix played her in Richard Pottier's film La Belle Otero.
Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.