No Secrets: The Beating Heart of Natacha Rambova Exposed

Famed costume and set designer, dancer, actress, author, entrepreneur, Egyptologist, and, oh yes, Mrs. Rudolph Valentino

Portrait of Natacha Rambova by Svetoslav Roerich (1926). Roerich Museum Collection

“Fame is like a giant x-ray. Once you are exposed beneath it, the very beatings of your heart are shown to a gaping world.” — Natacha Rambova in “Photoplay” December 1922.

Most people who have heard of Natacha Rambova know her as the wife of Hollywood silent-era matinee idol and megastar Rudolph Valentino, but her time with him was relatively short. Before she met him and after his death in 1926, Rambova was a household name in her own right. Beautiful, rich, talented and intelligent, she displayed a strength of will and a knack for reinvention that could rival anyone alive today.

Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy: Poor little rich girl

Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah (1897). Public Domain.

The girl who would become Natacha Rambova was born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1897. Her father, Michael Shaughnessy was an Irish Catholic businessman, originally from New York City, who worked in the mining industry…