A 1935 theater program from a production of Ibsen’s “Ghosts” starring Alla Nazimova, and sheet music for “The Red Lantern.”

My thanks to Maya DeBus who generously gave me a theater program she found among her grandmothers effects. It was for a production of Ibsen’s Ghosts that the great Russian actress, Alla Nazimova, toured in 1935. A star of the dramatic stage in the 1910s, then a silent movie star in the early 1920s, Nazimova transformed her on Sunset Boulevard mansion in the mid-1920s into the famously infamous Garden of Allah Hotel. Not many physical objects remain from her career, so this program is quite rare and very precious.

Here are some scans:

~oOo~

This is a very rare opportunity to see what the set of a Nazimova-led touring production of Ibsen looked like in the 1930s.

Maya also gave me some sheet music to a song called “The Red Lantern” for Nazimova’s 1919 silent picture, The Red Lantern.

And as an added bonus on the pack page, you also got an extra song called “I Found the End of the Rainbow” written by the author of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.” (Evidently this particular writer was going through a rainbow phase.)

~oOo~

Here are some links for further information and interest:

Alla Nazimova Society

My novel about Alla Nazimova: Chasing Salomé – a novel of 1920s Hollywood

On MartinTurnbull.com – About Alla Nazimova

On MartinTurnbull.com – Alla Nazimova timeline

On MartinTurnbull.com – About the Garden of Allah Hotel

On WestHollywoodHistory.org – A Place Called the Garden of Allah

~oOo~

ALSO BY MARTIN TURNBULL:

The Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels

Book 1 – The Garden on Sunset
Book 2 – The Trouble with Scarlett
Book 3 – Citizen Hollywood
Book 4 – Searchlights and Shadows
Book 5 – Reds in the Beds
Book 6 – Twisted Boulevard
Book 7 – Tinseltown Confidential
Book 8 – City of Myths
Book 9 – Closing Credits

Chasing Salomé: a novel of 1920s Hollywood

The Heart of the Lion: a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood

All the Gin Joints: a novel of World War II Hollywood (out July 2021)

~oOo~

~oOo~

Connect with Martin Turnbull:

Website

Facebook

Pinterest

~oOo~