Nina Barsamova – the White Russian “Movie Queen of Shanghai”
Posted: June 21st, 2015 | 6 Comments »Nina Barsamova was a bit of a celebrity in the 1930s. Like many White Russians she claimed her family were something special back in the tme of the Romanoffs but had come into exile in China. They lived in Harbin until about 1930 or thereabouts and then, after her father’s death, Nina, her mother and sister moved to Shanghai. Around early 1933 she won a beauty pageant at the Shanghai Canidrome aimed at raising money for a White Russian orphans in the city.
Nina decided to trade up after the pageant and took the liner the President Hoover to America (it might be that the trip was the First Prize – it’s a bit unclear), arriving in San Francisco in July 1933 declaring herself looking to “crash” into the movies in Hollywood. Talking to the press it appears she hinted at Russian noble blood and somehow got called the “Movie Queen of Shanghai”. According to the papers she was not in Hollywood long before she was approached by a film producer and director called Buddy DeSylva, who wanted her to take a screen test. DeSylva claimed Nina had a delectable accent and was “exactly what I want”. It’s not clear if she ever made any films (or why she was called the “Movie Queen of Shanghai” as she doesn’t appear to have made any there either – The China Monthly Review claimed the San Francisco press dubbed her with the sobriquet but it may have been the title bestowed by the pageant – good PR I guess?) but she did get her photo in the September 1933 issue of New Movie magazine.
Fast forward 18 months and we find Nina in Jan 1935 boarding a ship returning to Shanghai. The problem seems to have been that “she had been in Hollywood as long as the law permitted” and had now outstayed her visa. So, so long Hollywood; Hello, once again, Shanghai. That appeared to be the end of Nina’s Hollywood career. But not of her life…
However, it appears in 1936 Nina married a Basque Spanish hai-alai player (they were generally considered extremely good looking chaps usually and thought of as catches!)Â called Paulino Ituarte y Elordi. And it also seems she had two children – Natalia and Elena, thought to have moved to California. The records are a bit unclear but I think Paulino Ituarte y Elordi was born in 1901 and died in 1989 in California, known as Paulino Ituarte (Elordi having been his mother’s maiden name?).
And that’s all I’ve got – but she was very beautiful and she had some adventures and if anyone knows anymore please let me know?
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Barsamova in July 1933 arriving in America from Shanghai
Barsamova in Jan 1935 departing America for Shanghai
She was my great grandmother
how wonderful – do you have any more photographs, memorabilia, letters concerning her Shanghai time?
I will visit my grandmother and great aunt soon to see what other memorabilia I can find… they have tons. One thing you didn’t know about my great grandfather Paulino AKA Pompa was that he actually was half Armenian and half Basque. They had to hide this from the public because back then it was looked down upon for a Russian to marry an Armenian because of the Armenian genocide. It was kept such a secret that it only came to light at a family dinner in recent years. Also, she did film one movie from what I’ve been told she was the stunt double for Jane in the first silent Tarzan movie. I haven’t researched this through and through because I can hardly find anything online from this era. Nina was a beautiful well put together woman, even in her later years before she succumbed to Vascular Dementia and Gangrene at 92 years old. She is also believed to still have a presence here with the living, often visiting several family members at night before bed. I was 9 years old when she passed so my memory is kind of hazy. I appreciate this article more than you will ever know.
Dear Paul,
I have found a photograph of their wedding, which you can find in our archive or Sino-Spanish relations: http://ace.uoc.edu/items/show/976
Best,
My niece Allison has given you some wron information on my Grandfather Paulino Ituarte. If you would like me to clarify please let me know. Thank you, Maria Turner Ituarte
Dear Paul: Your information about Nina Barsamova is quite interesting.
Regarding how she “somehow got called the ‘Movie Queen of Shanghai'” there’s a very rare illustrated booklet in my archive (the Upton Sino-Foreign Archive, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA) which provides the explanation. The booklet is a programme for the International Charity Movie Queen Ball, Canidrome, Shanghai, which began late at night on Thursday, April 27, 1933. The ball included a beauty contest in which young Shanghai women of various nationalities competed for the title of “Movie Queen.” 26 finalists were chosen from the 169 entrants.
Nina Barsamova won the contest. Her prize was a free trip to Hollywood. The trip was donated by the Robert Dollar Steamship Line, which was led by R. Stanley Dollar, one of the ball’s patrons.
The programme for the ball includes lists of names of all of the beauty contest entrants and of all of the finalists. The spectacle included four hours of entertainment by various listed dancers and musicians (some quite famous) from 10 PM to 2 AM. One of the scheduled final features of the event was the crowning of the “Movie Queen” (Nina) by Sir Victor Sassoon, a Shanghai real estate magnate who was one of the wealthiest men in Asia.
The purpose of this charity ball was to raise funds for the “School for Poor Russian Children” (which should not be confused with Shanghai’s French Municipality’s Ecole Remi). The programme includes illustrations by the famed Shanghai Russian artist”Sapajou” (Georgii A. Sapojnikov, or in older spelling, Sapojnikoff),
Among the patrons of the ball were the Members of the Shanghai Rotary Club. An article in the August 1933 issue of “The Rotarian” (published at Chicago) includes a photo of Nina being decorated with leis in Honolulu (by Hawaii’s 1933 Lei Queen) while en route to Hollywood, where she would be the guest of the Los Angeles Rotary Club. According to the article, the charity ball raised $33,ooo for the Russian school’s building fund (an impressive amount during the Great Depression).–Steve Upton