Rita Hayworth posing for her famous Life magazine World War ll pin-up.
There have been many tragic screen goddesses down the decades, especially in the days of the studio system, but none had it tougher than Rita Hayworth. As a young girl she was treated abominably by her lecherous father, Eduardo Cansino, who not only hawked her body to others, but used it himself whenever he felt the need. Years later, when she was wed to Orson Welles, she told him of the incest (as well as several beatings) and he was appalled. ‘He was a terrible man’, said Welles. ‘And she really hated him’. Nevertheless, Rita appeared to remain close to her father and even hired him as choreographer on The Loves of Carmen. Possibly, she was still afraid of him, or he may have threatened to wreck her career with a few well-placed ‘items’. She was forever being manipulated by the men in her life.
Her first husband was Edward Judson, another low-life who totally dominated the fragile beauty. He, too, gave her to scores of executives as he pushed his beautiful meal-ticket to the top of the Hollywood pile. Early in her career she was quoted as saying, ‘I owe everything to Ed. I could never have made the grade in Hollywood without him’. After they divorced she fell in love with actor Victor Mature. Then, in the middle of their romance she was hunted down and snared by Orson Welles. He took one look at the famous 1941 Bob Landry snapshot of Hollywood’s latest love goddess and determined then and there to meet and marry her. ‘I saw that fabulous still in Life magazine’, he said, ‘where she’s on her knees on a bed. She was in alluring repose, dressed in a satin-and-lace nightgown. That’s when I decided’. They were soon wed, but Welles was always a hopeless adulterer. While Rita was preparing to give birth to their first child he was cheating on her with Gloria Vanderbilt, Judy Garland and a string of prostitutes. To nobody’s surprise the couple separated after the birth and Rita soon took up with singer Tony Martin.
A few months after the separation she agreed to make The Lady from Shanghai, a movie directed by none other than her estranged husband. Before long they were back sleeping together, but as soon as the movie was finished Orson ceased to lavish his attention on her and they split for the second time. It was 1947 and Rita joined the long queue of women who offered comfort to David Niven when his wife was tragically killed in a fall. Outwardly, it seemed as if the couple might be serious, but Rita was seeing bandleader Teddy Schauffer at the same time. Niven quietly let the relationship lapse when Teddy hit the headlines for scaling the exterior of the Hotel Lancaster in Paris after Rita locked him out of their room. In November of that year she finally divorced Welles.
Rita made no bones about her liking for sex. In bed she was confident and demanding, but would only believe someone loved her if they were actually making love to her. After her divorce she had affairs with the Shah of Iran’s brother Mahmud Pahlavi; then Howard, ‘love ‘em and leave ‘em’, Hughes. She was soon pregnant, but to which lover was anyone’s guess, so she aborted the problem and promptly jumped back into Orson’s bed in Cannes. However, he was busy seducing lots of women as usual, so it was goodbye to Orson for the third time and hello to Prince Aly Khan.
Probably the world’s most promiscuous man, the prince was notorious for treating beautiful women as trophies on his mantelpiece. His initial attempts to seduce Rita failed, so he employed an old gypsy woman to visit her and tell the unhappy star that he truly was the man she was destined to enjoy life with. Rita was no rocket scientist and fell for it hook, line and sinker. Aly’s expertise in the sack was also a mitigating factor. He had been educated in imsak, the art of indefinite postponement of ejaculation, in the brothels of Cairo at an early age. So Rita fell for him, married him, and was soon pregnant again, eventually giving birth to Princess Yasmin. Most people tend to overlook the fact that Rita, not Grace Kelly, was the first real-life Hollywood princess. The prince, of course, continued to take lovers wherever and whenever he pleased. Rita inevitably grew tired of this arrangement, walked out on him and hopped back into the four-poster of her old flame Victor Mature.
When Vic bowed out,( possibly from exhaustion), Rita bedded producer Charles Feldman, singer Robert Savage, make-up man Bob Schiffer and actor Kirk Douglas in quick succession, but none of them matched Aly in the sack so she went back to him! He was heavily involved with the beautiful Yvonne De Carlo at the time and did not try to hide it from anyone. A disgruntled Rita then gave herself to bullfighter Luis Dominguin, although how she managed to squeeze in between him and Ava Gardner is possibly a story in itself. She followed that little dalliance by giving a tumble or two to Count Jose-Maria Villapadierna during a European visit before flying back to Nevada and divorcing Aly once and for all.
Poor Rita’s over-riding problem in life seemed to be her inability to recognize a sleazebag when she met one. Enter fading singer and all-round creep Dick Haymes, a man known about town as ‘Mr. Evil’. Somehow, he managed to sweep her off her feet and all the way to the altar. He then proceeded to milk her of everything she had left, (which was not all that much by the way). Aly had spent all her money, not his, while they were together. Haymes meanwhile split his time between spending her money and beating her up, yet Rita steadfastly stayed loyal to him. When Columbia mogul Harry Cohn threw him off the lot she went to bat for him, but without success. Haymes repaid her loyalty by blacking both her eyes. The penny finally dropped and she at last walked out on him.
A brief fling with Egyptian producer Raymond Hakim ended when Rita again meandered her way back into the rarely empty boudoir of her ex-husband Aly Khan. Yet again, she became disenchanted by his womanising and, yet again, she fled to America. On this rebound she married director James Hill; another match made in heaven. They fought tooth and nail, often with any object that came to hand, both at home and on the set. In 1961 they divorced. Over the remainder of her life there would be many other lovers, but none of lasting importance. Already, signs of the dreaded Alzheimer’s disease that would claim her in 1987 were manifesting themselves.
One final word: It is doubtful there has ever been a more thoroughly detested man in all of Hollywood’s history than the boss of Columbia Studios, Harry Cohn. Perhaps, Rita Hayworth is the ultimate proof of this. No matter how many denizens of the movie world she slept with over the years (and she fell for some doozies), she drew the line at Cohn. She would not sleep with him, no matter what. And he pestered, threatened, bribed, cajoled, argued, and promised her anything and everything for decades, just for a one-night-stand. He never got one. Lovely Rita Hayworth’s troubled life was once succinctly summed up in her own words: ‘Basically, I am a good, gentle person, but I’m attracted to mean personalities.’
Rita was obviously an unstable, amoral “sleazebag” – (to use your expression for several of the men in her life – and no amount of excusing her promiscuity on alleged incest and betrayal by husbands & lovers can hide that fact.
I had always thought that Rita was sexualized by her father, but was alright with it and in fact enjoyed it very much. Her first husband suspected that of them and used it to snatch her away from her father and used her in the same manner. Later, she couldn’t very well admit the truth to Orson, so she said she hated him. But not so much as to turn her back on him, but instead worked with him on several projects. She was extremely sexually motivated and was constantly trying to match the intense passion she experienced with her father in her early years. She became very experienced and independent, selfishly doing whatever the hell she wanted in life, bouncing from men to men like a ping-pong ball. She even willingly returned to those men who “abused ” her, trying to scratch the itch that plagued her throughout her life since she left her father. She was very beautiful, but not innocent. She always placed herself right where she wanted to be at any given time. She was no angel.
I cannot help but concur with you, William. I have always been dubious of the women who seem to fall desperately in love with known playboys who just happen to be filthy rich (eg Aly Khan). Rita had been around the block quite a bit before she became old and ill. She met a terrible end but her life was mostly of her own doing.
This comment sounds like Eduardo Cansino came back from the grave to claim how he was the best his daughter ever had. Sickeningly creepy and gave me chills.
Well-done. Sad story; she was so breathtaking, wasn’t she? Thanks for taking the time and effort on this.
One of Hollywood’s all-time iconic beauties. I remember falling in love with her the first time I saw ‘The Strawbery Blonde’.
Yasmin, a very caring daughter!
And a renowned philanthropist as well.
I was told yrs. ago by my 1st love, about Rita H. having Alzheimers,
and being cared for by her daughter. Is this true, and was she a
heavy drinker?
Poor Rita had a terrible upbringing. Her father hawked her around to men from the time she became a teenager. She drank a lot for most of her life because she was generally unhappy for m,ost of her life. Aly Khan and Dick Haymes both treated her abominably. When she contracted Alzheimer’s disease her daughter Yasmin cared for her until the end and raised nearly $2 million dollars to help fight the disease. Rita died a horrible death at 68. She deserved better than that.
Wow lots of big claims without any citations of proof.
I appreciate your criticism, John, but I am not writing an academic essay, nor am I defending or prosecuting in a courtroom. This is merely my own personal blog in which I write summaries of what I have read and compiled over several decades. I do not wish to clog it with references. Readers, such as yourself, may accept or reject what I have written, of course. That is your prerogative. All I will say in my defense is that I examine scores of sources that I consider reputable, cross-check them, and then determine what I believe to be basically true. If I find conflicting evidence I usually refrain from formulating an opinion on that issue. One thing I have repeatedly found, however, is that the information released by ALL the studios about the private lives of their stars has always been aimed at contriving a ‘squeaky clean’ image that is light years from the truth. Until, perhaps, 30 years ago this was all we had to go on, and it was mostly baloney. Now, we have biographies and autobiographies from hundreds of people who were involved in the industry during the studio system days, and in general I trust these people and their recollections far more than I do ANYTHING churned out by the studio executives of bygone years. Anyway, as I said before, this blog is simply my interpretation of the hundreds of biographies, autos, memoirs, I have read down the decades. Of course, I may get something wrong, and I freely admit that, but I try very hard not to. In my days as a history and English tutor I HAD to insist on references from my students, but this is just a ‘fun’ project for me. If it interests readers who have not had the time or inclination to consume hundreds of publications on Hollywood and its inhabitants, as I have, well and good. But, please, do not expect articles cluttered with scores of references on this website, John. I am not out to change the world. I am just expressing my opinion, as you are expressing yours.
Mr. Royle: Why did you bother to write this big explanation – Anyone who can’t see that you’re writing an article in reference to information you’ve received or looked for isn’t worth responding to – This is just an information gathering – They can believe it or not – I loved the article !!! – Thanks for all the research – monica
You are quite right, of course, Monica. I must cease taking such criticism to heart. No way is everyone going to agree with what I write. Thank you for your support. It is much appreciated.
I am a firm believer that one trigger for Alzheimer’s disease (what Rita developed) is untreated traumatic stress.
Again, I am not qualified to comment on medical issues, but Rita was yet another star with a rotten childhood; a father who hawked her body around at every opportunity.