Olga von Root
Olga von Root | |
---|---|
Born | Olga Vadimovna Freiin von Root December 2, 1901 |
Died | June 28, 1967 (aged 65) |
Other names | Olga Vadina Olga Hammer |
Education | Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens |
Occupation(s) | singer, actress |
Spouse | |
Children | 1 |
Parent(s) | Baron Vadim Nikolayevich von Root Lubov Karlovna Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich |
Relatives | Michael Armand Hammer (grandson) Armie Hammer (great-grandson) |
Baroness Olga Vadimovna von Root (December 2, 1901 – June 28, 1967) was a Russian stage actress and singer. Born into a noble family of German, Polish, and Greek background, von Root was educated at the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens in the Russian Empire. As a teenager, she ran away from home and travelled with a Romani family, studying their music and dance. During the Russian Revolution, while her father served in the White Army, von Root performed in cabarets and nightclubs to help support her family. After the war, she performed in Russia and other European countries as a stage actress and singer under the stage name Olga Vadina. She later married American industrialist Armand Hammer and moved to the United States, taking up residence in Manhattan. While living in New York, she worked to transcribe numerous Romani ballads. Von Root is the grandmother of American businessman Michael Armand Hammer and the great-grandmother of American actor Armie Hammer.
Early life and family
Baroness Olga Vadimovna von Root was born in
Revolution and stage career
Von Root was educated at the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens in Saint Petersburg, where she trained as a singer.[2] at the age of fifteen, she ran away and took up performing with a troop of Romani performers, learning their music and dances from Nikolai Kroutchine.[3] She was later found and returned to her family.[3]
During the
During the rise of Communism, von Root became a star of the stage, as a singer and actress, performing under the name Olga Vadina.[2][5][3] She was one of the top stars of post-Revolutionary Russia's concert theatre and had married her manager.[2] She performed a program of Romani ballads at a theatre in Paris, later performing in other European capitals.[3]
While living in New York City with her second husband, Armand Hammer, von Root worked with a musician to transcribe Russian and Romani music that she learned throughout her training.[3]
Personal life
In 1925, while performing in Yalta, von Root was introduced to the Jewish American millionaire industrialist Armand Hammer.[2] The two fell in love and, after von Root obtained a divorce from her first husband in Moscow, she and Hammer were married in a civil ceremony in 1927.[2][5][6] They had one son, Julian Armand Hammer, who was born in Moscow in 1928.[5][2] The family left Moscow in 1930 and took up residence on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.[2][3] She and Hammer divorced in 1943.[5]
Von Root was the grandmother of American businessman Michael Armand Hammer and the great-grandmother of American actor Armie Hammer.[5]
References
- ^ a b "Биография :: К.К. Косцюшко-Валюжинич и его археологические отчеты". www.kostsyushko.chersonesos.org. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
- ^ ISBN 9780060108366.
- ^ a b c d e f g "The Meriden Daily Journal - Google News Archive Search".
- ^ "Epigraphic Chersonesos".
- ^ a b c d e f Pace, Eric (12 December 1990). "Armand Hammer Dies at 92; Industrialist and Philanthropist Forged Soviet Links". The New York Times.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-08-23.