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Authors: Bob Colacello
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touring companies of Cohan’s musical Broadway Jones and The Fortune Hunter, starring John Barrymore . 19
At twenty-five, Edith reportedly became engaged to Edward A. R. Brown, the scion of a rich New York family.20 A year later she met Kenneth Robbins, who was swept away by her looks, her humor, and her get-up-and-go. According to relatives, young Ken was sweet but weak, “kind of a momma’s boy,” one of them said, who was “kept [in] long golden curls until he went to school.”21 His mother, a formidable figure known in the family as Nannee Robbins, was also charmed by Edith. “Even though I think she might have been a little disturbed that her only son married an actress,” Ken Robbins’s niece Kathleen Young said, “Nannee thought the world of her.”22
Edith and Ken were wed in Burlington, Vermont, on June 27, 1916, by a Congregational minister. Edith had promised to give up the stage, but after only a few months of living in a farmhouse in the Berkshires owned by her husband’s family, she persuaded Ken to move to New York, where he floundered unhappily, working as an insurance agent according to one source, a booking agent according to another.23 Edith contacted Alla Nazimova, who offered a role in her new production, ’Ception Shoals, a melodrama “about incest, suicide, and bigotry, set in a lighthouse.”24 Edith’s first Broadway play, it opened on January 10, 1917, ran to packed houses until March, and then went on tour until summer. By then Ken had enlisted in the Army—Congress having declared war on Germany on April 6—and Edith had formed a close friendship with Nazimova.
The following year, Nazimova went to Hollywood and quickly became one of the highest-paid actresses in silent pictures, starring opposite Ru-dolph Valentino in Camille in 1921. Two years later she produced and starred in the “ostentatiously homoerotic” Salome, with sets by Natacha Rambova, Valentino’s second wife and one of Nazimova’s many lovers.25
Nazimova jokingly called the Spanish-style mansion she bought at 8080
Sunset Boulevard the Garden of Allah. Set on three and a half acres of lushly landscaped grounds, it was also known as the 8080 Club because of her constant entertaining, which included all-girl pool parties on Sunday afternoons. She attempted to cover up her lesbianism by, among other things, 3 8
Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House maintaining a fictional marriage with the actor Charles Bryant from 1912
to 1925.26
According to Nazimova’s biographer Gavin Lambert, “Edith was probably Nazimova’s main confidante for more than ten years,” and their friendship led to rumors that they were lovers. Lambert plays down those rumors, citing the platonic tone of Nazimova’s letters to Edith, in which the star is constantly thanking her admirer for favors large and small. “Enormously proud of her friendship with a great star, Edith seems to have felt to be privileged to do favors for her,” Lambert explains, “and Nazimova . . . felt relaxed in the company of someone so exuberantly unshockable. The friendship lasted until Nazimova’s death, and their correspondence over the years makes it clear that Edith was one of the very few people with whom she was frank about her sexuality.” Lambert points out, however, that Edith’s letters to Nazimova are not included in Nazimova’s archives, even though the star was known to keep every letter she ever received.27
In January 1919, Ken Robbins was honorably discharged and rejoined Edith in New York. In late 1920, Edith became pregnant, and Ken, who had inherited a small amount of money from his father, wanted to move back to Pittsfield and bring up their child there. When Edith refused, he left her,28 and he wasn’t present when Nancy was born in July 1921—a fact Nancy would make much of in her memoirs. Sometime after his daughter’s birth he returned, and Edith gave up acting for about a year. Nonetheless, the union between the
At twenty-five, Edith reportedly became engaged to Edward A. R. Brown, the scion of a rich New York family.20 A year later she met Kenneth Robbins, who was swept away by her looks, her humor, and her get-up-and-go. According to relatives, young Ken was sweet but weak, “kind of a momma’s boy,” one of them said, who was “kept [in] long golden curls until he went to school.”21 His mother, a formidable figure known in the family as Nannee Robbins, was also charmed by Edith. “Even though I think she might have been a little disturbed that her only son married an actress,” Ken Robbins’s niece Kathleen Young said, “Nannee thought the world of her.”22
Edith and Ken were wed in Burlington, Vermont, on June 27, 1916, by a Congregational minister. Edith had promised to give up the stage, but after only a few months of living in a farmhouse in the Berkshires owned by her husband’s family, she persuaded Ken to move to New York, where he floundered unhappily, working as an insurance agent according to one source, a booking agent according to another.23 Edith contacted Alla Nazimova, who offered a role in her new production, ’Ception Shoals, a melodrama “about incest, suicide, and bigotry, set in a lighthouse.”24 Edith’s first Broadway play, it opened on January 10, 1917, ran to packed houses until March, and then went on tour until summer. By then Ken had enlisted in the Army—Congress having declared war on Germany on April 6—and Edith had formed a close friendship with Nazimova.
The following year, Nazimova went to Hollywood and quickly became one of the highest-paid actresses in silent pictures, starring opposite Ru-dolph Valentino in Camille in 1921. Two years later she produced and starred in the “ostentatiously homoerotic” Salome, with sets by Natacha Rambova, Valentino’s second wife and one of Nazimova’s many lovers.25
Nazimova jokingly called the Spanish-style mansion she bought at 8080
Sunset Boulevard the Garden of Allah. Set on three and a half acres of lushly landscaped grounds, it was also known as the 8080 Club because of her constant entertaining, which included all-girl pool parties on Sunday afternoons. She attempted to cover up her lesbianism by, among other things, 3 8
Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House maintaining a fictional marriage with the actor Charles Bryant from 1912
to 1925.26
According to Nazimova’s biographer Gavin Lambert, “Edith was probably Nazimova’s main confidante for more than ten years,” and their friendship led to rumors that they were lovers. Lambert plays down those rumors, citing the platonic tone of Nazimova’s letters to Edith, in which the star is constantly thanking her admirer for favors large and small. “Enormously proud of her friendship with a great star, Edith seems to have felt to be privileged to do favors for her,” Lambert explains, “and Nazimova . . . felt relaxed in the company of someone so exuberantly unshockable. The friendship lasted until Nazimova’s death, and their correspondence over the years makes it clear that Edith was one of the very few people with whom she was frank about her sexuality.” Lambert points out, however, that Edith’s letters to Nazimova are not included in Nazimova’s archives, even though the star was known to keep every letter she ever received.27
In January 1919, Ken Robbins was honorably discharged and rejoined Edith in New York. In late 1920, Edith became pregnant, and Ken, who had inherited a small amount of money from his father, wanted to move back to Pittsfield and bring up their child there. When Edith refused, he left her,28 and he wasn’t present when Nancy was born in July 1921—a fact Nancy would make much of in her memoirs. Sometime after his daughter’s birth he returned, and Edith gave up acting for about a year. Nonetheless, the union between the
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