12018-05-07T23:58:44+00:00Alla Nazimova1plain2018-05-07T23:58:44+00:00Silent era actress Alla Nazimova was born in 1879 as Miriam Edez Adelaida Leventon in Yalta, Crimea. Leventon was the youngest of three and had a difficult childhood which included an abusive father. Leventon's father did everything possible to hide their Jewish past. The father did such a well job, that Leventon herself for years did not know she was Jewish.
In 1896, at seventeen, Leventon went to Moscow auditioning for the Philharmonic School. Within three months Leventon had spent her six months allowance, and was in a desperate financial need. It is around this same time that Leventon abandoned training as a violinist, began to realize her passion for theater, and changed her name to Alla Nazimova.
The lack of funds forced Nazimova to move into a cheap rooming house, clean out chamber pots and unsanitary linens, steal scraps of food, and prostitute herself in order to purchase some winter clothes.
At the peak of her Hollywood acting career, Nazimova earned the title of the highest paid actress in silent films.
