THOSE WERE THE DAYS by Stuart

1918-1987

"What surprises me in life are not the marriages that fail, but the marriages that succeed" - Rita Hayworth

Rita was born, Margarita Carmen Cansino, in New York on October 17, 1918. Her father, Eduardo, had immigrated from Spain with his sister in 1913, and would meet showgirl, Volga Haworth, in 1916. They would be married a year later.

Since dancing was a tradition in the Cansino family, it was to no surprise that Rita would be formally trained as a dancer in order to follow in her family's footsteps. She would join her family on stage at the young age of 8 years old (I believe they were called hoofers back then).

During a filming with her family in a movie called "La Fiesta" (1926) Rita was noticed and approached by an impressed Fox executive, and would be offered a movie contract. Rita's second film was Cruz Diablo (1934) which she would do at the age of 16. She would continue to play small parts in several films under the name of Rita Cansino until she landed the second female lead in Columbia's 1939 production of "Only Angels Have Wings".

But it would be the Warner Brothers 1941 film "The Strawberry Blonde" that would bring out the seductiveness that was to be Rita's trademark and that would make her famous. Warner would be sure to showcase Rita's natural raw beauty later that year in the 1941 film "Blood and Sand" that was filmed in Technicolor. It has been said that Rita was probably the second most popular actress after Betty Grable (Rita was also the #2 soldier pin-up girl of WW II, and her face was glued onto an A-bomb which was dropped on the Bikini Atol during a test in 1946).

Rita would go on to dance into movie goers hearts in the 1941 hit "You'll never get Rich" with Fred Astaire. Her dancing was acclaimed as nothing short of astounding in that film, and her many years of dance training was paying off for the buxom "red-headed" bombshell (her natural hair color was black).

But even though she continued making movies (many with Glenn Ford) her career would start to go on a down-hill slide after her 1946 hit Gilda. Some say because she just never seemed to match her earlier work (which I have a hard time believing that!). It is also said that part of the reason for her downward spiral was television. And, it didn't help that Rita had been replaced by a hot new female star at Columbia, Kim Novak. After the 60s Rita's popularity (not mine) and movie career was essentially over. Rita, herself, said, "Every man I have known has fallen in love with Gilda and wakened with me".

Rita Hayworth was married five times, and she was divorced five times. She had two children; a daughter (Rebecca Welles) from Orsen Welles, and a daughter (Yasmin Khan) from Prince Aly Khan (Rita, not Grace Kelly, was the first movie star to become a princess).

Rita battled with Alzheimer's Disease for nearly seven years starting in 1980 (Yasmin would help take care of her), and she would die on May 14, 1987 in New York City. She was 68 years old. She was portrayed in a 1983 TV movie, Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess by Linda Carter.

*inspired by, Scratch