Motion Picture Classic (May 1921 - Dec 1927)

By THEODORE KOSLOFF Russian Dancer and American Actor thirst of Revolution had to arise and run its course. I mentioned the young attorney of the Duma first as representative of the new era of Russia. Now let me tell you of my first meeting with the late Tsar Nicholas. I was just a young boy. For several years I had been training faithfully at the Moscow Russian ballet school, headed by that grand old maestro of the ballet, Christian Joganson. Then came the supreme honor, assignment to the Imperial school at Petrograd. I had been there only three weeks when the word came that we were to dance before the Royal Family. An American can hardly appreciate the emotion of a sixteen-yearold Russian boy, about to meet for the first time “The Little Father,” the object of idol worship by all his people, a ruler venerated, and feared beyond all conception. We danced, we young ones, trying desperately hard to keep our eyes off the royal box, and then we were led to Nicholas. In turn we kissed the hand of the Tsarina, a commanding, imperious Photograph by Donald Biddle Keyes The pen and ink sketches on these two pages are from drawings by La Porte of Mr. KoslofPs dancing successes. Above, as he appeared in “The Green Temptation” woman, and then were given a candy favor by the Tsar. How surprised I was in his appearance! A small, retiring man with .an exceedingly subdued voice, a most pleasant manner, overshadowed, however, by the black pall of his authority and position. One felt that the Tsar did not altogether relish royalty. The other day while I was acting for Paramount in a George Fitzmaurice production entitled “To Have and To Hold,” who should walk into the studios but Baron James H. de Rothschild, member ot the famous European banking family. This meeting was especially pleasant to me because it was in the Rothschild home in Paris that ( Continued on page 81) ( Twenty-three )