The Princess on the Witness Stand: Irina Yusupova vs. MGM
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- What does it cost to blur the line between truth and fiction? A lot, as it turns out.
When I was little, I never understood why movies about real people featured the following disclaimer: “Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”
It was a blatant lie. Of course Elliott Ness in The Untouchables wasn’t made-up. Neither was Howard Hughes in The Aviator.
So why does that disclaimer exist?
Because of a series of bad decisions that can be traced back to - wait for it - Rasputin and the fall of the Russian empire.
This is the story of the movie "Rasputin and the Empress" - and the Russian princess who sued MGM for defamation based largely on one infamous scene that movie contained.
#hollywoodhistory #yusupov #russianhistory
CHAPTERS
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00:00 Opening
0:35 With a Friend Like This, Who Needs Enemies?
03:48 Meet Felix
06:50 Hooray for Hollywood
10:50 The Show Must Go On
13:37 Disputin'
17:07 And the Oscar Goes To...
20:12 Lawyer Up
27:28 Stranger Than Fiction
36:39 "Monsters Out of My Head"
SOURCES
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You can find all my sources listed here, on the accompanying blog post:
girlinthetiara.com/irina-yusu...
FIND ME ONLINE
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ABOUT THE GIRL IN THE TIARA
----------------------------------------------------
I tell stories about tiaras and the fascinating royal women who wore them. Join me as I follow these tiaras across generations and countries, through wars and revolutions and-sometimes-into darkness and disappearance and destruction.
This isn't the kind of history your professor lectured about. Instead, think of this as conversational history, like a mash-up of Drunk History and The Crown. Yes, there's a little swearing. There's also humor and heart and a boatload of compassion for these amazing royal women.
ABOUT ME
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I never intended to start a channel or a website about tiaras and royal history. But a midlife crisis forced me to re-examine my life. I gave up fiction writing after self-publishing 9 of the 10 books I'd written and earning next to nothing.
Instead of the misery of marketing books, I turned to my first love...royal history. So here I am, a 40-something burnout, trying to start over by recapturing her love of history, royal women, and their jewels.
Felix' mother, Zenaida was a legendary beauty. Look at the many photos, she was striking, with true lavender eyes. Her husband had assumed her last name, Yusupov, so it would carry on. Her eldest son, tragically died young in a duel. As her only surviving son, Felix was a massive Mamas boy.
He also studied at Cambridge in England and reputedly had his apartment painted Black.
They are a fascinating ancient family from the lost Russian empire. Their palaces and estates were so vast, that some were never visited...but left in limbo.
Bowls of gems; diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds were laid out as 'decor' can you imagine? Zenaida had her jewelry arranged by type in specially designed standing cabinets in a room that visitors could view, like artwork in a gallery.
Later in life Felix would draw, by memory, and hand color beautiful pictures of the lost jewels, as a way to pass time.
This is such a crazy story, and so typical "make it sexier" seems to have been the motto of Hollywood from the very beginning.
It's not a tiara, but I think a video( or video series, since there are so many) about the Faberge eggs and what was going on in Russia at the time would be interesting.
There is a photo of a HUGE table, after the revolution and Civil War, of all the recovered jewelry, Eggs, stones, silver, gold--all those bright things photographed against a dark background for the newspaper. All the those jewels and metals were shepherded and overseen by a group of Chekists. The photo was the announcement that all these would be sold at auction by pieces or melted down for sale. It was like seeing a corpse in the NYT.
I have heard the general facts of this before but you gave much more detail. It’s always nice to have the story fleshed out. It adds so much more dimension and brings the characters to life.
A truly fascinating story that I had never encountered before. Well done you and well done Irina. I do hope she was able to have a good life after the court case.
Thank you. Today we have just visited Yusupov's palace in Arhangelskoe near Moscow. The history is so close to us.
After so very much tragedy what a great win for such a Lady. If only there could have been a happier outcome for Russia herself.
Wall Street financed the murderous Bolsheviks.
I saw this movie as a child on UHF while home sick from school. I had no idea of the history behind it! Absolutely fascinating!
I love how the queen was all fangirling when she asked the lawyer lady if she knew Charlie Chaplin.
Facinating story. Thank you for the depth and detail.🎉
Really great video as they all have been! Please look into The Grand Duchess Vladimirs' story of her leaving Russia and the retrieval of her Jewels as well as The Empress Fredericks letters to Her mother making their way out of Germany before her death. Both great stories. Keep it up please!
Poor Empress Frederick: imagine being sandwiched between her mother, Victoria and her emotionally stunted brat of a son, the Kaiser?
Your voice makes the videos so nice to watch. Beautiful video 👏
Extremely well researched and well done as always! Your videos are so interesting.
“Rasputin and the Empress” is one of my favorite movies from the 30’s. Drunk or sober the scene between John and Lionel are marvelous.
Aren’t the Barrymores marvelous? I’ll watch anything they’re in. Ethel in particular made some really interesting choices in her career.
This is probably the best video you have made. It's seriously interesting and well-made.
Thank you!
What a great story! I never knew about this! Thank you so much!
Well done! Incidentally, I saw this movie in 1983 at a theater here in NYC that showed old films. At that time -- well before the internet -- I had no idea of the lawsuit. In fact, I was surprised that they had changed Yussupov's name to Chegodieff, since it was so obvious that the Tsar, the Tsarina, the Romanov children (including the Crown Prince Aleksei) and Rasputin himself were all obviously historic figures.
Prince Yusupov certainly did speak English. He went to Oxford. As has been mentioned, his family were the wealthiest in Russia, exceeding even the Romanovs -- though things were not easy for Nansen passport bearers, the prince & princess were far from penniless refugees with their kind of connections, jewelry, and foreign assets. For a great read, I recommend Prince Yusupov's wonderful autobiography, "Lost Splendor: The Amazing Memoirs of the Man Who Killed Rasputin."
Yes, I agree, I have that book which I just finished. A fascinating story...and to have come from a family with so many estates all over Russia, many were never even visited, and all with according servants.
Well done, fascinating story.
As always, I loooove your video! Please do a video about Archduchess Assunta of Austria (1902-1993). I think her story deserves to be told, too.
Great video as always! had no idea about this story
Fascinating story. Absorbing narrative. And I dig the period music! Thanks so much, The Girl in the Tiara.
Love it when I see a new video in my feed. Keep up the great work!
Amazing research and video, as always!
great video!
I knew about this story & the outcome.
It seems outrageous that someone confessing to murder would get a large settlement for his wife because they said she was the victim of a( sexual) crime.
Rasputin might have been able to claim liable for portraying him as the rapist of someone he never met, but he was dead
I’ve watched a couple biographies on the tsar and tsarina but this shows so much more great video as always !
That was a great video. Thanks for all your hard work.
Hey well done, the most amazing story!
Great job on this! Love your vids!!
This is a part of the Romanov story I never knew about. Thanks!
Fascinating very well done
Excellent video. So well researched. Thank you.
LOVE this one... so interesting!! Many thanks for your always excellent research too.
✨ I remember seeing this movie over 25 years ago and learned of this legal precedent and the necessary movie 🎥 disclaimer. It is a wonderfully made movie.
You have done a wonderful presentation. 🌟 The facts along with the wonderfully smooth sound of your voice added to the interest of this legal precedent. I found it very interesting then and I am so glad to have found the legal accuracy in your presentation along with the wonderful historical photographs that aptly define the history of that tragic time in the history of Czarist Russia. 👑 ☺️ May the Romanov family finally Rest In Peace 👑🌹🌻🌼✨
Excellent and so interesting, as always.
I hadn’t heard of this before. What an interesting story and very well told. Thank you
I never heard this story!!! Felix is awesome! And good on both of them, for changing history and forcing Hollywood to respect historical figures who are alive and right down the street
I love your channel!
Thank you very much!
What a story ! The first sentence you had me; splendid in every way; Hats off to your research. Many thanks
Great job!!! You really did your homework and covered all your bases. Most informative.
Thank you. That was fascinating.
I love this-I’ve been reading about Thalberg my entire life. Every book i could ever find. Now another favorite topic is intertwined with Irving. Wow was he a tough guy. No wonder he died young. And this also intersects with “Mank” which I adore because I love his brother Joseph! What fun.
Well done!
Absolutely fascinating.
Really fascinating!
Thank you, an interesting story, beautifully narrated.
I really love your channel. I love listening and learning about Royal families and history. Do you have a podcast? I would love to listen to you on podcast.
This video was awesome now that I have a smart TV I gotta crank up the volume to hear your sweet voice....lol. As Always this Video like yhe others was full of history with the correct amount of emotion & intriguing facts..
Excellent ❣
Thank you for an interesting post and the reason for that disclaimer, as a child .🙂it came up before a film was screened, I had memorised it ,like a poem 🙂🌻
Thank you
Thanks for this, it was super interesting, you have gained a new devotee
Garbo and Mercedes were more than friends.
More importantly….
I have read many books on Rasputin and the Tzars but only knew Irena’s name attached to her husband. Thank you.
very well told.
Thank you. Another video that goes with my current reading.
I love listening to these little known histories on my way to work
It was interesting to see the case that made the movie disclaimer possible. Other movies that show the murder of Rasputin are more closer to the truth. The daughter of Rasputin also wrote a book about her father.
Can you do one on the Medici family?? I LOVE ur videos!
Thank you for this interesting video! I think it's an interesting thing that it was rumoured that Dmitri Pavlovich and Felic Yusupov were at one point during their life lovers. It's supposedly what made Nicholas II rethink of Dmitti as a possible husband for Olga. That and his heavy drinkin and gambling.
Excellent
Thank You for explaining this.... I Have seen that on movies AND in books and wondered why.
TY for going to So Much to find us an explanation.
Love how Ethel Barrymore just claimed to know everyone.
Fascinating, to be sure.
👍
Ah...How I do love a good story, with awesome research! Thank you, Girl in the Tiara! As always, your word is law ;) And who couldn't love your comment - "C"mon people, connect the dots here!" 😁🤣😘👸💖
I couldn’t listen with the music- a pity
Finaly got home to enjoy the video while playing minecraft
❤❤❤
Rasputin was Grigoriy Efimovich's well-earned nickname: it's Russian for "immoral." He was the last in a long, notorious line of imperial favourites. He actually disapproved of Russia entering World War I, to no effect. (He must have realized that the war would threaten his position, which it definitely did!)
PRIVATE EYE magazine refers to libel lawyers as "the firm of Sue, Grabbet and Runne"! (Shame that both sides couldn't have lost...)
MGM eventually did allow la Garbo to cross-dress in the famous QUEEN CHRISTINA.
Aside from the audio, great story. I clicked on your Xenia story after this and was just wondering why in this one you call her X enia and the other you say Xenia like Zen ia?
Maybe by the next video she learned how to pronounce it
The Academy Awards, Nobel Prize and other such prizes are given mostly to people who kowtow to the Establishment.
Dear "Girl in the Tiara" As a researcher yourself, you will understand my frustration (Decades later!) When I share with you that a dear friend of my family actually knew Prince Yusupov! O! The questions I could have asked of my friend, (Who had a skill of encouraging a person to talk!) if only I had developed my interest in Russia, then. IF ONLY!! What do you think of "Former People" Which I read a year or so ago!
Anyone who claims to be holy ...isn’t.
The Princess Irina was a very brave woman!
In frame 2:15 I don't think those soldiers were Russian but Astro-Hungarians.
Rasputin my fav dark cleric
+
Notwithstanding your excellent account of the details, why does it sound like you are whispering?
If Rusputin was in our time he probably would be a cult leader. I feel bad he was murdered tho. I don't know how good or bad of a guy he was but he seemed to want to help. 🤷🏻♀️
Are these Barrymore's related to Drew Barrymore of our time she resembles them to me. The nose and eyes.
I think Lionel was her grandfather.
Yes, same Barrymore's
@@susanaltenhofen6450 Good to know thanks
@@user-el2zf2oi6rActually, John Barrymore was her grandfather. Lionel, her great uncle, and Ethel a great aunt.
What IS it with filmmakers' obsession with adding random historically inaccurate SA scenes to historical films??? Sick of it. There are actual stories of SA they could tell if they're so invested but alas that's not what they actually care about.
Prince Felix Yusupov was great. Why do people call it murder. They had to kill rasputin whether or not it was conventional. I don't understand prince Felixstowe "acomplices" remorse. Perhaps he was traumatised by how brutal the killing was but rasputin just would not d8e, like Hitler. I wish rasputin had died years earlier. Was rasputin penis really collected as a suvinere? Rasputin sexually assaulted the princesses. The tzarena was trapped by a desperate situation, which forced her to believe rasputin was God sent. Mgm should have been happy to pay theyusupovsbecause they were trading on a family's misery a family that were very rich and powerful then enamel very poor. Without the family there would be no story.
Very interesting subject, but I gave up after thirty minutes: How is nonstop jazz connected to the subject matter?
She was upset about her sons hemophilia? Oh, here’s an idea- DON’T MARRY YOUR COUSIN!🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Could we get a better narration? You, or the woman narrating, is MUMBLING and eating her words. Very hard to understand. That woman has to enunciate more clearly. This becomes difficult to listen to.
I have no problem understanding her. No disrespect but you may want to check your speakers/headphones.