Agustina del Carmen Otero Iglesias (4 November 1868 – 10 April 1965), better known as Carolina Otero or La Belle Otero, was a Spanish actress, dancer and

courtesan A courtesan is a prostitute with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele. Historically, the term referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other powerful person. History In European feudal society, the co ...

. She had a reputation for great beauty and was famous for her numerous lovers.

Biography

Early years

Agustina del Carmen Otero Iglesias was born in Valga Galicia, Spain, daughter of a Spanish single mother, Carmen Otero Iglesias (1844–1903), and a Greek army officer named Carasson.''Les Souvenirs et la Vie Intime de la Belle Otero''
Place des Libraires Her family was impoverished, and as a child she moved to Santiago de Compostela working as a maid. At age 10, she was raped, and at 14, she left home with her boyfriend and dancing partner Paco and began working as a singer/dancer in Lisbon.

Career as artiste and courtesan

In 1888, Otero found a sponsor named Ernest Jurgens in Barcelona who moved with her to Marseilles to promote her dancing career in France. She soon left him and created the character of La Belle Otero, portraying herself as an Andalusian Romani woman.
Lockkeeper.com. Retrieved on 16 November 2010. She was pretty, confident, intelligent, with an attractive figure. It was said that her extraordinarily dark black eyes were so captivating that they were "of such intensity that it was impossible not to be detained before them". She wound up as the star of Folies Bèrgere productions in Paris. In 1892 she along with Prince Albert of Monaco and Nicholas I of Montenegro lived in the same apartment together. One of her more famous costumes featured her voluptuous bosom partially covered with glued-on precious gems, and the twin

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

s of the Carlton Hotel built in 1912 in Cannes are popularly said to have been modeled upon her breasts. Au Bois De Boulogne Vanity Fair 1897-06-03

Within a short number of years, Otero was said to be the most sought-after woman in Europe. She was serving, by this time, as a courtesan to wealthy and powerful men of the day, and she chose her lovers carefully. She associated herself with

Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty ...

, Prince Albert I of Monaco, Prince

Nicholas I of Montenegro Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš ( sr-Cyrl, Никола I Петровић-Његош; – 1 March 1921) was the last monarch of Montenegro from 1860 to 1918, reigning as Principality of Montenegro, prince from 1860 to 1910 and as the country's first ...

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

Peter I of Serbia Peter I (; – 16 August 1921) was King of Serbia from 15 June 1903 to 1 December 1918. On 1 December 1918, he became King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and he held that title until his death three years later. Since he was the king ...

, and King

Alfonso XIII of Spain Alfonso XIII ( Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also ...

, as well as

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Grand Dukes

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

and

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...

, the

Duke of Westminster Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ...

and writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. Her love affairs made her notorious, and the envy of many other notable female personalities of the day. Six men reportedly committed suicide after their love affairs with Otero ended, but this has never been substantiated beyond a doubt. It is a fact, however, that two men did fight a duel over her.

Early film

In August 1898, in St-Petersburg, the French film operator Félix Mesguich (an employee of the Lumière company) shot a one-minute reel of Otero performing the famous "Valse Brillante." The screening of the film at the ''Aquarium'' music-hall provoked such a scandal (because an officer of the Tsar's army appeared in this frivolous scene) that Mesguich was expelled from Russia.

Later life

Otero retired after World War I, purchasing a mansion and property at a cost of the equivalent of . She had accumulated a massive fortune over the years, about , but she gambled much of it away over the remainder of her lifetime, enjoying a lavish lifestyle, and visiting the casinos of Monte Carlo often. She lived out her life in a pronounced state of poverty until she died of a heart attack in 1965 in her one-room apartment at the Hotel Novelty in Nice, France. Of her heyday and career, Otero once said "Women have one mission in life: to be beautiful. When one gets old, one must learn how to break mirrors. I am very gently expecting to die."World: Suivez-Moi, Jeune Homme
''Time'' (23 April 1965). Retrieved on 16 November 2010.

Notable published works

* ''Les Souvenirs et la Vie Intime de la Belle Otero'' (1926). A Jose Martí poem "El alma trémula y sola" was inspired and dedicated to Carolina Otero

In film and literature

* A 1954 film '' La Belle Otero'' starring Mexican actress

María Félix María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña (; 8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was a Mexican actress and singer. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s and ...

. * A portrait of "Madame Otero" in

Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known as Colette or Colette Willy, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a Mime artist, mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaki ...

's ''My Apprenticeships''.

Gallery

Belle-otero-2-f.jpg, La Belle Otero circa 1890 La Belle Otero 1894.jpg, La Belle Otero at Folies-Bergère, 1894 La Belle Otero - Folies Bergere.jpg, An 1894 Folies Bergère poster La Belle Otero - 1905 Postcard.jpg, A 1905 postcard of La Belle Otero La Belle Otero.jpg, La Belle Otero, by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger La Belle Otero (BPL, Hale Collection).jpg, La Belle Otero by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger OTERO, Carolina. 'La bella Otero' SIP. 129-20. Photo Reutlinger.jpg, La Belle Otero by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger La Belle Otero, par Jean Reutlinger, 1.jpg, La Belle Otero by Jean Reutlinger La Belle Otero, par Jean Reutlinger, 2.jpg, La Belle Otero by Jean Reutlinger CarolinaOtero1912.tif, La Otero from a 1912 publication Carolina “La Belle” Otéro.jpg, Vintage postcard of La Belle Otero Hand tinted postcard of La Belle Otero.jpg, Vintage postcard of La Belle Otero by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger Hand tinted postcard of La Belle Otero by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger.jpg, Hand tinted postcard of La Belle Otero by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger

References

External links

La Belle – the Beautiful''La Belle Otèro'' in the history of the Hotel Carlton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otero, La Belle 1868 births 1965 deaths French vedettes People from Caldas (comarca) Mistresses of Edward VII Spanish female dancers Spanish stage actresses Spanish vedettes Actresses from Galicia (Spain) Spanish courtesans 19th-century Spanish actresses 20th-century Spanish actresses Spanish people of Greek descent