La donna proibita

This picture is based on a novel by the popular writer Fannie Hurst. It's interesting that her story was about the stresses of a clandestine life while married. In 1915 she secretly married a Russian émigré pianist. She hid the marriage from the public, keeping her maiden name and separate residences. It became a scandal after it was discovered in 1920. Hurst wouldn't budge. She maintained her name, and her own home, until his death in 1952. She mourned his loss for the remaining 16 years of her life, writing letters to him weekly and always sporting a calla lily, the first flower he'd sent her.

Cincinnati - in the good old days before the Eighteenth Amendment

Featured in The Universal Story (1996)