Elvira Amazar

Elvira Amazar (1890s – February 7, 1971), also known as Vera Amazar or Elaine Amazar, was a Serbian-born Russian-American soprano singer and actress. She was also the subject of the first photograph described as "cheesecake", in 1917.

Elvira Amazar
Elvira Amazar in costume as Marguerite in Faust, from the cover of Musical Courier (September 27, 1917)
Born1890s
Serbia
Died(1971-02-07)February 7, 1971
New York City

Early life

Elvira Amazar was born in Serbia Her father was a mining engineer. She was orphaned as a small girl, when both parents died during a strike. Relatives in Poland took her in, and she was educated in Germany and Moscow. She studied music in Paris and Milan.[1] Among her teachers were Félia Litvinne and Umberto Masetti.[2]

Career

Amazar began her singing career in Russia, and found further success in Monte Carlo and Milan. She moved to the United States during World War I, a member of the Boston National Opera Company[3] and a client of the Bel Canto Music Bureau.[4] She sued her lover, baritone Georges Baklanoff, for an assault while they were on a Pacific Coast tour in 1917.[5] They later reached a settlement.[6]

A print advertisement for As a Man Thinks (1919), describing the seductive model character played by Amazar

Amazar appeared in three silent films, The Volcano (1919), As a Man Thinks (1919),[7] and L'Aviateur Masqué (1922). She had a cabaret act in Paris in 1920.[8]

In 1917 she appeared in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1917.[9] In 1925, Amazar was in the cast of another revue, Sinners of 1925, in New York.[10] In 1927 and 1928, she was in the cast of Blossom Time, an operetta based loosely on the life of composer Franz Schubert.[11][12]

"Cheesecake"

Amazar was known for wearing short skirts and high heels,[13] and is often mentioned in connection with the term "cheesecake". As the story goes,[14] in 1915, Amazar raised her skirt to show some of her bare leg for a photograph.[15] The photographer was George Miller. Miller's editor liked the image enough to declare it "better than cheesecake," and the word "cheesecake" became a term for photographs of attractive young women baring some skin.[16]

Personal life

Elvira Amazar was involved with a married colleague, George Baklanoff, for several years.[17] (His wife and children lived in Russia.) Her claims that he deceived her into traveling with him[18] led to their arrests in Chicago, under the Mann Act, in 1920.[19][20] The couple left for Paris soon after they were charged;[21] Baklanoff was allowed to re-enter the United States in 1921,[22] and the deportation orders were dropped by 1922.[23] She became a citizen of the United States in 1929.[24]

She had a daughter, Tatiana Amazar (1911-1979), born in Russia, who became a cookbook author and food editor.[25] Elvira Amazar died in New York City in 1971, in her seventies.[26]

References
  1. "Elvira Amazar, Lyric Soprano" Musical Courier (September 27, 1917): 26.
  2. "Elvira Amazar to Appear in Concert Here This Season" Musical America (September 29, 1917): 21.
  3. "Russian Operas to be Sung Here" (September 14, 1916): 5. via ProQuest
  4. "Elvira Amazar Engagements; Bel Canto Bureau Items" Musical Courier (November 1, 1917): 38.
  5. "Russian Soprano Sues Baritone for $25,000, Alleging Assault" Musical America (May 5, 1917): 44.
  6. "Elvira Amazar Withdraws Suit Against George Baklanoff" Musical America (May 19, 1917): 15.
  7. Alan Gevinson, Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911-1960 (University of California Press 1999): 55. ISBN 9780520209640
  8. Simon Morrison, Lina and Serge: The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev (HMH 2013): 57-60. ISBN 9780547844138
  9. "The 'Follies of 1917' Are Coming to Town" New York Times (June 10, 1917): 79. via ProQuest
  10. "Theatrical Notes" New York Times (February 16, 1925): 24. via ProQuest
  11. "Majestic Theatre" Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society (May 12, 1928): 18. via Newspapers.com
  12. "Fitting Exponent of Vixenish Prima Donna Promised in 'Blossom Time'" Courier-Journal (October 16, 1927): 31. via Newspapers.com
  13. "Wear 'em 9 Inches Above Ground, Girls!" News Journal (October 1, 1915): 2. via Newspapers.com
  14. Vic Timoner, "Harbor Lights" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (January 13, 1954): 21. via Newspapers.com
  15. "Women Here Do Not Know Makeup Art" Philadelphia Inquirer (October 2, 1915): 2. via Newspapers.com
  16. Tracey Owens Patton, Sally M. Schedlock, Gender, Whiteness, and Power in Rodeo: Breaking Away from the Ties of Sexism and Racism (Lexington Books 2012): 99. ISBN 9780739173213
  17. "The Baklanoff-Amazar Affair" Musical Courier (January 15, 1920): 8.
  18. "Music's Charms Fail" Daily News (January 8, 1920): 3. via Newspapers.com
  19. "Ha! Artistic Temperament and Cruel Laws Clash Again" Oregon Daily Journal (February 1, 1920): 56. via Newspapers.com
  20. "Mlle. Amazar Arrested" New York Times (January 8, 1920): 22. via ProQuest
  21. "Off for Paris, but not Together" Daily News (April 5, 1920): 7. via Newspapers.com
  22. "Baklanoff May Re-Enter" New York Times (October 6, 1921): 28. via ProQuest
  23. "Deportation of Baklanoff Is Dropped by U. S." Chicago Sunday Tribune (February 12, 1922): 10. via Newspapers.com
  24. "Actress is Now American Citizen" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (May 7, 1929): 15. via Newspapers.com
  25. "Tatiana Nichols, 68, Dies; Food Authority, Musician" Baltimore Sun (May 11, 1979): 15. via Newspapers.com
  26. "Deaths" New York Times (February 9, 1971): 42. via ProQuest
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