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Nancy Valentine Profile

Nancy Valentine
Nancy Valentine
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(Annette Valentine)
c. 28 is born in St. Albans / Smithtown, Long Island, New York, to Richard and Bertha Valentine
June 45 she and fellow Conover models promote Health Campaign by posing at the Cascades Swimming Pool, 134th Street and Riverside Drive. The others are Joan Vohs, Peggy Hehman, Ann Yorke, and Helen Edwards.
October 45 models a new two-piece swimsuit for local newspapers
January 46 promotes the Arts and Antiques show in New York City by showing off an early Victorian gadget, the garter pistol
February 46 claims she has a long-term contract with Howard Hughes
Early March 46 columnist Walter Winchell reports that "Howard Hughes' favorite dancing partner this trip was Nancy Valentine, a looker..."
Mid-March 46 columnist Earl Wilson writes: "Orson Welles' blond, whom he takes to Toots Shor's and the Stork Club is model Nancy Valentine..."
April 46 columnist Dorothy Kilgallen knows: "Macoco, the blond connoisseur of El Morocco, telephones golden-haired Nancy Valentine every night. She's in Hollywood being 'discovered' by Howard Hughes..."
September 46 is seen at Ciro's with singer-actor Tony Martin. His ex-girlfriend Rita Hayworth is out with Orson Welles.
47 is featured in a Vanguard Films Inc.-David O. Selznick promotion ad in an entertainment business paper
February 47 is on the cover of Sir!
Early March 47 Kilgallen reports: "Ed Lasker has switched from Nancy Guild to Nancy Valentine..."
May 47 is on the cover of Hit!
October 47 columnist Louella Parsons knows "chatter in Hollywood: Cornel Wilde spent the evening dancing with Nancy Valentine at the Mocambo the night before he left for New York. Just a few hours earlier he had been at 20th Century-Fox studio wearing dark glasses and bearing down heavily on a cane, but before he left the studio he felt well enough to discard the cane. He and Pat left by plane for New York, and let's hope they don't battle as much there as they did in Honolulu..."
? meets Sri Jagaddipendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, while dancing the rhumba at New York's El Morocco. She is under contract to David O. Selznick; he is in America buying farming machinery for his estate. After a week she calls him "Coochie." He’s 22 years her senior. The Maharajah was born December 15, 1915, the son of Maharaja Jitendra Narayan and the Princess of Baroda, Indra Devi Sahiba of Cooch-Behar. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge and became the 22nd Maharajah on December 20, 1922.
November 47 she and the Maharajah of Cooch Behar are reported to have returned to New York City at the same time
columnist Leonard Lyon writes: "The Maharajah of Cooch Behar has left New York for a visit to Detroit, to examine some automobiles and night clubs. He now has experienced every phase of nightclub life in Hollywood and New York. He first heard of those things from an American army sergeant stationed in India - Sgt. Tony Martin, the singer. Whenever Sgt. Martin had a pass he'd spend the time in Cooch Behar, living at the maharajah's palace. He promised his host that he'd reciprocate, if and when the Maharajah visited America. Nobody in America ever had heard of Cooch Behar. But the starlets vied for dates with the maharajah. Martin made the spiel and introduced them to his highness."
December 47 is noted doing the spots on the arm of Prince Lanza
February 48 she and Martha Montgomery promote Will Wright's ice cream bar
May 48 Parsons asks: "Is Nancy Valentine really engaged to H. A. Darrin, Jr., who was with her at Ciro's?"
July 48 is thrown off a horse and nursing an arm broken in three places
is among the models selected in "one of the motion picture industry's most extense talent quest" for Warner Brothers' The Girls from Jones Beach. The other 11 beauties are Myrna Dell, Joan Vohs, Eve Whitney, Betty Underwood, Alice Wallace, Lola Albright, Karen X. Gaylord, Von Lester, Lorraine Crawford, and Joy Lansing.
August 48 meets Omar Dejany, a native of Palestine, at a Hollywood party
September 48 columnist Walker Winchell thinks she is Jimmy Ritz's oh-my-goddess
November 48 the press heralds: "Wedding bells will ring in about three weeks for Nancy Valentine and Omar Dejany, wealthy Arab delegate to the United Nations from King Abdullah's Trans-Jordan, Nancy announces in Los Angeles."
? marries husband number one, Omar Dejany, the representative of the United Nations for King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein of Transjordan. She and Dejany plan to live in Egypt and the United States.
December 48 is seen at the Cocoanut Grove with Krishna Satyapal, whose wife has filed suit for divorce
January 49 columnist Sheila Graham reports that the Maharajah of Cooch Behar fell for Nancy's "very blonde charms when he was visiting recently in Hollywood and, as I told you a few weeks ago, Nancy is going to India to stay with Cooch Behar's sister..."
May 49 columnist Dorothy Manners reports "Nancy Valentine and Jimmy Ritz, the best Rumba dancers on the Mocambo floor, being heckled by Harry Ritz at a ringside table..."
August 49 Jimmy Ritz, "one of the best dancers in town," twirls her around the Chanteclair
March 50 is seen at Ciro's escorted by George Jessel and Jimmy Ritz. The press notes that she "is one of filmdom's most popular girls, and was recently rumored engaged to a well-known Indian playboy."
Mid-May 50 is slated to become the Maharani of Cooch Behar in July
columnist Earl Wilson reports from tea with the Maharaja of Jaipur. "His brother-in-law, the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, known in cafe society as 'Coochie Boy,' is rumored marrying starlet Nancy Valentine of Hollywood. His Highness sort of doubted that: 'We're expected to marry within our own family,' he said..."
? marries the Maharajah of Cooch Behar in North Bengal. A travelling Hindu priest performs the ceremony.
August 50 she and her "loaded-with-loot beau," the Maharajah of Cooch Behar are due in the States in mid-September. "May announce wedding plans when they land."
October 50 Inside Hollywood reports: "Keep 'em guessing is the current policy of glamorous Nancy Valentine and her equally tight-lipped escort, the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, when friends ask if they're wed."
Winchell knows: "starlet Nancy Valentine debunks the much-itemed rumor that she secretly married the Maharajah of Cooch Behar. He's back in India and she's doing the midnight zoos..."
Summer 51 announces she will become the bride of the Maharajah of Cooch Behar and starts instruction in the Hindu faith. She’s 23; he’s 34.
51? her first daughter is born. The child dies almost immediately of a kidney ailment.
May 51 attends a big party tossed by an airline at the Mocambo with Marvin Finch
her maharajah hits the news when barring Texan Billie Evelyn Bridges from his Calcutta palace. She claims to be the widow of the maharajah's brother, Prince Indrajit Jitendra Narayan, who died in a fire at the Cooch Behar palace in Darjeeling on April 4. Billie says they were married during the winter of 1950 and that she has papers to prove it. She expects to go to court about it. She blames her troubles on her mother-in-law.
July 51 columnist Harrison Carroll writes: "As of the last word Nancy Valentine had from him, the Maharajah of Cooch Behar still couldn't get out of India. It's practically impossible to take money out of the country. Nancy still believes, however, that her titled admirer will find some way to get here."
is an interesting twosome at the Encore Room with Rhonda Fleming's ex-husband, Tom Lane
columnist Armand Archerd reports that she told friends she and the Maharajah will tie the knot very soon at the Bel Air Hotel
Mid-July 51 columnist Walter Winchell writes that the Maharajah has forgotten her over singer Countess Alicia Cortelli
Early August 51 columnist Dorothy Manners reports: "Instead of marrying the Maharajah of Cooch Behar at the Bel Air Hotel in ten days, Nancy Valentine is settling for a party in his honor - same place, same guests. But says Nancy, don't for a minute think the wedding is off. It's merely postponed until late in October in India. Just as Rita Hayworth did when she married Aly Khan, Nancy will embrace her husband's faith before becoming Mrs. Cooch. The postponement also permits the Maharajah to have the palace air conditioned so Nancy won't be bothered by the heat. In Late October?"
August 51 her marriage to the Maharajah is reported postponed. Archerd knows: "The Prince arrived in town, Nancy says, but can stay only a short while and must return home. She still is forbidden, by her doctor, from traveling. Although plans are tentative, she now hopes to go over in December for a Hindu marriage ceremony."
September 51 columnist Hedda Hopper knows: "Nancy Valentine leaves New York for Calcutta, India, on October 23rd. After three weeks of traveling and two weeks of receiving instruction in the Hindu religion, Nancy will remarry the Maharajah of Cooch Behar. Nancy tells me they've been married three years and already have had four honeymoons. He's been preparing his people and his family, especially the latter, to receive Nancy into their household. Her friend, Leslie Snyder, goes along to be her bridesmaid and to write the story for a national magazine..."
23 October 51 the press reports her aboard the Queen Mary en route to London "to marry her husband, the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, for a second time in a Moslem ceremony"
? is quoted as saying that the maharajah's sister, the Maharani of Jaipur, invited her over for a visit after the Hollywood meeting in 1949 and the couple got together again
November 51 tells columnist Earl Wilson that she calls her Maharaja "Bhalya" and that they were married according to Brahmin rites in a guest house in Cooch Behar, India, in 1949 by two traveling priests. The maharajah's sister, the Maharani of Jaipur, invited her over for a visit after their Hollywood meeting and so the couple got together again "We were going to keep it a secret and did for a long time, till some columnist started saying I was chasing Bhalya," she says. "That made me mad, so I announced the fact that we'd been married for two years." Wilson reports that "Miss Leslie Snyder, the Hollywood writer, is preparing Nancy's life story."
due to her converting to the Hindu faith, she is reported having started out in life as a Baptist before becoming a Religious Scientist
? her case is placed before Prime Minister Nehru. She wears the traditional sari, but when she resists Nehru’s advances, he tells her that he never will recognize her marriage. This night alone in her husband's palace in New Delhi, she has an encounter with a snake and spends several weeks in a hospital.
Early December 51 Winchell knows that she "may return here soon because fanatics in India are opposed to her being the Maharajah of Cooch Behar's wife..."
Kilgallen writes that Nancy "now hints the repeat wedding may not take place..."
9 December 51 a government spokesman in New Delhi says that the Republic of India isn't aware of her marriage to the Maharajah. Government awareness of such a marriage is required under terms of handling the affairs of the 600-odd princelings put out of business and pensioned since India won independence in 1947. The title and privileges of Maharani of Cooch Behar for her and pension and other rights for any heirs are at stake. Another dispatch from Calcutta says the maharajah's mother opposes the marriage. "If Nancy is recognized as maharani, she will be called her highness and will enjoy other regal privileges and exemptions. Her eldest son would get $147,000 a year take-home pay."
12 December 51 says in Calcutta she will sail home in a few days leaving her husband behind, just a month after she arrived here to set up housekeeping with him. She denies that the romance "which began in a Hollywood night spot in 1948, is on the rocks. 'I've had repeated cables from home,' she says. 'Mother has to have an operation next month.'"
? in a report from Calcutta, India, she and the Maharajah are quoted as having said in a joint interview: "We have always regarded ourselves as nothing but married and we are perfectly happy." The press gives his age as 34; hers as 23.
Mid-December 51 her mother says to expect her in New York on January 10. "Her mom, incidentally, is very philosophical about the blowup of Nancy's plans to wed the Maharajah of Cooch Behar..."
18 December 51 leaves Bombay, sailing for the States. She denies on shipboard that she ever was secretly married to the maharajah saying: "I came here at his invitation. That's all." The maharajah sends an aide to see her off. As for the future she says: "My plans are vague at present. I am rushing home to be at the bedside of my ailing mother."
Early January 52 poses at the Mayfair Hotel in London during a short stay in England on her way to the Unites States
5 January 52 sails from England for the States
Early January 52 poses aboard the liner Ile de France upon her return to America
January 52 is reported being squired about town by Milton Herman, "the wealthy furrier. (If you can't have a Maharajah, it's always nice to know a fellow with plenty of mink)..."
Late January 52 her escort at the premiere of The Shrike is Mike Todd
Early February 52 Winchell reports that she, before returning to the Coast, gave furrier Milton Herman a cigarette case, inscribed "Milton Dear, This is Leap Year"
February 52 will be one of the stunners in One Piece Bathing Suit
says she will not seek a divorce in spite of the Indian government's refusal to recognize her secret marriage. "We'll meet in New York or Europe whenever he can make the trip." Meanwhile she'll date other men in Hollywood.
she and Bill Cashin are at Ciro's
Late February 52 columnist Harrison Carroll reports that "since it's so tough for her maharajah husband to get money to this country, Nancy Valentine is going to work. She'll do a lead in the TV picture 'Sky King.'"
is reported showing chums a collection of uncut diamonds which she says are little things she picked up from the Maharajah of Cooch Behar
March 52 is seen at the Ready Room with Bill Cashin
Mid-March 52 is seen at the Encore with Syd Chaplin. "She has herself a job at Universal-International and is fast forgetting the Maharajah of Cooch Behar..."
April 52 is the dinner partner of Italian director Vittorio de Sica at the Mocambo. "They are in a party with Geraldine Brooks and several other people..."
her maharajah is reported planning to take in the Olympic Games in Finland this summer, accompanied by four other maharajahs. "Coochie will fly them in his own plane, and the social life that will ensure ought to rock Finland."
May 52 will meet her yes-no husband, the Maharajah, in Manhattan next month
will go to Paris in June to join the Maharajah. She will be accompanied by her chum Leslie Snyder and Leslie's husband, writer Howard Snyder.
keeps saying her heart still belongs to Coochie, but she spends a lot of time with lawyer Bentley Ryan - and a non-legal look in her eyes
June 52 she and Joe Pasternak are ringsiders at Jane Harvey's opening at the Mocambo
plans to have a showdown with the Maharajah in Italy in July. Meanwhile, she finds it fun with Joe Pasternak.
July 52 the Maharajahs of Baroda and Morvi try to talk her into reconsidering her situation with the Maharajah of Cooch Behar. But her new boy friend, 50-year-old producer Joe Pasternak, keeps her from changing her mind.
is seen at the Mocambo with producer Joe Pasternak. She confides that she has called off the trip to Europe for divorce talks with the Maharajah. Instead they will confer by letter.
columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports: "MGM producer Joe Pasternak and blonde beautiful Nancy Valentine will irk to the altar when their marital complications are untangled. Joe is currently estranged from Dorothy Darrell; Nancy's somewhat tentative spouse is the Maharajah of Cooch Behar..."
Mid-July 52 her Maharajah is due in Hollywood in three weeks. According to her, "He became real upset when he heard I wasn't coming to Europe." Whether a divorce will be decided upon is to be seen. He's trying to win her back.
Late July 52 she and the Maharajah are supposed to have come to an agreement on a settlement via the intervention of his nephew, the Maharajah of Morvi
August 52 gets a call from Aly Khan, whom she met in Paris through her husband, the Maharajah. She is a busy girl since she announced that her marriage to the Indian prince is definitely finished. She had a date at Bob Dalton's with the Maharaja of Bundy.
has a quiet lunch with Aly Khan at Huntington Hartford's house. There are doubts there might be any real reconciliation between Aly and Rita Hayworth.
September 52 it’s reported she has the mumps
October 52 is A. Manheimer's date at Bob Dalton's
dines at Bob Dalton's with Hal March. She and producer Joe Pasternak have broken up. "If she says so, it's true," says Joe.
Late October 52 insists that she wasn't "snubbed by the India movie delegation in Hollywood. Says she joined the group for several social events."
November 52 she and Italian actress Francesca deScaffa are Al Freeman's dates at Bob Dalton's
is reported becoming a press agent in New York City
is reported one of the dates of Lex Barker since his divorce from Arlene Dahl
11 December 52 says in New York that an American girl couldn't expect to find a more devoted husband than an Indian prince even though she'll soon be in court to get an annulment of her 8-year-old marriage. "They're fabulous," she reminisces, "they know how to make a girl feel like she's the tastiest creampuff in the bakery. I only wish the one I got could still be mine."
Mid-December 52 is reported "letting socialites and glamour boys cool their heels at El Morocco while she huddles at the Elizabeth Norman with a furrier - and wholesale, yet!"
January 53 her maharajah is reported courting Countess Alicia Cortelli, a singer
February 53 disappears from the nightclub circuit because she is studying for a bachelor's degree at the Church of Religions Science; some day she hopes to marry again. Later, she plans to make a basic study of all religions and eventually to be ordained as a minister of no particular creed. "I don't intend to shut myself away from the world," she says. "Some day I hope to get married again. But right now I'm too busy studying to go out much."
April 53 is seen at Bob Dalton's with attorney Bentley Ryan
16 July 53 her maharajah hits the news when he is critically injured in a car crash near Hitchin, England, where his new glossy salmon car collides with a truck and somersaults off the Great North Road. His condition is described as serious. The name of the woman riding with him is given only as "Miss Martin of London," referring to blonde Vicki Martin, who's been doing the town with him for almost a year. She suffers leg injuries.
August 53 sells all her furniture to actress Louella Wagner. Chums say she will give the money to the church.
October 53 is happy with her life at the Self-Realization Fellowship in downtown Los Angeles, a Yogi seminary. About fellow actress June Haver, who left her Roman Catholic convent after a few months, she says: "I'm sorry to hear June Haver left the convent. I think I'll write her a little note. I didn't know she had ill health. As for me, I am very happy here. I am a Yogi for life. When I work for God he gives me energy," she smiles.
November 53 is a Yoga disciple in London. Columnist Erskine Johnson reports model Vicki Martin helping the Maharajah to forget all about Nancy.
March 54 is said to abandon her estranged husband, the Maharajah, to marry Bill Holmes of the Fleischmann's yeast family
55 is a novice in a Yogi convent in Mount Washington, near Los Angeles. The Self-Realization Fellowship was founded by the late Paramhansa Yogananda and lists as its aim as "attaining of direct personal experience of God."
April 55 writes Earl Wilson that she will leave the California convent
January 56 is back in Hollywood after three years in seclusion with the Self-Realization Fellowship, where she was studying
February 56 dates Les Freedman at the Captain's Table
she and Bill Holmes, the Fleischmann's yeast heir, will wed in six weeks
her maharajah is reported captivating gold digger Alicia Darr, widow of millionaire Alfred Corning Clark and ex-Mrs. Edmund Purdom, in India
March 56 columnist Walter Winchell reports that she receives hefty checks from the Maharajah now and then even though her lawyers wonder whether her marriage was legal
is reported having just received a sizable check from the Maharajah. "She's still trying to find out if her wedding to him was legal..."
makes her TV debut at the "Jane Wyman Theater"
will make her comeback in Echo of the Past
? is reported ready to sideline her long distance Maharajah for good and marry Bill Holmes, of the Fleischmann's yeast family, as soon as his estranged mate, starlet Shirley Buchanan, picks up a Nevada divorce. Nancy recently dropped out of a "self-realization fellowship hermitage" near Hollywood.
April 56 columnist Harrison Carroll reports her being "a vegetarian, now has to buy three pounds of ground round every day for her newly acquired Afghan hound..."
? meets her future husband, Ted Tillinghast III, at a party given by Mrs. Leslie Snyder
25 July 58 she and Tillinghast get a marriage license
30 July 56 is miffed because her future husband, Beverly Hills oilman and stockbroker Frederick "Ted" Tillinghast III, stayed out until 3 a.m. the previous evening with his ex-wife, actress Sharon Lee. "I need this like a hole in the head," she says, calling the wedding off.
31 July 56 marries Tillinghast in a Yoga ceremony in Pacific Palisades, California. Under the Yoga ritual, the couple exchanges red and white roses in lieu of rings. A private dinner party follows. She says Tillinghast is joining her faith. He's 35; she's 28. Tillinghast was formerly married to Iris Flores, the granddaughter of former Costa Rican President Rafael Yglesias Castro and actress Sharon Lee.
September 56 her maharajah is said to be one of the biggest Eastern spenders in London's lusher nightspots and in Deauville, across the channel, struggling along on a $56,000 tax-free pension allowed him by the Indian government
her maharajah secretly marries shapely London model Gina Egan in a civil ceremony in London. He's 40; she's about 26. The couple will live apart ever after; he in his bachelor apartment, she with her mother. A week after the marriage, the maharajah goes to Rome alone, where he is frequently seen with actress-playgirl Linda Christian. News of that marriage will leak to the press in London in August 1959.
22 March 57 her daughter Darrin Elizabeth is born at Cedars of Lebanon hospital in Los Angeles
30 August 57 tells a newsman in Hollywood that her second marriage is on the rocks. "I have consulted an attorney and will seek a divorce on grounds of mental cruelty."
November 57 files suit for divorce from Tillinghast in Santa Monica, charging cruelty. She asks for alimony and support of their small daughter, whose custody she seeks. He's 36; she's 29.
29 January 58 divorces Tillinghast in Santa Monica, California. She testifies in Superior Court that he was unfaithful to her and bragged openly about his conquests of other women. "He would tell our friends that I was a peasant and that he was Frederick Tillinghast III," she tells the judge. "The III is very important to him." Tillinghast agrees to pay $100 monthly support for their daughter and $1 a month token alimony. He's 37; she's 30. Tillinghast will marry Jeanne Hallman in 1959.
May 58 appears on "The Tom Duggan Show" and dates Tom. Her life story is expected to be the most candid since Diana Barrymore's.
September 58 may get together with former husband Tillinghast after he suffers a near-fatal fall from a horse
October 58 flies to New York to make a picture for Barry Mahin, who once was Errol Flynn's right-hand man
December 58 is reported dueting with Charles Ryan
January 59 is seen out with actors agent Vic Orsatti
April 59 is in tears at Dino's Lodge after being fired by TV commentator Tom Duggan during the show. "I didn't do a thing," she says. "I'll never go back to that show again."
columnist Walter Winchell advises not to invite her and Meg Myles to the same party. "Both are smitten with the same nightclub owner."
Early July 59 columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports her on the verge of a betrothal to gag writer Seaman Jacobs, "who used to be stripper Margie Hart's husband. Could this foreshadow a trend?..."
Late July 59 Kilgallen thinks that Nancy and writer Seaman Jacobs, "who spoke about marriage - rather quietly, it's true - aren't speaking at all"
September 59 dates Lew Ayres at the 7 Chefs
December 59 she and Texan Bob Meade are mad about each other
January 60 will play Mrs. "Legs" Diamond in Warner's upcoming Portrait of a Mobster
April 61 threatens to sue Tillinghast for being delinquent in the support of their child
1 October 61 marries producer-director Charles Everett Chambers, whom she met while filming Tess of the Storm Country, in Los Angeles. He's 35; she's 33.
3 April 63 her daughter Alicia Kattrine is born premature at the Cedars of Lebanon hospital in Los Angeles
? her two kids are raised in Pacific Palisades
11 April 70 the Maharajah of Cooch Behar dies at age 55 in a polo accident in Calcutta
June 74 divorces Chambers in Los Angeles
03 lives in Malibu, California
31 July 17 dies at age 89 at her home in Paradise Cove, Malibu
Sources:
Carrie Stiles, The New York Times, The Lowell Sun, Waterloo Daily Courier, The Sheboygan Press, The Lima News, The Lethbridge Herald, The Monessen Daily Independent, The Hammond Times, The Berkshire Eagle, The Vidette-Messenger, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Mansfield News-Journal, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Confidential, The Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Courier, Burlington Daily Times-News, Oakland Tribune, Olean Times Herald, Pottstown Mercury, The Fresno Bee, San Mateo Times, The Modesto Bee, The Era, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Traverse City Record Eagle, Middletown Times-Herald, The Charleston Gazette, Valley Morning Star, The Zanesville Signal, The Kansas City Times, Charleston Daily Mail, Dixon Evening Telegraph, Winnipeg Free Press, Nevada State Journal, Pasadena Independent, Ironwood Daily Globe, Reno Evening Gazette, The Coshocton Tribune, pro.Corbis.com, www.Ancestry.com
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