French postcard, Série 107. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard, Série 107. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: La belle Otero.
French postcard, Série 107. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 193/13. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
Italian postcard by Moneglia, Stab. Civicchioni, no. 404. Sent by mail in 1906.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 118/9. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Carolina Otero in 'L'Impératrice', a ballet by Jean Richepin and Paul Vidal, performed at the Théâtre Olympia in Paris in 1901.
French postcard by S.I.P. in the Collection Artistique du Vin Désiles. Photo: Reutlinger. Caption: Olé! Olé! Viva el Vino Desiles.
French advertising postcard for Cristal Mont-Pilat (mineral water, alas, not champagne) with caricatures of Sarah Bernhardt, Cléo de Mérode, Carolina 'la belle' Otéro, and Yvette Guilbert. The black gloves were usually a part of Guilbert’s costume. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
A provocative and fatal woman
Carolina Otéro was born Agustina del Carmen Otéro Iglesias in 1868 into a poor family of modest social status in Valga, in the province of Pontevedra in Galicia. She moved with her family to Santiago de Compostela while still a child, where she began working as a maid.
She suffered - as she later revealed - a rape at the age of 10 that made her sterile, and at the age of 14, she left home with her boyfriend and dance partner, Paco, to work as a singer and dancer in Lisbon. She made her debut in cabaret in 1888 in Barcelona, moving soon after to France, first to Marseille, and then to Paris.
There she became a star of the Folies Bergère. Within a few years, she became one of the most famous women on the entire continent, the sought-after mistress of many powerful and prominent men of the time, such as Prince Albert I of Monaco, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, the royals of Serbia and Spain, the Grand Dukes of Russia, Peter and Nicholas Nikolaevič, and the famous writer Gabriele D'Annunzio.
In 1890, Otéro was the star of a triumphant tour of the United States, and by the time she returned to Paris two years later, she was the undisputed star of the French stage. She performed in sumptuous gowns and jewellery that enhanced her form to support her reputation as a provocative and fatal woman.
One of her most famous stage costumes involved glueing precious gems onto her breasts, and it was also said that the domes of the Hotel Carlton in Cannes, built in 1912, were modelled on the shape of her breasts.
Italian postcard by Alterocca, Terni, no. 2880.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 136/6. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 11, series 5. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 828. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 8, series 39. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 193/4. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard, no. 1031. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. The postcard was mailed in 1905, with a message written in Dutch. In these early years of the postcard, one was only allowed to write on the front side of the card. The text addresses the excuses of a person who was unable to attend a private meeting due to an urgent business meeting.
A film scandal in St. Petersburg
In August 1898, in St. Petersburg, the French cinematographer Félix Mesguich, who worked for the Lumière Brothers' company, filmed a one-minute clip showing a dance number by La belle Otéro to the tune of the 'Valse Brillante'.
This made Caroline Otéro probably 'the first star in the history of cinema'. An officer of the tsarist army also appeared in the film, and when it was shown at the Music Hall Aquarium, the scandal was such that Mesguich was expelled from Russia.
She became close friends with the writer Colette and the famous Belle Époque dancer Liane de Pougy, with whom she developed a rivalry. In the 1900s, countless postcards with her circulated.
After the First World War ended, Otéro retired from the stage and bought a property with a sumptuous home for the equivalent of about $15 million. The actress had amassed a considerable fortune over the years, which amounted to around 25 million dollars, but she used it up over the years to support a sophisticated and expensive lifestyle.
She died in extreme poverty, supported by a pension from Monaco's Société des Bains de Mer in Nice, France, in 1965 at the age of 96. Caroline Otéro is depicted in the Monte Carlo Casino, in a painting in the White Room. In 1954, the Mexican actress María Félix played her in Richard Pottier's film La Belle Otero.
French postcard by S.I.P. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: Otéro, A. Held (Anna Held), C. de Mérode (Cléo de Mérode).
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 872/12. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: Folies Bergère.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 118/2. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Otero in 'L'Impératrice', a ballet by Jean Richepin and Paul Vidal, performed at the Théâtre Olympia in Paris in 1901.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 118/14. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 193. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 193/11. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by S.I.P., no. 193/12. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.
French postcard by Alterocca, Terni, no. 3200. Carolina Otéro and Paul Franck in 'Une fête à Séville' (1900). Sent by mail in 1904.
French postcard, no. 9855. Caroline Otero, Léoni and Fernand Frey in the 'fantaisie-opérette' 'Otero chez elle' (1904), by Paul Moncousin and Pierre German and composed by Justin Clérice. It was first performed on 10 October 1904 at the Théâtre des Mathurins in Paris. Caption: 2. John Bull (Frey): I think the great Diva is paying little attention to me. Postcard mailed in 1905.
French postcard, no. 2271. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. This is probably Otero as Giska in the ballet 'Giska la bohémienne' by Edmond Le Roy, with music by Léo Pouget. It was first performed on 2 September 1907 at the Théâtre Marigny (Paris).
Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.
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