Olga von Root | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Olga Vadimovna Baroness von Root 2 December 1901 |
| Died | 28 June 1967 (aged 65) Orange,California, U.S. |
| Other names | Olga Vadina Olga Hammer |
| Education | Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, actress |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Michael Armand Hammer (grandson) Armie Hammer (great-grandson) |
Baroness Olga Vadimovna von Root (2 December 1901 – 28 June 1967) was a Russian stage actress and singer. Born into a noble family of German, Polish, and Greek background, Root was educated at theSmolny Institute of Noble Maidens in the Russian Empire. As a teenager, she ran away from home and travelled with aRomani family, studying their music and dance. During theRussian Revolution, while her father served in theWhite Army, Root performed in cabarets and nightclubs to help support her family. After the war, she performed in Russia and other European countries as a stage actress and singer under the stage nameOlga Vadina. She later married the American industrialistArmand Hammer and moved to the United States, taking up residence inManhattan. While living in New York, she worked to transcribe numerous Romani ballads. Root is the grandmother of American businessmanMichael Armand Hammer and the great-grandmother of American actorArmie Hammer.
Baroness Olga Vadimovna von Root was born inSevastopol,Crimea in 1901. She was the daughter of Baron Vadim Nikolayevich von Root, aCzarist military officer and nobleman, and Lubov Karlovna Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich, a member of aPolish landed gentry family.[1][2][3] Root's paternal ancestors wereVolga German nobility who came to the Russian Empire during the reign ofPeter the Great to serve in theImperial Russian Army.[2] Her maternal grandfather, Karl Kazimirovich Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich, was Catholic and the founder of the Archeological Museum inChersonesus.[1][4] Her maternal grandmother, Maria Pavlovna Reveliotis, was a Russian Orthodox woman of Greek descent and the granddaughter of the Russian landowner and leader of theGreek War of Independence GeneralTheodosios Reveliotis. Through her mother, Root was also a descendant of the Polish national heroTadeusz Kościuszko.[2]
Root was educated at theSmolny Institute of Noble Maidens inSaint Petersburg, where she trained as a singer.[2] at the age of fifteen, she ran away and took up performing with a troop ofRomani performers, learning their music and dances from Nikolai Kroutchine.[3] She was later found and returned to her family.[3]
During theOctober Revolution, Olga von Root's family moved fromMoscow toKyiv. Her father, loyal toNicholas II of Russia, commanded troops in theWhite Army throughout the war.[2] To support her family while her father was off fighting, Root began singing in cabarets and night clubs.[2][5] She was rounded up with other members of theWhite Movement by Bolsheviks during a raid, imprisoned, and was ordered to be executed.[2] Her life was spared after a Bolshevik colonel, who recognized her from the stage, released her.[2] The colonel later spared her mother and siblings from arrest during a raid on their home.[2] The colonel informed Root that her father would be granted amnesty if he defected from the White Army and joined theRed Army.[2] She wrote to her father and persuaded him to change sides, after which he took a post as an instructor at theSoviety Military Academy.[2]
During the rise ofCommunism, Root became a star of the stage, as a singer and actress, performing under the name of Olga Vadina.[2][5][3] She was one of the top stars of post-Revolutionary Russia's concert theatre and married her manager.[2] She performed a program of Romani ballads at a theatre in Paris, later performing in other European capitals.[3]
While living in New York City with her second husband,Armand Hammer, Root worked with a musician to transcribe Russian andRomani music that she learned throughout her training.[3]
In 1925, while performing inYalta, Root was introduced to the Jewish-American millionaire industrialistArmand Hammer.[2] The two fell in love, and Root obtained a divorce from her first husband in Moscow. She and Hammer were married in a civil ceremony in 1927.[2][5][6] They had one son, Julian Armand Hammer, who was born in Moscow in 1928.[5][2] The family left Moscow in 1930 and took up residence onFifth Avenue inManhattan.[2][3] She and Hammer divorced in 1943.[5]
Root was the grandmother of American businessmanMichael Armand Hammer and the great-grandmother of American actorArmie Hammer.[5]