When fame precedes them: cinema and ‘the most beautiful women in the world’

This paper examines La Belle Otèro, or Augustina Otèro Iglesias (or Caroline Otèro) who was a Spanish dancer known as the ‘Last Great Courtesan’ and was famous for her beauty. It explores two issues in particular. One is the birth of a modern mass communication industry (photographs, postcards, reviews, variety shows, magazines and so on, of which the film industry is obviously only a part). The second issue that I examine is the international circulation of products. I focus on the female star as one of the key products that joins national and international markets. The star that discuss, ‘La belle Otero’, was born in Europe, had her fame consolidated in Russia, and became popular (in a mass sense) in America. I ask: Did the cinema change or consolidate theatrical notoriety and celebrity? How did a performance (or performances) in front of the camera impact the career and celebrity of some of the most famous women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century? Finally, I ask how films in the 1940s onwards renarrativised, retold and represented the performative work of women in film.