INTRODUCTION

HER STORY

QUOTES

Rita once confessed that she got the best head ever-- not from a man-- but from Marlene Dietrich. When Marlene wanted Rita to return the favor, Rita told her, "Mañana." Tomorrow never came...

When an unfriendly interviewer asked her what it was it was like to wake up every morning and face herself in the mirror, she replied, "That's a problem I don't have, honey.  I never get up till the afternoon."

Rita realized her sex-symbol days were ending when she was filming "Fire Down Below."  Her place in the fantasy pantheon had been usurped by Ava, Kim, Marilyn, and Liz. Said she, a hint of good humor surfacing, "It's comforting to know it took a quartet of dames to replace me."

A print of "Down to Earth" was encased in a time capsule scheduled for opening in 2047.

Designer Jean Louis modeled the famous strapless black satin gown that she wore in "Gilda" on the costume worn by Madame X in John Singer Sargent's famous painting.

She was pregnant with Texas-born tycoon Howard Hughes's child but for Rita there was no question of having a child out of wedlock, so she had an abortion.

Rita was the producers' first choice for "Casablanca", but they couldn't get her and were forced to settle for Ingrid Bergman.

Died of Alzheimer's disease. News of her illness and death brought an international awareness of the disease that resulted in a massive increase of funds for care and research.

Her hands were thought to be the most beautiful in Hollywood and she considered them to be her prettiest feature.

When she was married to Orson Welles the press dubbed them "Beauty and the Brain."

Her first pair of castanets were crafted by her grandfather, Antonio "Padre" Cansino. She kept them by her bedside until her death.

On May 27. 1949, she married Prince Aly Khan. Many people forget that Rita, not Grace Kelly, was the first movie star to become a princess.

Her most treasured possession was a bronze sculpture of her and Prince Aly's hands, palms pressed together and entwined, mounted on heavy black marble.

Her daughter, Princess Yasmin, became the president of Alzheimer's Disease International and vice president of the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association.

When she was age 12 thru 17 she traveled with her father as his dance partner. In her biography it is said that he sexually molested her.

Her two daughters - Rebecca from Orson Wells and Princess Yasmin from Prince Aly Khan - were taken away from her for a while when she was married to singer Dick Haymes. She was accused of being an unfit mother due to drunkenness and long absences.

Rita was engaged to marry actor Victor Mature whom she adored but talent agent Edward Judson promised to make her a big star so she married him only to be beaten up by him many times until she finally left the much older man.

In order to punish her for refusing his advances, Harry Cohn - head of Columbia Studios - began promoting the career of Kim Novak in the hopes of replacing Rita. He tried to humiliate the latter by giving the younger and better part in "Pal Joey" to Kim knowing Rita was desperate for money.

The major studios would go to any length to make its stars more beautiful.  When Columbia got Rita, they actually made her hairline by her forehead recede by electrolysis.

In 1948, Rita Hayworth was to be the first celebrity on a a U.S. postal stamp.  Due to her association with Prince Ali Khan, the stamp idea was canceled despite heavy lobbying by Columbia to have it made. 

Fred Astaire once said that Hayworth, not Ginger Rogers, was his favorite dancing partner. They danced together in "You Were Never Lovelier" and "You'll Never Get Rich."

In 1946, an expedition into the wilderness of Canada's unexplored Headless Valley came across an abandoned trapper's shack.  In it the expedition found three things:  a candle, a can of beans and a picture of Rita.

Some legends say the Margarita cocktail was named for her when she was dancing under her real name in a Tijuana, Mexico nightclub.

Her famous wartime pinup photograph was pasted on a test atomic bomb that was dropped on Bikini Atoll in 1946.