In early 1930, Natacha Rambova granted an interview to journalist Herbert Howe in which she revealed the following:
"There was a moment of constraint as Natacha and I sat down on the divan. To break it, I referred to the hours spent on his (Valentino's) life story. 'Now we ought to do your life,' I said, 'but I guess all your real names have been told.'
'Yes, and I've been called a lot of names that weren't mine,' laughed Natacha. 'No, I'm here to tell you right now that I don't give a hang for publicity. God knows there has been too much for me already. I've been called everything from Messalina to a dope-fiend.'
'Did you feel it much?'
'I was tortured. I was tortured to agony,' she said. Her eyes met mine in an eloquence of silence. In that minute the interval of years passed by. I felt certain I knew her as I hadn't before. She turned the poignancy of that revelation with a quick laugh. I always loved the laughter of Natacha. It was quick and gay. And it can shield a multitude of sorrows with its courage.
'They even said I have no sense of humor!' Her laugh mounted. 'That's equivalent to saying I am dead. Without it, I would have been years ago.' "
Cite Astral Affairs Rambova, pp.215-216.
