Rita Carita — The Foreign American (1925) 🇺🇸

They call the fascinating Rita Carita “the foreign American” because, though her parents brought her from Greece, where she was born, to America, when she was four, she retains a suggestion of that distinction so peculiar to foreign women.

And her life to a degree matches those things at which her strange eyes hint, for it has had its elements of excitement. For a time she was interpreter for the immigration bureau at Boston, and was Greek translator for President Coolidge, while he was Governor of Massachusetts. Later, in the military intelligence department, she assisted in gathering information regarding Bolshevik activities. Posing as a sympathizer, she attended Bolshevik meetings. Once she was recognized and made a dash for safety with a pack of irate Reds at her heels. During this time she led a double life, as it were, doing this secret, dangerous work in the daytime, and dancing in the evenings. Twice she won prizes in beauty contests.

Her stage debut was made with Ed Wynn, in The Perfect Fool. From this musical comedy she went to the El Fey, Broadway’s favorite night club, as solo dancer.

While in New York De Mille [Cecil B. DeMille] saw her and asked her to come to his table. Interested in her personality and in her unusual career, he talked with her, arranged for tests, and gave her a long-term contract.

Her temperament is of the quiet, tense kind, touched with melancholy; her black eyes always seem to be smoldering with turbulent thoughts. She is cool and aloof, but under this calm one can sense a vague restlessness.

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Photo by: Edgar Scott Spargo

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, October 1925