Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. We were a dancing team.
You see, it was a temporary period, but if things go well, we were
doing very well really. Fate does strange things to you--throws you
from one profession to another. You think it is the greatest tragedy--I
will tell you later what happened to me--and it is the best, actually.
So it was working out very well. We were quite successful. And then
something happened later.
Mr. JENNER. Now, did you change your name at this period of your life?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. We changed the name when we started dancing.
Mr. JENNER. And you changed your name to what?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. LeGon. We picked up the name out of the
dancing magazine. But with this name--you see how it happens. You
get so involved that you have to stick to it. You cannot just--you
knew--because some people know you by this name, then you start with
another name, and it sounds ridiculous. But since then already we had
it. And we intended that when we came over, we are going to adopt it,
because personally I don't think it is fair to our friend, and it is
not fair for the country to use a name like Bogoiavlensky, or a name
like De Mohrenschildt. If it would be up to me, I would cut the other
one down.
It took me 3 months to learn to pronounce that name.
Mr. JENNER. There have been some people that because of the name
LeGon--that you had some French. You are not French?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No, I will tell you. I had to start in New York
to do something, had a little girl a year old, and my husband had
terrible trouble to get any kind of work. He was making $18 a week.
Mr. JENNER. In 1938?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; it was 1940, 1941, when my little girl was
born.
Mr. JENNER. Your daughter was born in this country?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Oh, yes.
Mr. JENNER. And your daughter's name?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is why I could not dance any more. I had to
drop completely dancing and everything.
Mr. JENNER. Now, that you have mentioned your daughter, let's cover her.
What was her given name?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Her given name was Jeanne Elinor LeGon. Also
after a dancer.
Mr. JENNER. Eleanor Powell?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes, exactly. And being unaware--you see, in
Europe if you have two names, the first name is important, the second
one is usually your mother's or somebody, and you have it just in case.
In the States the last name is the one that counts--the previous names
don't mean much.
So when she was born, we were not citizens yet, and we didn't have a
legal paper of changing our name to LeGon. So in her birth certificate
I put down Jeanne Elinor LeGon and just in case, Bogoiavlensky, so just
in case something happened to us she would not be an orphan thrown
somewhere--I was so afraid something would go wrong and she would be
put out of the country or something--she was born here, and that is her
name, and I put that Bogoiavlensky on the birth certificate.
And that started the whole uproar.
And besides--I lost her birth certificate once when I needed it for a
passport--I could not find it, because I was looking under "L"--I told
them to look under "L". And for months they were looking under "L" and
then it dawned on me, did I put, by any chance, Bogoiavlensky.
So they filed it under "B".
Well, it is my own fault--I asked for it. I can't get rid of that name.
It is a pretty name. In fact, it is a very novel name. But I don't
think it belongs in this country. I think it is ridiculous for people
to have such long names. If you are a priest's family, that would be
fine. But not for us.
Mr. JENNER. When was your daughter born?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. She mas born April 30, 1941.
Mr. JENNER. I might go back with your husband.
Where was your husband born, your first husband?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. From what I know, he was born in--I think in
Russia--and brought out as a very, very little boy. And I never met his
father. His mother was supposed to be dead when he was born. I only
knew his stepmother, who was absolutely wonderful.
He had two half brothers, charming boys, and they were both lost in
the war with China and Japan. We never could find them. One of them
was with the British forces and another with the French forces. And
I understand one was sent to Hong Kong, and the other remained in
Shanghai. And we never heard from them.
So that is one of the really big tragedies. We were anxious to find
them, because we were going to get them over here. They had good heads.
They could grow up very fine.
Mr. JENNER. You have always regarded the United States as a haven?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Absolutely. It was the country by choice,
because we could have gone to Europe. But I didn't want anything--this
was from so and so. I said I wanted to have a country where everything
is new and fresh, and if I break something I go to the store and buy
another one.
I never have anything you can break. It was just because I was brought
up with furniture with little gilded things in it, I don't want any
part of it. I have been in Europe about 15 times after.
Mr. JENNER. I know you have.
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. And I enjoy being there for a few weeks. But I
would never live in Europe. I would not be happy.
If I had to, I would live there, but I don't like--the whole atmosphere
doesn't appeal to me.
Mr. JENNER. There have been various reports on your views with respect
to Russia and communism.
What are your views?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. What I am?
Mr. JENNER. What are your views?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. My views?
Well, I tell you. I am not a Communist by all means at all. I think
that revolution in Russia was inevitable. It is just horrible that it
happened that way, and it was so bloody, and so many people----
Mr. JENNER. You are talking now about the revolution of the 1920's?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. 1917, I think.
Mr. JENNER. 1918, 1919.
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. 1917, 1918--that is when it started. I know in
fact very little of the whole thing, because at home there was never
any conversation--too many people were killed. In fact, from what I
understand, all the families of my father and mother were killed, too.
So we never had any conversation about it. We just were kept away from
the whole thing.
And, beside, I deliberately stayed away from all of that. I said it is
none of my business, I have never been there, I don't know what it is
all about, I don't want to know anything about it. I don't want to be
prejudiced to anything.
But after, later on, when I grew up and the revolution was necessary,
it is just too bad it happened like that.
And I do hope that the country eventually will come out and become
human again, and I think it is getting to be more and more human.
But it is still a far cry from freedom, from the freedom like we have.
That was the most wonderful thing. When I came here--unfortunately, I
landed in New York. I didn't want to, but my brother was in New York
and he said you come right away to New York.
I love California, because of the climate. I like sunshine. So I came
to New York, and New York, of course, was very depressing to me,
because it was dirty. And I had an idea that all the white countries
and white cities must be clean, because white people are not supposed
to spit on the floor, and they don't throw papers around. They are
supposed to be well mannered.
And then I came in in that awful New York. And, of course, I had almost
no money. I had to use subways. It was very, very bad.
But then I saw all of a sudden on the street there is a gathering
of people, somebody is standing and shouting and talking and saying
anything he wants to. And I said, what is going on? They said he is
just saying something--I forgot what it was all about. But how people
were talking freely and expressing themselves openly.
Mr. JENNER. They had a right to do that?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; And in China--you see, we were always--we
never could say anything openly, for many reasons.
First, I don't know, but I assume there was a lot of Red spies probably
everywhere. So we could never say too much.
Then there were Japanese that came over. We couldn't say anything again.
So we were trained as children just to be quiet, never talk because you
never know who may overhear, and then tomorrow goodbye, something will
happen to you. That is the atmosphere that I was brought up in.
I wish my husband would be brought up in that atmosphere, because
sometimes he says things--of course, being European, he likes to see
Russia.
I said, yes, but not yet, because you would not last there for 2 days,
you would be shot in 2 days. He doesn't feel that there is a place,
places that you cannot be like he is. You just cannot do it. Maybe
that is why he has so much trouble, because he just talks anything he
wants to say, and people misinterpret it. People misinterpret it, and
then they hear something, somebody repeated, already something else,
and then they say he says something bad. This is really terrible. This
is many, many times, you know. But he learned his lesson now. Living
in Haiti we cannot talk very much, either, with Papa Doc. You know the
regime there now. He is quite a dictator. He is going to be pronounced
the king now, at the end of May. And, of course, there is tremendous
opposition against it. It is not for our sake, but for our Haitian
friends' sake, we cannot say anything.
So he learned a little bit of the atmosphere where you cannot talk.
He said--"I am so glad we went to Haiti, because I have no desire to go
to Russia."
That was wonderful. It was music to my ears.