10:22

[Music – Royal Garden Blues by Benny Carter, Album Perfect Jazz]

Section 2 – History & Historiography

[Music Fade Out]

10:41

Human history is repeatedly filled with all sorts of recurring trends and situations.  One of those are pretenders especially those pretending to be royalty.  Ahh, the yarns they spin of their glorious escapades and hardships. 

Yet this grift can have two starkly different side effects – turmoil in a bid to seize power or pure amusement and delight.  Of course, there is the need to siphon money out of certain marks.  Maybe for pure greed, or just the want of a better life.

Certain circumstances yield a plethora of these pretenders appearing en masse.  Such as the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution.  The sudden overthrow of monarchy and an older tiered system.  Plenty of royals and aristocrats are left destitute and at times without records thus hard to prove or disprove claims.  There seems some plausibility, and sure enough if one plays the part well with a certain panache and flair then others might be more than generous and willingly play along.

11:44

Russia has always had more than its fair share of pretenders to the throne.  The early and untimely death of Romanov Tsar Peter III, grandson of Peter the Great and husband of Catherine the Great, resulted in 4 pretenders alone in Russia and a fifth outside.  They probably should have paid attention that Peter III was deposed in 1762 in favor of his wife Catherine the Great and dies during imprisonment.  The official death is ruled from colic or a stroke while many suspect assassination. Widow and successor Catherine is not likely to respect anyone’s claims even denying later their own son Paul’s rise to the throne.

12:24

Here’s a quick rundown for a few of those pretenders during this period:

Scepan Mali, aka Stephen the Little, hints he is the dead tsar and unites Montenegro as it only tsar from 1768 – 1773.  A Russian delegation visits, exposes him as a fraud, imprisons him, then releases & restores him to power as he is considered the best of the potential rulers.  Crippled in 1771 and dead by 1773, Scepan is found in his monastery bedroom with a slit throat, possibly by a Greek servant recruited by the concerned Ottomans.

13:01

In 1770s Paris, Catherine’s faces another rival challenger, the beautiful and refined pretender Princess Vladimir or Princess Augusta Tarakanova, who claims to the be the illegitimate daughter of Empress Elizabeth (the daughter of Peter the Great and aunt to Peter III).  Duped into going to Russia to be restored to the throne, the Princess is imprisoned in St. Petersburgh and refuses to give up her true identity and so dies in her cell in 1775.

13:28

However those fates do not detour those wanting power or at least to depose a female monarch.  The most famous pretender is Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev.  In 1774, Catherine’s forces crush the Pugachev Rebellion.  Pugachev is beheaded and dismembered in 1775 Moscow. 

13:47

A more bizarre pretender Kondrati Selivanov claims to be both Jesus and Peter III.  Kondrati is also a member of the Skoptsy sect – a strange religious group which castrates members.  In imperial Russia, Kondrati is imprisoned for convincing 13 peasants to undergo the procedure, and after his release he finds his way to Moscow in 1795 and a meeting with now Tsar Paul I, who decides the man is insane and has him committed to a madhouse.  Released in 1802, Kondrati lives the next 18 years receiving double homage as Tsar and Christ. 

By the way kind of hard to believe, but that group – sect the Skoptsy is documented as still existing in the 20^th Century by Leon Trotsky in 1913.  The numbers are in the 100,000s in the early 1900s but reduced to only a few thousand by 1929.  Two other separate accounts  (one male and other female) describe meeting horse-drawn cabbies and members of the sect in 1930s Bucharest, Romania.  In the USSR, the sect lasts until 1947 but mostly disappears by the 1970s.  By the 1990s, Latvia may have had the few only surviving communities, but that information comes from controversial reports.

15:09

Now those above are pretenders during the imperial glory days of the Russian Empire.  Most end up imprisoned and / or executed or dead by one manner or another.  But such is the fate of those seeking power with their fraud.

By the 1920s, it might be considered a little more than precarious as the Bolsheviks are intent on eradicating any claims that might restore a monarchy.  Remember Prince Serge Obolensky spent a few years evading assassination attempts.  Serge himself once encounters his own pretender – a smaller bookish man hard to confuse with the elegant and suave manners of the tall and regal true Serge.

15:48

Regardless the 1920s saw a flurry of such claimants, and it is considered acceptable if the possible pretender gives a good and amusing show.

The most famous pretender is Polish emigre Franziska Schanzkowska aka Anna Anderson who claims to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov.  Then there are plenty of real life potential actual claimants to the throne such as Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich.  Both have been covered in a previous episode.

It is quite dangerous to be a pretender wanting power, so much less so if wanting only social payoffs like fame or luxury.  The title hunters of some means might suffice to marry a title without the requisite purse or property to go with it.  And lastly, we have the downright con artists.  Those trying to make a buck off their supposed titles.  As for all these exiles or so-called exiles, the need for power is supplanted with the pure desire for luxury.  Those type of spongers and freeloaders are a plenty, royal or not. 

16:51

Now enters Prince Michael Dmitri Alexandrovich Obolenski-Romanoff (Obolensky-Romanov).  Here we use the double “f” variation of Romanov as presented in the news articles as well as his later business to be discussed.  In 1932, the New Yorker features a 5 article series detailing Prince Michael’s exploits in fraud and deportation.  The series states, he “convinces a fairly large public that a good impostor is preferable to the average prince.”  New York society finds it far more acceptable that a man could become a Romanov by his own efforts at age 30 and not merely by the accident of birth.

17:27

His actual origin story is part of his mystique.  Born in Lithuania in 1890, Hershel Geguzin migrates to America by age 10.  His name is changed to Harry Gerguson and sometimes Ferguson.  Orphaned and shipped by train to the Midwest – primarily Hillsboro, Illinois, he lives in at least 6 orphanages where he learns the art of presenting a delightful and appeasing nature to get adopted.  Often adopted by wealthy or well-to do parents, he eventually wears out his welcome with his less appealing behaviors.  Somehow this tradition will continue until he is age 35, because it seems 40s becomes less charming for adoption.

18:06

At age 19, he heads off to England and adopts a British accent and mannerisms.  Like many pretenders and cons, he adopts *several personas until sticking to a few choice roles.  Before the Prince, he also goes by Count Gladstone, William Wellington, and Arthur Wellesley.  Prince Michael is an expert forger.  He not only forges his friend painter, illustrator, and writer Rockwell Kent’s signature on a few checks but poses as him on book tours.  Ironically, Prince Michael’s impersonating Kent at book signings leads to a spike in regional sales during that period and later gets him an illustrating job.  In one luggage left behind, there is found at least 17 different identities with stationary and other papers for at will uses and performances.  The pretender even travels with a canine who also goes by several names such as Sport or Michael to complete the image.

18:57

Always befriending millionaires willing to pay for his education, he might be the only person to attend Eton, Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Princeton, Yale, and Harvard.  Several attempts had been made to prove or disprove his attendance to mixed results.  Ditto when meeting with Russians, despite claiming to be fluent in 6 languages, he only ever speaks in English.  He makes the rounds in Paris where he first adopts the Prince Michael persona and back in the U.S. to New York, Boston, Newport, Long Island, the uppercrust along the Hudson, Los Angeles, and a dozen or so other American cities.  He serves as a Russian advisor on several Hollywood productions.

19:35

He interacts with everyone.  Supposedly at Oxford, he even befriends David, as in Prince David – Prince of Wales, and later plays that association off in a Canadian con.  Another perpetual feigned association is with George Eastman.  While a Harvard engineering grad student, Prince Michael meets future Count Henri de Castellane (future husband of Silvia de Rivas de Castellane, close friend of Barbara Hutton and former lover of Prince Alexis Mdivani).  In 1925, Prince Michael is invited to attend a Newport party for Mr. & Mrs. Reginald Vanderbilt, as in Gloria Vanderbilt’s parents.  In the Hudson community, the well known impostor is not as warmly favored by the real Russian Prince Serge Obolensky. 

20:18

Prior to his glory days, he once worked as a button maker, a tailor, and more notably a pants presser, but only briefly performs such duties as to appear legitimate to escape a situation.  Another hustle, Prince Michael helps sell objets d’art and / or old masters paintings.  In that capacity, he occasionally helps merchants make sales then at other times swindles and takes the whole profits.  The Prince relentlessly passes a string of bad checks in New York, London, Paris, and Los Angeles.  He even gets caught passing bad checks to a tailor in France. 

20:50

In New York’s Tombs, he befriends inmates and guards alike.  Despite being a prisoner, the Tombs runs like his own imperial palace.  He scoffs at any encouragement to turn to more legitimate means like becoming a writer.  He is a repeat visitor to Ellis Island, where numerous attempts are to arrest and deport him.  He escapes a few times, then returns inevitably – his American citizenship claims under Harry Gerguson are not fully proven and the bad political tensions with Bolshevik run Russia means the inability to deport, so every once in a while he is granted access back into the land of the free. 

21:24

Prince Michael notably books passage or at other times stows away on many fine luxury liners, including the Olympic and Ile de France.  Recently in 1932, he stows away on the latter while also making public appearances.  Secretly, skipping through unoccupied rooms and even staying at the dog kennel.  He later claims in the Havre that he went to see a friend off then fell asleep only to awaken when they were far out to sea.  For that offense, the Prince spends two months in jail, then does more time for stealing an American passport, before going back to his grifts.  C’est la vie.

22:00

He would swing from luxury hotels and caviar to starvation and sleeping on the streets with intermittent brief stays in hospitals and multiple jails.  Pauper to prince to pauper to pauper prince…  The one event he is dead set on attending as much as possible is the Beaux Arts Ball, always securing a ticket or slipping into the event.  In January 1927, he collapses from the effects of starvation the day after that January’s ball.  He again is set to participate in the 1933 event despite troubles with Ellis Island as recently as January 1933.  Heh, eventually he makes his way back.

22:38

His exploits gain continuous press coverage especially as New Yorkers delight in the somewhat mildly criminal behavior.  Yes, he is committing crimes, mainly conning the wealthy who then pay or forgive him later.  He is not a gangster or involved in more dangerous and violent crimes.  However, he is recruited in 1931 by a wealthy man to set up and frame his wife for adultery to secure a divorce.  When the Prince’s colorful rap sheet is brought out in court, the case is dismissed, and the wife then sues her to be ex-husband and the Prince for damages.

23:09

However, he comes off as so likeable he often charms his way out of the consequences of his actions.  Wealthy friends pay off his debts, victims forgive or waive the debts or disappear conveniently allowing those cases to be dismissed.  As for those intent on catching or prosecuting him often end up helping him and giving him more lenient sentences or otherwise face public ridicule and embarrassment.

23:34

Eventually behaving more legitimately, Romanoff will go on to live in Los Angeles and establish a popular and successful restaurant Romanoff on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills from 1941 – 1962.  The famous side eye photo of Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren is taken here in 1957.  Popular dishes include the beef stroganoff on noodle referred as Noodles Romanoff, Waldorf salad, tomatoes stuffed with crab, frog legs, Eggs Benedict, filet mignon, chocolate soufles, and strawberries in Grand Marnier or strawberries “Americaine style.” 

He will die in 1971 at age 81 from a heart attack.  The only thing he ever wanted was to live a more exciting life than the one given to him by birth.  He succeeded in abundance.

24:20

In one article for the 1933 Beaux Arts Ball, Prince Michael is compared to another and possibly the first famous party crasher James “One-Eyed” Connelly, a former American boxer who lost an eye in a fight then became a celebrated party crasher of mostly sporting games and matches and later some political conventions for over 40 years.  Coming up with all sorts of ruses and disguises as he is quite easy to spot.

Funny isn’t it how an actual impostor never suffers from impostor syndrome.  As they are more than willing and quite motivated by obtaining the heavily desired perks, they even seem to enjoy the perks more than those who earn them the hard way.