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Article: Rita Hayworth's Fade to Black; In Memory of the Star, Daughter Yasmin's Crusade Against Alzheimer's Disease
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- April 6, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Fate has some cruel sorrows in its quiver, and the story of Rita
Hayworth, who slid from sex goddess to Alzheimer's victim inside of
three decades, is one of them. Once, she was never lovelier-that was
the name of a movie she did with Fred Astaire. Once, she married an
Islamic prince. Once, she slinked through the Argentine as "Gilda."
(Audiences were said to gasp at that first sultry sight of her.)
Once, or this was another part of the myth, B29 flight jockeys
decoupaged her image onto the atomic bomb. But it all went away so
fast, that Rita, the one who played light on our most erotic '40s
movie fantasies, and what came in its wake was the thing without name
or explanation.
The way ...