The Mdivani family (Georgian: მდივანი) is a Georgian noble family with the rank of aznauri (untitled nobility).[1] In the West, the best known bearers of this name were the children of General Zakhari Mdivani (1867—1933) and his wife, Elizabeth Viktorovna Sabalewska (1884—1922).[2] The five siblings fled to Paris after the Soviet invasion of Georgia in 1921, and became known as the "Marrying Mdivanis", as they all married into wealth and fame.
The Mdivani siblings were:
- Nina Mdivani (1901–1987), who was married to Charles Henry Huberich, a professor and lawyer, from 15 July 1925 until their divorce on 19 May 1936. On 18 August 1936, she married Denis Conan Doyle, a son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. After Denis's death on 9 March 1955, she married Anthony Harwood, a secretary to Denis Conan Doyle.[2]
- Serge Mdivani (1903–1936), came to Massachusetts in 1921 with his brother David and was supported[why?] by Marshall Crane of the Crane Currency paper empire. By 1923, the brothers worked in the Oklahoma oil fields owned by Edward L. Doheny. Serge then moved to Los Angeles[3] and married actress Pola Negri in 1927, but when she lost her fortune in the Stock Market Crash of 1929, he abandoned her and married opera singer Mary McCormic, who divorced him in a highly publicized trial. He then married Louise Astor Van Alen Mdivani, his former sister-in-law, in 1936, but he died later that year in a polo accident.[4] He is buried in the church yard of St. Columba's Episcopal Chapel in Middletown, Rhode Island under a massive marble tombstone.
- David Mdivani (1904–1984), was the first Mdivani to marry "well". He came to the U.S. with his brother Serge under the support of Marshall Crane. When the two brothers fell out of favor with Marshall Crane, they moved to New York where David was working for a radio repair shop owned by a fellow Georgian refugee on Vesey Street in New York City. David also dabbled in acting, but failed. The brothers moved to Oklahoma where David and Serge worked in the Edward L. Doheny oil fields earning until 1926, months before David married actress Mae Murray;[5] they had a son, Koran David (1926-2018). After he bankrupted her, she divorced him in 1933, and they became involved in a custody battle over their child. He was involved with French actress Arletty. David then married Sinclair Oil heiress Virginia Sinclair (daughter of Harry Ford Sinclair) in 1944, and they had a son, Michael (1945–1990).
- Alexis Mdivani (1905–1935), who married Louise Astor Van Alen (a member of the Astor family) in 1931, but divorced her to marry Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton in 1933, one of the world's richest women at the time. He died in an automobile accident in Albons, Catalonia, Spain while he was traveling with Baroness Maud Thyssen,[6] a married, 23-year-old German.[7]
- Isabelle Roussadana Mdivani (1906–1938), aka Roussie or Roussy. A sculptor, she married the Spanish painter Josep Maria Sert in 1928.
In late feudal Georgian the word "mdivani" meant "an official" such as one who attends court and participates in the consideration of a case.
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Serge Mdivani and Pola Negri in May 1927 -
David Mdivani and Mae Murray in 1926
- ^ Nobility of Georgia: Pyotr Bagration, Sergey Kavtaradze, Ilia Chavchavadze, Princess Leonida Bagration of Mukhrani. General Books LLC. August 2011. ISBN 978-1-233-16718-0.
- ^ a b Philip G. Bergem (2001). The Family and Residences of Arthur Conan Doyle. St. Paul, Minnesota: Privately printed. pp. 4, 11.
- ^ Moats, Alice-Leone (1977). The Million Dollar Studs (1st ed.). New York: Delacorte Press. p. 13.
- ^ Serge Mdivani Is Killed Playing Polo in Florida, The New York Times, 16 March 1936
- ^ Moats, Alice-Leone (1977). The Million Dollar Studs (1st ed.). New York: Delacorte Press. p. 15.
- ^ "Baroness Maud von Thyssen is injured in accident with Prince Alexis Mdivani, Berlin, 1935", UCLA Library Digital Collections, Los Angeles Times, August 1935.
- ^ Moats, Alice-Leone (1977). The Million Dollar Studs (1st ed.). New York: Delacorte Press. p. 126.