Erte: Things I Remember - An Autobiography

In this autobiography Erte looks back over the years and, with his characteristic eye for significant and amusing detail, he describes the personae and events that have filled his life. He recalls his childhood in Russia, his years in Monte Carlo during World War I, and his life in Paris and Hollywood. The procession of well-known characters is vividly described - from Isadora Duncun to Barbra Streisand, from Louis B Mayer to Roland Petit.

So there I was on the train bound for Paris. I was nineteen and leaving St. Petersburg for a new life. At that moment in January of 1912, the future seemed like a gaily-colored rainbow, bright with hope, despite the fact that it was twenty-eight degrees below zero. I remember my mother saying that the freezing temperature reminded her of the day I was born. The whole family had assembled on the platform at least twenty people: my patents, my sister, aunts, cousins - all of my closest relatives, male and female. Those final moments had filled me with mixed emotions - joy over the fulfillment of a dream I had cherished since my first visit to Paris at the age of seven, and sadness at leaving my adored parents, who had done everything in their power to make my happy. Now, all family squabbling over, my departure was finally at hand, Aunt Ania, a charming old maiden lady who was my father's cousin, cried out as the train started to move, "L'Aiglon has spread his wings and begun to fly."