Casino di donna maria

20th-century Italian socialite

Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (22 October – 15 September ) was an Italian-American aristocrat, best known as the paternal grandmother of the actress and model Brooke Shields.

Family[edit]

Torlonia was born in Rome, at Palazzo Núñez-Torlonia, the youngest daughter of Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince of Civitella-Cesi^[1] and his American wife, Mary Elsie Moore, a daughter of Charles Arthur Moore, a shipping broker and car mechanic from Connecticut.^[2][3] The Torlonia family gained its fortune in the administration of Vatican finances.

She had three siblings:

About[edit]

In February , Torlonia had made her New York City debut.^[5] Torlonia enjoyed going to nightclubs and charity work, and in she led many charity fundraising efforts.^[6] Some of the charity fundraisers she was involved with include the American Auxiliary Hospital in Mougins, France,^[7][8] the Italian Welfare League,^[9] New York City Cancer Institute,^[10][11] the New York Diet Kitchen Association,^[12][13] the Babies Hospital of the City of New York,^[14] Soldiers and Sailors Club of New York,^[15] New York Exchange for Woman's Work,^[16] Woman's Auxiliary of the Osteopathic Clinic of New York,^[17] Goddard Neighborhood Centre,^[18]Children's Village at Dobbs Ferry, New York,^[19] among others.

In , Torlonia was dressed as "wealth" with a tall headdress and two hand maids at one of a nationwide set of birthday celebrations for President Roosevelt.^[20] The following year in at the Roosevelt Birthday Ball Torlonia was one of a hundred women specially dressed to celebrate the event, she was dressed as "The East", representing the Eastern United States fashion, and in attendance was the President's mother Sara Roosevelt.^[21][22]

Sculptor Marino Marini created a wax portrait of Marina Torlonia in ^[23]

Marriages[edit]

Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi was married twice, her husbands being:

• Francis Xavier Shields (–), the American amateur tennis player.^[24] They married on 13 June , in North Conway, New Hampshire,^[25] and divorced in The Shieldses had two children: a son, Francis Alexander Shields and a daughter, Marina Shields.
• Edward W. Slater, an architect and partner at architectural firm Slater and Chiat, whom she married on 29 December ^[26][27] They had one son, Edward Torlonia Slater (born ).

Torlonia was the paternal grandmother of American actress Brooke Shields, the daughter of her son Francis Alexander Shields.^[28][29]

Death[edit]

Torlonia died on 15 September , in an automobile accident in Piacenza, Italy, shortly after leaving the wedding of her nephew Marco Torlonia, 6th Prince of Civitella-Cesi, to princess Orsetta Caracciolo, niece of film director Luchino Visconti.^[30]Duke Raffaele Canevaro di Zoagli and his mother-in-law, Eleanor Terry, were also killed in the accident.^[31][32][33]

Ancestry[edit]

References[edit]