‏Nathalie Bucknall‏

Hollywood in the 1920's and 30's attracted a multitude of fascinating characters. One of them was Nathalie Bucknall. Born in St. Petersburg to Russian nobility, her father -- Ivan de Fedenko -- was the Tsar's Counsellor of State. Young Nathalie was caught up in the 1917 October Revolution, absconded from home and found refuge at the British Embassy in Moscow. While there, the consular premises came under attack from Bolshevik forces (Cheka), resulting in the death of Naval attaché Francis Cromie who apparently died in her arms. Soon after, Nathalie married Lieutenant Commander George Bucknall of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Towards the end of World War I she joined the Second Women's Battalion of Death. This all-female combat force under the command of Maria Brochkareva was originally destined for the front lines, but ended up the very last Tsarist army unit defending the Winter Palace during the dying moments of the Romanov dynasty. Nathalie then spent some time in 1918 as a member of the Kaufman Sisterhood, an Imperial Red Cross Organisation. For this work she received the Gold Medal of St. Anne and the St. George's Medal for Bravery. She was also instrumental in setting up hospital facilities for British and White Russian forces operating in the Caucasus. Nathalie knew the location of classified documents which had belonged to the murdered Captain Cromie. In 1919, she left Russia and circuitously made her way to England where she transmitted that information to the British Admiralty. For 'special services' to the Crown she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Sometime in 1926, Nathalie and husband arrived in Los Angeles. By this time, she had become proficient in eight (!) languages: Russian, German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Norwegian. A veritable polymath, she had also acquired an extensive knowledge base covering just about every facet of human endeavour, from architecture, to dress and hair styles, from local customs to legal procedures. Nathalie's photographic memory had earned her the epithet of "The Woman Who Knows All" and she later came to called "Hollywood's Walking Encyclopedia". In 1927 Nathalie joined MGM. Starting as a script reader, she steadily worked her way up the ladder. In 1935, she established and headed the studio's first research department where she presided over a library comprising some 4000 rare volumes. According to a contemporary newspaper article, Nathalie Bucknall was also the first woman to qualify as a certified sound engineer.

While largely unheralded, Nathalie's department furnished crucial period detail and provided authenticity to producers, writers and directors -- often at short notice -- on any subject matter, however obscure. MGM's big budget blockbusters of this period, most notably The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (1935), Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1936), owe much of their success to this input. After leaving the film business, Nathalie remained in Los Angeles. From 1949 to at least 1952, she worked as a Safety Services Coordinator for the city Health Department. She died in L.A. in March 1959 at the age of 63.