cyberhavok:

lipstickstainedlove:

lulu-illumination:

13catmachines:

Rita Hayworth before and after. She was sorta latin then they turned her into a white girl. Shameful? She looks BEAUTIFUL both ways for sure! BUT it’s sad/weird to me .

” One of the defining silver screen sex symbols, Rita Hayworth was born with the much less American-sounding name, Margarita Carmen Cansino.

The Metamorphosis:

Columbia Pictures came along and, not being much for political correctness, pretty much told Cansino that her lack of success was due to her being way too Spanish-y. So, Cansino agreed to go along with a few surgical processes, such as:

A. Painful Hairline Electrolysis

Cansino had a low hairline, which pegged her as a Latina. Cansino submitted to getting electric shocks to kill her follicles and stop them from growing. Keep in mind this is the 1930s, when “anaesthesiology” usually meant “stroking your hand while you chugged from a flask of bourbon.” Next time you have a hot hair curler or a live wire, poke yourself in the forehead with it several hundred times. Now you’re as pretty as Rita Hayworth… well, not yet, you still need some…

B. Skin Lightening

Now that you’ve got fresh shock marks on your forehead, scrub them with this bleach solution. That’s exactly what Cansino did, all over her entire body. Skin lightening is a dangerously unregulated practice even now, but it was significantly worse 70 years ago.

Carmen Cansino became Rita Hayworth. Her dark hair was died auburn. The transformation complete, Rita Hayworth now looked Saltine enough for Columbia:

The Payoff:

Not five years before, the young immigrant’s daughter was dancing in smoky bars for coins. After her “honky-fication,” she became the hottest thing in sanctioned Armed Forces self-pleasure. A picture of her kneeling on a bed in a nightgown sold 5 million copies. Her likeness was fashioned on the side of atomic bombs. “

Source: http://www.cracked.com/article_17501_5-celebrity-careers-launched-by-ethnic-makeovers.html

this always made me feel horrible for her.

oh my god, seriously? wow.

Wow… How depressing…