Axel Madsen

“Nazimova asked Mercedes to walk her home and told her she, too, was of Spanish blood. She was the daughter of Spanish Jews who had emigrated to Russia, and her real name was Lavendera. She had taken Nazimova as a stage name because zima meant winter in Russian. Because of her crush on Alla, Mercedes devoured Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol, and Pushkin.”
― Axel Madsen, The Sewing Circle: Hollywood's Greatest Secret—Female Stars Who Loved Other Women

“Lesbians were, in the public image, loathsome creatures. They were seen as hard, sophisticated females who seduced innocent girls or women into mysterious “perversions,” or as sad caricatures of men, trying to dress and act as males, and generally aping some of men’s worst characteristics. Hollywood made “butchy” women into repellent monsters, vampires, or other subhuman creatures, and the theater portrayed practitioners of the love that dares not speak its name as neurotic, tragic, or absurd. No woman in her right mind would want to be seen so negatively. No actress admitting to loving women would be a success.”
― Axel Madsen, The Sewing Circle: Hollywood's Greatest Secret—Female Stars Who Loved Other Women