Siendo fabulosa en la Habana vieja - "Havana Glamour Girl", Nina Leen for Life Magazine, 1946

 

Alina Johnson de Menocal (center) and Nina Gómez de Freyre with manicurist. (Two images.)

This was going to be a very simple post... and then it wasn't.

I found all these wonderful images, taken by photographer Nina Leen and published in Life Magazine in 1946. The feature purported to show the glamorous daily life of Alina (or, in the magazine, Aline) Johnson de Menocal, a Cuban socialite and wealthy and glamorous young matron. But... after combing through the Life archives for 1946 - twice - I haven't been able to find out what issue they were included in. I wanted to find the article, because the internet has totally mucked up the visual record, and now nearly every Cuban lady that was photographed by Leen, in preparation for the feature, is now identified online as... "Aline Johnson de Menocal." And it didn't take me too long to realize that the pampered and chic female in the photographs, modeling her up-to-the-moment wardrobe, was not one but several. I've only been able to identify the focus of the feature, the actual Alina, along with Serafina "Nina" Gómez de Freyre - who Alina's daughter refers to as an aunt - and Lillian Gómez Mena. 

The "glamour girl" of the article was Alina Mercedes Johnson Aguilera before her marriage to Luis Narciso Menocal Nadal. Both had been partly educated in the Unites States; her husband had been John F. Kennedy's roommate at Choate and was lifelong friends with the President. I'm forced to admit that I haven't been able to make any sense, from what little I've been able to find, of their family connections or source of income. But the couple had five children: Teodoro, Alina, Luis, Ilia, and Carlos.

Alina Johnson de Menocal.

Alina Johnson de Menocal giving instructions to her staff. (Two images.)

Alina Johnson de Menocal with her daughter Alina Carlota "Nina." (Two images.) 

Alina Johnson de Menocal (in dark shorts) with Lillian Gómez Mena (in striped shorts) and Nina Gómez de Freyre. (Three images.) 

Alina Johnson de Menocal. (Three images.)

Alina Johnson de Menocal and her husband Luis Narciso Menocal Nadal. (Two images.)

Unknown woman. (Seen at far right in the previous image.)

Unknown woman. (Seen in the following three images, along with Nina Gómez de Freyre in the foreground at right.)

Lillian Gómez Mena in the background at center.

Unknown woman. (Seen standing in the previous three images.)

Lillian Gómez Mena.

Nina Gómez de Freyre. (Five images.)

Alina Johnson de Menocal's feet. (Two images.)

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Nina Leen (circa 1909-1914; she always kept her actual age a secret - 1 January 1995, New York City), Russian-born American photographer, particularly associated with Life magazine. She studied painting in Berlin, and also lived in Italy and Switzerland, before emigrating to the United States in 1939. Her photographs for Life were first published in April 1940. While she never became a staff photographer at the magazine, she contributed as a contract photographer until it closed in 1972. Her work graced over fifty of Life's covers, and she contributed countless reports from around the world. She was an avid photographer of animals, and she also documented European royalty, fashion models, dancers, and actresses. From 1973, she frequently published her work in book form. She was married for some time to the fashion photographer Serge Balkin.