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Women of Peace and Those Sided the Wrong of World War II

Khalid Elhassan November 20, 2020 32 min

World War II - Italian resistance movement — Women of the resistance in Italy. Wall Street Journal

22. Men Dueled for This Superstar’s Affections

In 1928, while in Budapest, Baker was ogled by a Hungarian cavalry captain named Andrew Czolovoydi. When Czolovoydi made a pass at her, Baker’s manager and on-and-off lover, “Count” Pepito di Abatino (he was no aristocrat, but a former stonemason) were offended. So he challenged the Hungarian officer to a sword duel.

The challenge was accepted, and the two men went at each other with blades in a cemetery, while Josephine watched from atop a tombstone. She stopped the fight, however, when her manager took a shoulder wound. Honor thus satisfied, the two men shook hands and made peace.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.