Feodor Chaliapin and the Villa Korsar

Irving Drought Harris and his wife Jean, nee Ferris, had travelled together from Southampton to New York, in May 1934. Among the passengers on the 'Bremen' was a young widow called Gloria Vanderbilt, aged 28, from New York. She was the mother of Gloria Vanderbilt, the American heiress.
Gloria, the mother, lost custody of her daughter, Gloria junior, in yet another famous court case. The mother lived in Paris for six years after the death of her husband, the fabulously wealthy Reginald Claypole Vanderbilt. She, not unlike Jean Ferris, had married whilst only a teenager. She had an identical twin sister, called Thelma, who was reputed to be the mistress of the Prince of Wales at one time. No doubt the Vanderbilts knew the Spreckels family in New York and the Harris family in Paris.
When in Paris Jean Harris lived at One, Avenue de Marechal Maunoury, opposite the Bois de Boulogne but when she was in St Jean de Luz, in the south of France, for the summer months, she lived at the Villa Korsar.
The villa actually belonged to a friend of hers, namely Feodor Chaliapin, a famous Russian opera singer. He had a large, deep, expressive bass voice, apparently. Born in Kazan, in Russia, he met and became a friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff who took him under his wing. Chaliapin's most famous role was that of Boris Godunov. He appeared regularly at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Zimin Private Opera in Moscow. Touring the west he played the Devil in Mefistofele at La Scala with the conductor Toscanini. He sang in New York and in 1907 and again in 1921 at the Metropolitan Opera House.
The famous entrepreneur Sergei Diaghilev brought him to Paris and London and in 1926  he toured Australia.
He is reputed to have popularised the Song of the Volga Boatmen. After the Russian Revolution Chaliapin moved to Finland and then, finally, settled in Paris.He still toured widely and even went as far as Japan in 1936. Apparently, whilst there he suffered from toothache and the chef cooked his steak in a certain way so that he could eat it. Chaliapin Steak is still a Japanese dish today!