Alexander Vasiliev: ... and I will tell you about an unexpected gift that was sent to me straight from America.

Please look at this cowboy hat and boots. These are the details of the costume of the legendary Soviet actor Oleg Vidov from the cult movie “The Headless Horseman”, 1973. Millions of Soviet women fell in love with this blue-eyed, slender tall blond and did not give him a pass. He was married four times.

The first marriage was the first was short-term, but the second played a huge role in his life. His wife was the daughter of a KGB general, the beautiful Natalia Fedotova, a friend of Galina Brezhneva. But the relationship could not stand because of jealousy, mutual jealousy: she was jealous of fans, for success in the cinema, and he was for her high-ranking friends.

Thanks to her connection with Brezhnev, Vidov was banned from all filming in the USSR, and he had to remarry. A fictitious marriage with a Yugoslav woman who took him to Belgrade, from where he never returned. From Yugoslavia, he moved to Rome, where he met his fourth wife, a

journalist from the United States, with whom he spent the rest of his life. He called her “the savior” because she not only brought him back to life, but also to creativity. This unique woman sent me these costume elements to my museum collection directly from the USA.

Joan, thank you so much for your lovely gifts. With great gratitude, I accept these gifts and look forward to the rest of Oleg Vidov's costume. In the USA, his career was not easy, because Oleg Vidov did not speak English, and he even had to work at a construction site. But when the level of his English reached an important point, he was constantly invited to Hollywood, of course, for the role of Russians. The accent matters. He starred with Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke and other famous Hollywood stars. And I must say that his position was not so bad - his wife adored him, he came to our country, did joint projects. And the style that has been dictated by the film Headless Horseman for more than half a century is still alive today.

Oleg Vidov passed away in 2017 but his work remained in the world cinema forever. The Movie itself Headless Horseman was released almost half a century ago, but the country style is still popular now. A cowboy hat and boots are relevant not only in movies, but also in everyday life. Wild West on our podium!