Rare Photos of Rita Hayworth as a Child From the 1910s and 1920s

Before she became the glamorous Hollywood star Rita Hayworth, she was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the eldest of three children born to dancer parents. Her father, Eduardo Cansino, was a renowned Spanish-born flamenco dancer, and her mother, Volga Hayworth, was an American dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies.

Because her family intended for her to continue the dancing legacy, her childhood lacked typical play and schooling. Eduardo enrolled her in dance lessons when she was just three and a half years old. She recalled her early life as a relentless cycle of “rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.” By age eight, she was already appearing on stage and featured in a short dance film (La Fiesta, 1926) with her family’s group, The Dancing Cansinos.

During the Great Depression, Vaudeville theater declined, prompting her father to move the family to Los Angeles in 1927 to open a dance studio. The studio catered to Hollywood stars, but when the business struggled, Eduardo pivoted to performing again, this time partnering with his adolescent daughter.

Because California child labor laws prevented a minor under 18 from working in nightclubs and venues where alcohol was served, her father moved their performances across the border to Tijuana and Agua Caliente, Mexico. Starting around age 12 or 13, she performed late-night casino shows alongside her father as a dance team. To the audience, they were presented as a romantic Spanish dance couple rather than father and daughter.

She dropped out of high school after completing ninth grade to perform full-time, working late hours in adult environments. Biographers (most notably Barbara Leaming) later revealed that during these years in Mexico, her father subjected her to severe emotional and sexual abuse. Trapped in an isolated, controlling environment, this trauma deeply affected her adult relationships and self-worth.

It was during one of her nightclub performances in Agua Caliente at age 16 that Winfield Sheehan, the head of Fox Film Corporation, saw her dance. Impressed by her movement, he signed her to a short-term studio contract under the name Rita Cansino, marking the transition from a grueling childhood on the dance circuit to her early years in Hollywood.