The Arizona post., 1960-02-19
Hollywood Report
Israeli Star Is Called
Modern Venus Of Milo
By HERBERT G. LUFT


''The Story of Ruth recently had lunch with this
columnist in the studios cafe 1t is the same Ziva
Shapir reported about in April of 1856, when the
young lady became the first Israel-bon actress to
be signed by major Hollywood company
The Sabra a woman of unusual beauty who has
been called modern Venus of Milo, to me looks SIM
ply like youthful Ava Gardner. Telling the readers
of this JTA column bit about herself, she reveals
that she shed her husband of two years. Jack Shapr
an officer in the purchasing department of the Israeli
army just before coming to the United States. She
calls herself now Rodann because she admires the
French sculptor Rodin much that she adopted his
name with the odd spelling. Zva she tells me- means
"a ray of light"
Zva Rodann was born in Haifa, on March g.
1887 the daughter of Shaya Blackman, professor of
mathematics at the architectural institute. Her par
ents Russian Jews who went to Israel when they
both were 18 years DID, At the age of H. Ziva visited
the United States for and ahalf years, living in
st. Louis with her uncle, psychiatrist Dr. Nathan
Blackman She won first prize in talent show on
an early TV program in st. Louis which featured
students and was not rigged as she tells me-
Upon completion of high school in Haifa, she
went to Tel Aviv where she accepted by the Ha-
bima and for three years studied classic and mod
ern DRAMA appearing in student productions of peer
she joined the Chamber Theatre, where she seen
in such plays as Desire Under The Elms," "Our
Town." and "Yorma" by the Spanish dramatist Lorca
all of them of course, in Hebrew
Her love for the ballet goes back to her dane
ing study at the age of six. When she was II, she
did solo number before Prime Minister David Ben
Guron and his visitor, the Prime Minister of Burma.
She wanted to be professional dancer ever since.
While at the Chamber Theatre Zva joined the Israeli
Ballet Theatre. In her leisure hours she also taught
dancing to mentally retarded children in Tel Avv
institution
At the age of IL, Ziva enlisted in the Israeli Army
where for four months she went through basic traih
ing, including the handling of machine guns and hand
grenades For the remaining eight months of her
army tour she was assigned to the special services
section, giving more than $50 camp shows
Following her discharge she was chosen by the
wine industry of Israel to promote the native prod
uct in America. She toured this country in 1854,
visiting New York, Washington and Boston, follow
ing which the sale of Israeli vintages went up 80 per-
cent. 1t during this trip that Ziva vastly i'm
proved her command of the English language, which
she speaks beautifully.
Ziva tells me that she dated Ally Khan once in
New York and once out here, went out with Rock
Hudson and other actors is fancy free and avail
aDle unconventional ana mghly independent, Sne
lives by her own code of ethics feeling no compunc-
ton to conform as long as she hurts Widely
read, she is artcuate and very perceptve Her main
interests are her career and growth as intelligent
and emotonaly mature
She is proud to be Jewish and says that Israel
is in fashion these days. She always wears her gold
Mezuzah, given to her by her parents a child To
the world she is sophisticated actress, but to her
mother she has remained tiny child. When she
called Haifa via transatlantic telephone most
Gently, all her mother could tell her to give her