She was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York. Her Spanish father, Eduardo Cansino, was a professional dancer and her mother Volga had performed in the Ziegfeld Follies. When she was eight the family moved to Los Angeles and her father opened a dance studio. Rita took lessons and became a very talented dancer. Eduardo decided to pull her out of school and made her his professional dance partner. They performed in Mexican bars and casinos as “The Dancing Cansinos”. Eduardo was a violent alcoholic who forced Rita to rehearse for hours. The twelve year old was dressed in sexy costumes and Eduardo referred to her his “wife”. Sadly her father began sexually abusing her and raping her. Her mother, who was an alcoholic, knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it. In 1935 she made her film debut in Dante’s Inferno using the screen name Rita Cansino. Then she had small parts in Paddy O’Day and Charlie Chan In Egypt. At the age of eighteen she escaped her father’s abuse by marrying her forty-one year old manager Edward Judson. He convinced her to lift her hairline with electrolysis and dye her hair auburn red. Unfortunately Edward became very controlling and stole her money.
