Ita Rina

Ita Rina
Ita Rina in 1928 or 1929
Born	Italina Lida Kravanja (1907-07-07)7 July 1907 Divača, Gorizia and Gradisca, Austro-Hungary
Died	10 May 1979(1979-05-10) (aged 71) Budva, SR Montenegro, SFR Yugoslavia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1927–1960

Italina Lida "Ida" Kravanja (7 July 1907 – 10 May 1979), known under her pseudonym Ita Rina, was a Slovenian film actress and beauty queen. She was one of the major film stars in Germany and Czechoslovakia in the late 1920s and the early 1930s. Rina retired from her career shortly after her wedding in 1931, when she changed her religion from Roman Catholic to Serbian Orthodox and her name to Tamara Đorđević.

Ita Rina was born on 7 July 1907 in the small town of Divača (then Austro-Hungarian Empire, later Yugoslavia, now Slovenia) as Italina Lida Kravanja. She was called Ida Kravanja for short. The first daughter of Jožef and Marija Kravanja, Rina had a younger sister Danica. Shortly after the outbreak of the World War I, the family moved to Ljubljana, where Rina matriculated in 1923. She was not a good student; she repeated the third grade of elementary school. However, her dream was to be an actress.

In October 1926, Slovenski narod (Slovenian People) magazine organized a beauty pageant, and Rina entered the competition. She was crowned Miss Slovenia and was to travel to the final event for Miss Yugoslavia, which was supposed to be held on 20 December 1926 in Zagreb. However, her mother did not want to let her go to Zagreb. After a group visit from the Slovenian delegation, Marija Kravanja relented. Unfortunately, when Rina arrived in Zagreb, the jury was already choosing the most beautiful of three finalists. She was, however, noticed by Adolf Müller, the owner of Balkan Palace cinema in Zagreb. He immediately sent her photographs to German film producer Peter Ostermayer. As her mother did not want to let her go to Berlin, Rina ran away from home.