The son of Valentina Leontieva spoke about many years of family strife. Sister of Valentina Leontieva Lyudmila Mikhailovna: The only son of Valechka never once visited his mother's grave Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontieva growth

The life of the legendary TV presenter is like a roller coaster - ups and downs. She made a dizzying career on Soviet television, but then it was very painful for her to fall from this peak ... And the star of the programs got into the “box” Good night, kids!”, “With all my heart” and “Visiting a fairy tale” by chance. In general, she could have died as a schoolgirl in the Leningrad blockade.

Universal love has always been easy for Valya. Even when the tall and slightly awkward Leningrad schoolgirl Alka was teased by the boys in love with Olifa. She was offended, not knowing the real reason for their attention, and often repeated: "I'll grow up and change my name!" But before that, the little girl Alevtina Torsons, together with the whole family, had to change her surname, inherited from her father's Swedish ancestors. This decision was made by the father, fearing Stalinist repression. So they became the Leontiev family.

And then there was a war and blockade, chilling the soul for 900 days, saturated with fear, cold, hunger and the struggle with death. To survive at any cost, all means are good - from soup from a leather tablet to cigarettes "Asterisk" - the mother herself taught her daughters to smoke. She said she would want to eat less.

In 1942, the Road of Life was opened. The sisters and their mother were evacuated to the Ulyanovsk region. They left their hometown, leaving here the most precious thing that they once had - a happy childhood, youth, father and little son older sister. You won't get the last one back. They remained lying in the snowdrifts, having found eternal peace here.

Madam, bread!

The horrors of war forever hardened Valentina's character, but did not deprive her of humanity, warmth and sincerity.

They first met in 1945 immediately after the Victory. Young Valechka with a long golden braid had just moved to Moscow to live with her aunt. Once she returned home along the bridge through the trench, which was dug by captured Germans. All dirty, skinny, with hungry eyes. One of the prisoners particularly shocked her - still quite a boy, he imploringly stretched out his trembling hands and whispered: "Madame, bread!" Thin aristocratic fingers, violinist's hands...

"May I feed one of the Germans lunch?" Valya asked the guard. He did not agree for a long time, and then waved his hand: take it!

Brought home, poured a bowl of soup. Thin hands impatiently grabbed the spoon, but his aristocratic upbringing, even in captivity, did not allow him to pounce on food in the presence of a woman. He ate slowly, did not raise his eyes - he was afraid. Then he got a little bolder and asked about his parents. "Dad died of starvation. Others too. Leningrad..." The German had tears in his eyes, he didn't finish his dinner, got up and left.

Several years have passed. One day the phone rang in their apartment. A stranger stood on the threshold - a handsome tall brown-haired man. Next to him is an elderly lady, as it turned out, mom. "You don't recognize me?" the man asked in broken Russian. She looked at his hands - the same captive boy with hungry eyes ...

It turned out that he had not forgotten that meeting. Patiently waiting for the opening iron curtain, bought a ticket to the USSR to come back to this apartment on the Arbat. And he took his mother with him not by chance. “I could not forget you, so I came with my mother to propose to you. Will you marry me?" She refused because she could not marry an enemy. “I will never forget that bowl of soup of yours - it turned my whole life upside down!” - the German said goodbye. His mother cried: "Baby, you yourself have no idea what you mean to me. You saved my son from starvation. I will thank you all my life!"

How many times later did Valentina hear words of gratitude! Years later, little Valya turned into an announcer of the Central Television of the USSR, a kind nationwide sorceress "Aunt Valya". Recognition, fame, love of the audience ... However, under the guise of external well-being, a woman with a difficult fate was hiding.

Through hardship to the stars

Leontieva got on television by accident at the age of 30. She needed money, and when she saw an ad for a group of CT announcers, she decided to take a chance. They didn’t take him as an announcer, but they offered him the position of assistant director. So she would have sat behind the scenes, if not for the case.

At that time, 2 announcers reigned on the Soviet air - Olga Chepurova and Nina Kondratova. But one day Kondratova fell ill, and Chepurova was not in Moscow, and Leontieva was instructed to conduct the transfer. From excitement, she read the text with difficulty, stuttering. Immediately after the debut, the chairman of the State Radio and Television called and ordered to remove "this" from the air, but Valya was defended by the All-Union Radio announcer Olga Vysotskaya. On April 16, 1954, Valentina was enlisted as part-time announcer. Chepurova died in the summer, a year later Kondratova severely injured her eye. The era of Valentina Leontieva has come.

She hosted everything: program guides, rural hour, live reports from the field, concerts, Blue Lights. One after another, her programs appear: "Alarm clock", "Skillful hands", "Good night, kids!", "Visiting a fairy tale" and, of course, "With all my heart", which in the West was called the first Soviet talk show.

Devotion to one's work, diligence, the ability to convey the material to the viewer, an excellent memory and some special inner core - everything came together, giving rise to a real phenomenon - the announcer Valentina Leontiev. She easily established contact with the audience, and it seemed to everyone that the woman from the screen was addressing him personally. “Everything that I said, I felt, and did not play,” Leontieva said. “I never worked according to the script, there were no pieces of paper on my desk, everything went to improvisation.”

Yuri the first and Yuri the second

Personal life did not develop. Valya married twice. The first student marriage with aspiring director Yuri Richard broke up four years later due to her husband's infidelity. Earlier, returning home from a business trip, Leontieva found another woman in the apartment. She did not make a scandal, did not even wake up the doves. She packed her things and left forever.

With her second husband, diplomat Yuri Vinogradov, Leontieva met in one of the Moscow restaurants. An interesting brunette introduced himself as a foreigner named Eric and invited him to dance. All evening they communicated through an interpreter. In the morning the phone rang and yesterday's foreigner in pure Russian apologized for the hoax and admitted that he had been in love for a long time, but was afraid that the screen star would not want to communicate with a simple fan.

A few months later they got married, and a year later Mitya was born. She was almost forty. Leontieva was in seventh heaven with happiness - she had long dreamed of a child, but three days later went on the air again, shifting all the worries about the baby onto her mother's shoulders.

She tried to be a good wife and even went to New York with her husband for two years, but she was insanely homesick for work. Yuri adored his Valya, brought her expensive clothes and perfumes. But in the late sixties, Leontieva literally lived at work. The wife turned into a “TV box” with whom Yuri lived, talked and clinked glasses of champagne on New Year. The once cheerful man became withdrawn and irritable. After 16 years of marriage, Yuri left for another woman. He left without even saying goodbye.

At 54, Valentina was left alone. The teenage son blamed his mother for everything. Relations with Mitya Leontyeva did not work out since childhood. All the children of the country adored the host of "Calm", sent touching letters and drawings, and only her own son He didn't watch TV and hated TV with all his heart because it took his mother away from him.

Once, when she brought her son drawings of other children from the program "Visiting a fairy tale" and said: "Look, Mitenka, how beautifully other children draw," the boy had a tantrum. He tore the sheets and ran away.

Valentina spoiled her son, fulfilled all his whims, trying to somehow compensate for the lack of her attention. And Mitya was embarrassed by his star mother, jealous of her other children. Filling out a questionnaire for the military registration and enlistment office, he completely put a dash in the column "mother".

With faith in my soul

During the years of perestroika, a new generation of TV journalists came to television, Leontieva's programs were taken off the air. Out of pity and respect, she was not kicked out, but transferred as a consultant to the department of sign language interpreters.

In the late nineties, Leontyeva received an offer from Channel One to release a retrospective of the program "With all my heart", and she not only agreed, but even at her 74 years old she went under the knife, having undergone plastic surgery. The result was amazing - the announcer looked 20 years younger, but the project, alas, was never launched.

In 2004, "Aunt Valya" was taken by ambulance to the Central Clinical Hospital with a concussion and a fracture of the femoral neck - she accidentally fell, slipping in the kitchen. She was helpless and could hardly move. Not wanting to be a burden to her son, Leontyeva moved to her sister Lyusya in the Ulyanovsk region in the village of Novoselki. During this time, Mitya never once visited his mother and even talked on the phone with coolness and reluctance.

And Valentina waited, looked at the photographs of her son for a long time and hoped to the last that her Mitenka would come, at least to say goodbye. He did not fulfill his last duty to his mother and did not even come to the funeral in May 2007.

The host of “Good night kids” and “Visiting a fairy tale” is called the most popular and at the same time the most unfortunate Soviet TV presenter. The story of her difficult relationship with her son Dmitry a few years ago bypassed the entire press.

For the sake of working on television, she was ready for a lot. They said that years later, Valentina Leontyeva bitterly regretted that she had not given her son maternal love ..

Queen Ostankino

She hosted the famous "Blue Lights", commented on the solemn broadcasts from Red Square and various official events, was the host of the program "With all my heart", the famous "Visiting a fairy tale" and "Good night, kids." Television was everything for Valentina Leontyeva, and few people knew that at birth, “Aunt Valya” was called completely differently - Alevtina, and her last name was different - Thorsons.

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She searched for herself for a long time - at the age of 20 she entered the Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology, but did not study, she worked in a clinic for some time. Then she graduated from the opera and drama studio, worked at the Tambov Drama Theater. However, the theater did not become her vocation. Soon she, along with her first husband, director Yuri Richard, returned to Moscow. After some time, they divorced, they said that Leontieva filed for divorce after her husband's betrayal.

She came to television when she was a little over thirty, passed a tough casting. Valentina Leontyeva did not immediately become a star - at first she worked as an assistant director, then, finally, she became an announcer of Central Television. When she was already closer to forty, she married a second time - to diplomat Yuri Vinogradov, and soon their son Dima was born. For a long time, Valentina Mikhailovna was not going to leave the decree, she did not plan to become a housewife either - her colleagues said that a few days after the birth of the child, she appeared at work.

In the late 60s, the TV presenter disappeared from the screen for some time - she left with her diplomat husband and young son for New York, where her husband worked. This time turned out to be almost hard labor for her, a reference: as Valentina Leontieva will later recall, she “died without television”

Mother and son

When she returned, she reappeared on the screen. But personal life cracked. Perhaps the husband began to get bored that he practically did not see his wife, then, after their divorce, there were rumors that the decision to divorce had matured for a long time - but he was afraid that this would ruin his career. They said that due to family problems, Vinogradov at one time became addicted to drinking, began to look for attention on the side. When Leontyeva was already over 50, she found out that her husband had an affair on the side, with a nurse from the sanatorium where he was improving his health, she was expecting a baby. They divorced, soon Yuri married again, his daughter was born.

“Aunt Valya,” as the small viewers called Leontief, was adored by all preschoolers and primary school students. Every evening they saw her on the screen, each time the TV presenter with a kind motherly smile told and “showed” them a bedtime story. But Dima, Valentina Leontyeva's own son, heard little from her, his mother spent too much time at work and was much busier than the mothers of his classmates.

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One of the close friends of the TV presenter said that somehow Mitya (that was the name of the boy in childhood) hysterically tore the children's drawings that Leontieva brought from work to show him. She also recalled that one day the baby, seeing how much attention other children paid to her, offendedly reproached her: "You are the mother of all."

It was said that the grown-up Dima (after the divorce of his parents he stayed with his mother) began to hide that he was the son of “that same aunt Valya”, even changed school if classmates found out about it. And absolutely incredible story, they say, filling out a questionnaire at the military registration and enlistment office, Vinogradov Jr. put a dash in the column “mother”, indicating only his father. Whether it was actually - today it is difficult to say.

lone star

In 1989, 66-year-old Valentina Mikhailovna became a consultant speaker. And in the 90s, with the advent of a new leadership, she was out of work: she was removed from all programs. In the early 80s, the TV presenter was already removed from the air - the joke of comedians, as if Leontiev was an English spy, was taken seriously by the leadership, a check began. Fortunately, then "Aunt Valya" was quickly returned to the screens.

One of my colleagues said that in 1997, when it was planned to revive the program “From the bottom of my heart”, the TV presenter, who was already over 70, dreaming of being on the screen again, was told: “If you want to be on the screen, do the operation.” And Leontieva did, at the risk of getting a lot of complications, she decided on a deep chemical peel. Then she really looked younger before her eyes - though they changed their minds about launching the program. Valentina Leontyeva had to leave television - first on the radio, and then altogether, to retire.

Dmitry Vinogradov lived with his mother until 40 extra years until he got married. They said that the relationship between them was very difficult. Journalists, referring to colleagues of the TV presenter, wrote that Dmitry was often rude to his mother on the phone, demanded money, Leontieva often looked upset and cried after talking with him. The TV presenter's friend suggested that by his behavior the adult son "vented" his childhood grievances.

Different truth

In 2004, Valentina Mikhailovna was hospitalized with a concussion and a fracture of the femoral neck. Rumors immediately arose that the son had injured the TV presenter. Vinogradov himself did not comment. Then, already 10 years after the death of his mother, the man broke his many years of silence, saying in one of the TV shows that Valentina Leontieva simply "fell at home." The man suggested that relatives began to spread rumors about assault on his part after they failed to get half of Leontieva's apartment. He also explained why the last years of her life the star of Soviet television did not live in Moscow, where she had an apartment, but with her sister in small village V Ulyanovsk region.

According to Dmitry Vinogradov, after Valentina Mikhailovna was discharged from the hospital, she needed serious care - and her relatives suggested that she move in with them. He agreed with this proposal, deciding that she would be better off with loved ones than with a nurse. True, the son of Leontieva noted, it later turned out that the relatives did not behave quite honestly.

Friends of the TV presenter said that at the end of her life, Valentina Leontyeva most of all dreamed that her son would visit her. And he just called. She died on May 20, 2007, at the age of 83, without waiting for this meeting. Dmitry Vinogradov was also not at the funeral. According to him, that's how things happened.

Not so long ago, the son of Valentina Leontyeva said: talk that he grew up as an unhappy, offended child deprived of maternal love is “complete nonsense.” This confession of his contradicts much of what is written about the famous TV presenter and her relationship with her son, including based on the memoirs of Leontyeva's acquaintances. Vinogradov in recent years lives with his family in the Moscow region, draws pictures, leads enough closed image life. He named his son Valentine.

Valentina Leontieva met her second husband under funny circumstances. She said: “In one of the Moscow restaurants, a tall, handsome brunette approached me. His friend introduced this handsome man as Eric's English guest. With the so-called Englishman, I chatted (through the "translator") and danced the whole evening. The next day, the "overseas guest" Eric called me at home and in pure Russian asked for forgiveness, said that he had bet with a friend that I would buy into his prank. In fact, his name is Yura, he works as a diplomat, so he knows so well English language. After a long apology and explanation, Yura said that he would like to meet me again in his real image. We soon got married."

They lived together for 28 years. Yuri moved into her small room in a communal apartment, where there was only a bed, a chair and a few nails on which the things of the famous TV presenter hung. And on January 26, 1962, Valentina Leontieva was taken from work in an ambulance to the maternity hospital, where her son was born, whom she named Dmitry.

Valentina Leontyeva's friend, Lyudmila Tueva, said: “Valya wanted a child, but she had no time for everything - television sucked. At 39, not everyone decides to give birth. And three days after giving birth, she went on the air. The upbringing of little Mitya fell on the shoulders of her mother, Ekaterina Leontieva. Mom will always support Valya: help memorize texts at night, do for her homework to resolve conflicts with her husband.

Two years after the birth of his son, the program “Good night, kids!” appeared. - and Aunt Valya put millions of Soviet children to bed every day in live, while her Mitya spent time with her grandmother and dad, and really did not like this program. Because of her hard work, Valentina Mikhailovna spent little time at home, and only sometimes she herself took her son to kindergarten. Once, when she brought her son drawings of other children from the program “Visiting a fairy tale”, and said: “Look, Mitenka, how beautifully other children draw” - the boy had a tantrum. He tore the sheets and ran away. “Because of work, I almost lost my son,” Valentina Mikhailovna later admitted. TV was my number one home. She left for work - her son was still sleeping. Returned - already slept. She didn’t swaddle, and didn’t even feed.

Family life Valentina Leontyeva also did not work out with her second husband. Leontieva said: “My Vinogradov fell ill in the male part, I placed him in the best clinic on the Gulf of Finland. And he recovered very soon, falling in love with a young nurse ... I also had romances on the side of him. My husband drank a lot, but sometimes I wanted to be a woman. So there was every reason to change."

Kaleria Kislova said: “Her husband was a diplomat, worked as Khrushchev’s personal translator, then he was sent on some kind of diplomatic mission to New York, I think, to the UN. And then there was such a law (however, it seems that it exists now) that it was necessary to go with your wife. Valya pulled as long as she could. And then she had to leave. I remember how she came to our office to say goodbye. “I don’t know how I will live there,” she said with tears in her eyes, “without work, without television!” However, she did not live overseas for long: they removed Khrushchev, and soon Valya's husband was also recalled. Somehow I come to work - she sits. We had a large room, and everyone gathered for her “lecture about America” - authors, editors, directors. According to her, everything seemed foreign there. Mothers walking in the park with their children made a particularly strong impression on her. “I was amazed,” she said, “that a child can fall, hit, cry, and my mother won’t even raise an eyebrow: “Nothing, he will rise!” Such is their education system. And since I rushed to Mitya all the time, they looked at me, to put it mildly, with surprise. And she never spoke English - unlike her son, who very quickly found mutual language with American children.

Sister Lyudmila Leontieva said that at one time Valentina was in love with the host Yuri Nikolaev. And once he made a fine on the air - appeared in drunk in front of millions of viewers. He was immediately removed, but Leontieva asked for him, and Nikolaev was reinstated. But he did not help Aunt Valya later in return. She said: “When you fall in love, you take a basin, do yourself hara-kiri, dump your insides there and put it all under the nose of your boyfriend. And he is turned back. There must be some secret in a woman. And from the first day I was afraid of losing a man. I gave them gifts, and they gave me only flowers, and then occasionally. I got them phones, helped “knock out” apartments. Sometimes she was in such a hurry to go on a date that she waited at her own entrance for half an hour so as not to come first.

Vitaly Zaikin said: “Only to me and my brother, Valentina Mikhailovna admitted that Arkady Raikin was madly in love with her. They met at one of the "Blue Lights" in St. Petersburg and after filming went to wander along the embankments. Raikin did not take his admiring eyes off her all the way and was very embarrassed. “I always liked you on the screen, but in life, Valya, you are a hundred times better,” the actor admitted. A few days later he arranged for himself a "business trip" to Moscow. And he was waiting for her after each broadcast in the corridors of Ostankino with a huge bouquet of flowers. Then Raikin began to literally pursue the TV presenter, constantly torn between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Between family and obsession. Valentina was also already married to Vinogradov, she raised her son Mitya. And Arkady never achieved reciprocal feelings, although he went to desperate acts for her. After all, it was only because of Leontieva that he managed to open his theater in the capital (and, by the way, “knocked out” the building not far from Ostankino, on Sheremetyevskaya Street). All in all, this went on for ten years. From the outside, Valentin Leontiev and Arkady Raikin looked like good friends. “It was just not my man! It was interesting to communicate with Arkasha, but as a man, he doesn’t work for me!” - Aunt Valya explained to us. However, the wife of the actor has long suspected something was wrong in this strange friendship. Finally, tired of putting up, she stopped all their communication, putting her husband before a choice: "Either I, or Leontiev." And Raikin dropped his hands.

Since 1989, Valentina Leontyeva has become a television consultant-announcer, and also wrote the book "Declaration of Love." This book was very popular with readers, as millions of viewers were interested to know what the famous aunt Valya was interested in in life. So, for example, it became known that the favorite book of Valenina Leontyeva was Alexander Milne's fairy tale "Winnie the Pooh and Everything, Everything, Everything." She really liked the never-downbeat character of the teddy bear, who infected others with his optimism.

She herself had the same character, and helped her a lot in difficult situations. So, for example, once two radio correspondents played a cruel joke with Valentina Leontyeva. They argued for a box of champagne, figuring out which rumor - about Vysotskaya or Leontiev - would fly from Moscow to Vladivostok faster. Word of mouth was chosen as the means of communication. As a result, the news got on the air that the diplomat's wife, Valentina Leontiev, while in America, entered into a criminal relationship with the CIA. And she had to make excuses for this wild trick later in every interview and before her superiors. But Valentina Mikhailovna treated such rumors with humor: “I am a CIA agent! What could be more ridiculous?! I had another vacation, and I decided to visit my husband, who at that time was working in the States. It was just that at that time the program “With all my heart” was closed: one boss decided that this program had become obsolete. And, apparently, since no explanation followed, the people came up with the idea that “With all my heart” was closed because of my connections with American intelligence.”

But this was an innocent trifle compared to the surprise that Russian television prepared for Leontieva during perestroika. Vitaly Zaikin said: “The director, who came to television in the years of perestroika, filmed all her programs in one day: “Good night, kids!”, “Visiting a fairy tale” and “With all my heart”. He invited Valentina Mikhailovna to his office and invited her to retire. To which I immediately received an answer: “I will now hang a sign on my chest with the inscription “Blame the boss for my death” and lie down under the tram at VDNKh!” Then she was transferred "behind the scenes" to the position of assistant director. And when we got to know her, we were appointed as a consultant to the department of sign language translation. “That’s why I’ve been grinding my tongue all my life so that in my old age I can communicate with gestures,” Aunt Valya ironically.

In 1999, with a new script for the program "From the bottom of my heart," Leontyeva again came to television. Vitaly Zaikin said: “We wanted to revive all Leontieva's programs. At first it was, and when it became uncomfortable, we already knocked on the thresholds of the directorate of the television center. “If you are ready to pay for your performances on the air at advertising prices, then please: a minute - five thousand dollars,” the former boss stunned Leontief. She was ashamed to admit that for the sake of the ethers she was ready to change even her appearance. After all, everyone was ready to write off Valentina from television as outdated equipment. Once we were at a banquet together, and in the midst of the holiday, Naina Yeltsina approached Valentina Mikhailovna. She kissed him on the cheek, inquired about health and pressing matters. And when she heard about the problem of aging, she said that she would recommend the best doctors in the area plastic surgery. Naina kept her word, and soon Valentina Leontieva went under the knife. But only in order to return to the screens. She used a unique technology to burn the top layers of her skin along with wrinkles. At that time, this procedure cost us a tidy sum - fifteen thousand dollars. When they brought her, she had a plaster mask on her face, and in the first days Valentina Mikhailovna had to be fed almost through a pipette. “The main thing is that a cigarette goes through the hole in the plaster mouth!” our heavy smoker warned in advance. When the mask was removed, the face looked like it was burned. And it lasted for about a month. Valentina Mikhailovna looked amazing - she was twenty years younger. But she strictly forbade us to reveal the miracle of the transformation, even her own sister, with whom they were very close, did not know anything. "What have you done with our aunt Valya?" - Dmitry Dibrov jumped up to us. “They have nothing to do with it, I just got burned in the sun!” - Leontieva snapped. The rejuvenated aunt Valya was never offered new positions. Then she despaired and recorded on tape an appeal to President Boris Yeltsin, which we sent to his administration. Apparently, some orders were given, because after that they began to invite Valentina Leontieva for interviews. First Ernst, then Dibrov. Then they thought about returning the program "Visiting a Fairy Tale" and changed Leontief's image. Dressed in a funny outfit - like Mary Poppins, from which Valentina Mikhailovna was horrified. But what can't you do for the sake of art! Then she was given new scenario"Heartily". Leontieva tried to teach him and six months later she stated: “I won’t succeed, my memory is not the same.” In 1997, the Telescope program was published, which was led by Leontieva, but it did not last long in the rating. Finally, Valentina Mikhailovna was temporarily taken to the radio, where she hosted her author's program.

“Vladimir Pozner saved me from humiliating poverty,” Leontieva later said, “He procured for me from CEO ORT Konstantin Ernst a lifetime salary.

When Valentina Mikhailovna turned 80 in 2003, she said in an interview: “I love television, I love my colleagues with whom I have lived side by side for decades, I love my viewers who still write letters to me and greet me on the street. I love my life and do not feel the age at all, although some people constantly hint at it to me. They write that I don’t see anything, I don’t leave the house, that I’m going to die. It's all lies! When they sent me an invitation to the next TEFI ceremony, at first I didn’t want to go, but when I read about my imaginary illness, I packed up and went so that the people could see: Leontyeva was alive and well. She got out of the car and said to the assembled spectators: “Look, my dears, at me, please, and tell me, do I look like a dying person?” Everyone laughed."

In 2004, Leontieva moved to the village of Novoselki in the Ulyanovsk region, where her sister lived. The move was required after Valentina Leontieva was injured during a fall in her apartment on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street. At first, she did not attach much importance to the pains in the spine that appeared after the fall, but after two weeks she lost consciousness on the street. Fortunately, a man passing by saw that the woman had become ill and called an ambulance.

Waking up in the Central Clinical Hospital, Valentina Mikhailovna learned the diagnosis - a compression fracture of the 12th vertebra. “When I was discharged from the hospital, I suddenly discovered that I had some memory lapses,” Leontieva recalled. She could not get used to the apartment, she confused the rooms, at times she did not recognize her son. “Mitya was very annoyed that I confuse him with other people,” recalled Valentina Mikhailovna. “My helplessness pissed him off.”

Vitaly Zaikin spoke in detail about the relationship between Valentina Leontyeva and her son with his colleague Nikolai Ozerov: “We met Mitya when she and Valentina Mikhailovna lived together. An intelligent man, four years older than me. He even went with us to the dacha and drank tea, but he did not let us into his world. As soon as we started talking about television in front of him, Mitya either left the room or snapped at his mother: “You have already retired, where will they take you now! And you don’t poke your nose, why bother her soul! ” And he stole the same tape with congratulations on his birthday and threw it in the trash. Aunt Valya cried so much! He himself preferred to conduct religious conversations, kept all fasts and generally considered himself a highly spiritual person. That did not fit with his attitude towards his mother. Mitya was a late child, Valentina gave birth to him at thirty-seven. For a while she fed him herself, but then she handed over the reins of power to her grandmother. Years later, at the cemetery, she asked her mother for forgiveness for this: “How guilty I am that I blamed everything on you.” Yes, and Mitya, perhaps, became like that due to the fact that his grandmother spoiled him too much. True, when the boy was two years old, Leontiev and Vinogradov took him to New York, and then for almost ten years they wandered abroad with their son. Almost ten years, early childhood, Mitya spent completely with his mother, got used to her being around. And when the family returned to Russia, Leontieva again went to television, where she began career takeoff. She took Mitya to concerts several times, but when he saw how other people's children joyfully applauded his mother, stretched their hands to her and shouted: “Aunt Valya! Aunt Valya! - started to get jealous and shut up. “I don’t want to walk with you, you are not mine, but the mother of all,” Mitya was offended. Over time, his jealousy of other children only grew. And turned into a hatred of television ... She told how she weaned her son from smoking when she found cigarette ashes in his pocket. She invited him to the kitchen and offered to smoke together: "Puff so deep that smoke pours out of your nose." Mitya inhaled and rushed to the toilet, where he vomited. But since then, I have not taken cigarettes in my mouth. His mother monitored his grades at school, and later tried to get him a job. First on television, but he disowned it. Then she took him to the modeling agency of Slava Zaitsev, but when it sounded from the speakers that the son of Aunt Valya was showing clothes, Mitya gave up this occupation as well. Apparently, everything that was connected with his mother's work annoyed him. The son tried to open some kind of business of his own, for which he spent all the money set aside by his mother (and even took away her pension every month, as Valentina's sister testified). Mitya lived in some kind of his own closed world, closed himself from his mother in a room and did not tell her anything about his personal life. And the girl who later became his wife met her future mother-in-law in a rather funny way. She went into the kitchen from Mitya's room, saw Aunt Valya, of course, recognized her and asked: "Oh, what are you doing here?" It turns out that Mitya did not tell his girlfriend who his mother was. And about plastic surgery Valentina Mikhailovna begged us not to tell him. But Mitya himself guessed everything and again brought his mother to tears with his tantrums: “You are crazy! What did you fix with it?" Valentina tirelessly said: "Television is my home." Because of this, she did not have a real home, a family. Mitya could go on a business trip and not tell his mother anything. Then Valentina began to go crazy, calling friends, morgues. And when her son returned, she didn’t even swear, she was just happy that he was alive. Sometimes Mitya took all the money from his mother and disappeared again. It happened that there was nothing to buy a loaf of bread. But for her, who survived the blockade, the worst thing in her life was hunger. “No matter how much I eat, I can never get enough of anything,” said Aunt Valya. She suffered so much that out of despair she began to think: maybe there was damage to her boy? Prior to this, Valentina Mikhailovna had already dealt with healers ... Nikolai and I then took her to a psychic - we thought maybe this would make her feel better. He gave her some kind of love potion, which had to be mixed into her son's tea. Aunt Valya followed all the instructions, after which relations with Mitya really improved for a while. Only three months. But then, as if the pendulum swung in the opposite direction: the son prepared everything for disappearing forever. At first he offered to exchange their four-room apartment in the center for two on the outskirts. Leontieva agreed, without even asking why he made this decision. But after all the documents were drawn up and the division of property took place, the mother never saw her son again. And Valentina Mikhailovna was embarrassed to cut the wires. Having lost everything, she began to fade away very quickly. I even thought of committing suicide. I was going to swallow pills, I even prepared everything ... But at the last moment they rang the doorbell - my niece came from Ulyanovsk.

After the troubles experienced and the complex operation, Leontyeva needed constant care, and sister Lyudmila took her to her place in the Ulyanovsk region. In Novoselki, Valentina Mikhailovna settled in a one-room apartment with a glazed loggia in an ordinary village five-story building. A floor above lived her sister Lyudmila. Leontieva admitted that, leaving the capital, she expected to return soon, but this never happened.

“Valentina needed constant help,” said Lyudmila Mikhailovna, Leontyeva’s sister, “and her son Dima, a busy man, could not take care of his mother properly ... She had a serious injury: she fell in her Moscow apartment, hit her head hard and broke her hip neck. And here's what's a shame: she never got sick, she didn't even have an outpatient card. Well, except that a couple of times she turned to her local doctor about the banal flu. And then suddenly this. The doctors did everything they could and warned us that she would have serious problems with head. They wanted to give Valya to a nursing home, but I did not allow it. Valya herself said: “Only to Lucy!”. We provided her with excellent conditions, such as she would not have anywhere else: we took care of her and prepared everything that she asked for. Valya loved pasta. The first channel helped us a lot. For example, they brought here all the furnishings of her Moscow room so that she would not feel lonely in a strange place. Here was her bed, and her chest of drawers, and her dressing table, and books, knickknacks, albums with photographs that she treasured. When we took her away, the doctors warned that she would not last more than a year, but she still lived for three years.”

Kaleria Kislova said: “Why she left for Novoselki can also be understood. She could no longer serve herself, and her loving relatives live there. The nieces and sister, who is older than her, took care of everything. They created the Museum of Valentina Leontyeva, the local governor took great care of her ... So Valya was happy and kind to the very end of her life. Yes, on a personal level, she did not work out: she divorced her husband, he went to another city.

What Leontieva saw on TV often genuinely upset her: “Television now is not what it used to be. Then there was more sincerity in people, we loved our work. That is why the transmissions turned out to be sincere and kind. What now? Endless games and shows in which greed, immorality and greed reign. I recently turned on the TV and came across Windows. What a vile program! TV shouldn't be like this. And what did they do with the "Calm"! I'm on a mediocre, through and through fake beauty Oksana Fedorova look disgusting!"

During the three years that Leontieva lived in Novoselki, her son never visited her, and did not even want to talk on the phone. Valentina Mikhailovna was very upset by separation and until the last hoped to see her son, but her dreams were not destined to come true. Meanwhile, Valentina Mikhailovna was increasingly worried about her deteriorating health. Her eyesight deteriorated greatly, and she did not leave the house.

Vitaly Zaikin said: “In her old age, Valentina saw very poorly, she was diagnosed with cataracts. To protect herself from blindness, Leontieva had to undergo an operation at the Institute of Eye Microsurgery. Fedorov himself volunteered to operate on her. And she suddenly demanded an ordinary doctor from the assembly line, who does forty operations a day. “Your Fedorov is both a politician and a teacher, but he probably forgot how to cut people! But I don't know how to say this without offending him. I’d rather stay blind,” said Aunt Valya.

For the last two months of her life, she did not get out of bed. Protecting Leontieva from unnecessary anxiety, her sister protected her from interviews and visits from journalists. “I don’t want to be seen like this - sick and aged,” Leontieva herself said, “let them remember me young and beautiful, like on a television screen ...”

Lyudmila Leontyeva said: “I saw that she lacked people, communication. Well, in the last year it wasn’t up to that anymore: she was getting worse and worse, she didn’t always recognize me and her daughter either. And then she fell ill with pneumonia and burned out in just a few days.

“I have always considered myself her student, considering it an honor and happiness to work with Valentina Mikhailovna,” said Igor Kirillov, Leontyeva’s on-air partner. - I remember her first of all as an ideal and sensitive partner on the air. It was always reliable with her, even live. She could at any time help, pick up and save the situation in the most severe force majeure. She became beloved, close and dear - in a word, her own for millions of viewers. Because she was herself on the screen - natural and emotional.

The management of Channel One took over the organization of the funeral. The sister refused the offer to transport the body to Moscow, and Valentina Leontieva was buried in the village cemetery. About a thousand residents of the village came to say goodbye to the TV presenter, Alexander Orlov, a student of Leontieva, actor Andrei Udalov and Leontieva's friend Lyudmila Tueva, came from Moscow. Leontyeva's relatives received telegrams of condolences from a huge number of people - from the President Russian Federation to ordinary viewers.

Leontyeva's son did not come to the funeral. Vitaly Zaikin said: “Mitya was aware that his mother was dying. But when we called him and asked to talk or come, he answered dryly: "I'll try." He remained cold even when we told how many tears Aunt Valya shed for him. And he didn't show up for the funeral. Even his sister hasn't heard from him since. Although he always regularly visited his father's grave. And we, Leontieva's godchildren, every year try to erect a monument to Aunt Valya in Moscow, but the government has not yet given the go-ahead. There is no place in the capital for a popular Soviet presenter ... "To the words of Vitaly Zaikin, it remains only to add the words of Eduard Sagalaev about Leontieva:" This is a whole era in domestic television, the emergence of a fundamentally new profession of a TV presenter in those years is associated with her name.

Once in Volgograd, in the places where there were battles and trenches, Valentina Leontyeva saw a small birch and said: “She grew up on blood.” Last request Valentina Mikhailovna - her trees should grow at her grave ...

Used materials:

The text of the interview "Valentine's Day" with Vitaly Zaikin"

Text of the article "Valentina Leontieva: I don't watch TV anymore", author V. Oberemko

Text of the article "Valentina Leontiev: Bulat Okudzhava and a captured German asked for my hand", author S. Shaidakova www.eg.ru

Site materials www.geroy.ntv.ru

Site materials www.rg.ru

Site materials www.gazeta.aif.ru

Valentina Mikhailovna Leontieva (nee Alevtina Torsons). Born August 1, 1923 in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) - died May 20, 2007 in the village of Novoselki, Ulyanovsk Region. Soviet and Russian TV presenter. Announcer of the Central Television of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting in 1954-1989. People's Artist of the USSR (1982).

Alevtina Torsons, who became widely known as Valentina Leontieva, was born on August 1, 1923 in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) into a family of native Petersburgers.

Father - Michael Thorsons.

Sister - Lyudmila.

Uncle - architect Vladimir Shchuko.

"Dad was older than mom for 20 years, I loved him madly. Years later, both my sister and I, getting married, kept in memory of him maiden name. I remember wonderful musical evenings with competitions, balls and masquerades in our house, when dad played the violin," she said.

WITH early years studied in the theater circle at the Youth Theater.

The Leontiev family survived the Leningrad blockade. At the age of 18, Valentina enrolled in the sanitary corps to help the wounded and sick in the besieged city. During the siege, her father died. In 1942, the mother and two sisters left Leningrad for evacuation to the village of Novoselki, Melekessky district, Ulyanovsk region.

After the war, she studied at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology, worked in a clinic.

Then she graduated from the Stanislavsky Opera and Drama Studio at the Moscow Art Theater, the course of V. O. Toporkov.

After graduating from the studio in 1948, she served at the Tambov Drama Theater for several seasons.

In 1954, having passed the competitive selection, Valentina Mikhailovna came to work on television. At first she was an assistant director, then she became an announcer.

Sometimes she acted in films in small roles - a TV presenter.

Valentina Leontyeva in the film "Behind the Store Window"

Valentina Leontyeva in the film "Northern Rhapsody"

She regularly appeared in the Blue Light programs.

Over the years of her long-term work on television, Valentina Mikhailovna hosted both Blue Lights and many holiday broadcasts, the program From the Lodge of the Theater (together with Igor Kirillov), as well as many other favorite and popular at that time television programs.

Valentina Leontieva - Blue Light 1962

From 1965 to 1967 she lived in New York with her diplomat husband and son. Upon arrival from the United States, he returns to television.

More than one generation of Russians has grown up on Valentina Leontyeva's children's programs - such as "Visiting a Fairy Tale", "Good Night, Kids", "Alarm Clock", "Skillful Hands". Millions of children were waiting for these programs.

Valentina Mikhailovna has earned the honorary title of Aunt Valya.

Valentina Leontieva - Visiting a fairy tale

The peak of her work was the program "From the bottom of my heart", which was awarded State Prize. The first telecast went on the air on July 13, 1972. The transfer went on for 15 years. In 1975, for these programs, she was awarded the State Prize of the USSR. The last 52nd issue took place in July 1987 (from Orenburg). Valentina Mikhailovna remembered her heroes until the end of her life.

Valentina Leontyeva was the first announcer and the only female announcer of the Central Television of the USSR to be awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR. Throughout history folk artists The USSR became two announcers - she and Igor Kirillov.

During the work, funny things happened more than once. For example, during the conduct of one of the “Lights”, the heel of Leontieva’s shoes was firmly stuck in the floor during a live broadcast, putting Leontieva in a very difficult position. During one of the programs about animals, Leontiev was bitten by a bear cub. But she didn’t even show it and brought the program to the end - she understood that the whole Soviet Union was watching her live, and when the program ended, she had to call an ambulance - she was very ill.

Since 1989, he has been an announcer-consultant for television.

In the 1990s, a difficult period began in the life of Valentina Leontyeva. All her programs were closed, and no new offers were received. She tried to revive the program "With all my heart" on her own, but all her efforts did not work.

In 1996, together with I. Kirillov, she participated in the Telescope program.

In 2000, the TV presenter was awarded the TEFI Prize in the nomination "For personal contribution to the development of domestic television."

Since 2004, she lived in the village of Novoselki, Melekessky District, Ulyanovsk Region, with her relatives (she moved to her sister Lyudmila), who took care of her.

She was buried, according to her will, in the same place, in the village cemetery.

In July 2007, the Ulyanovsk Regional Puppet Theater was named after the People's Artist of the USSR Valentina Mikhailovna Leontyeva.

Valentina Leontieva: a fairy tale and a true story

Personal life of Valentina Leontieva:

Was married twice.

The first husband is director Yuri Richard. She met at the Tambov theater, he also moved Leontiev to Moscow. Lived together for 3 years.

The second husband is Yuri Vinogradov, a diplomat, an employee of the USSR diplomatic mission in New York. We met in one of the Moscow restaurants. The couple had a son Dmitry Vinogradov. The marriage broke up in the mid-1970s.

Dmitry Vinogradov - son of Valentina Leontieva

August 1, 2018, where he told the details of his relationship with his mother, and also spoke about relatives, because of which he missed the funeral of his parent.

“I lived with my mother until I was 45. For many, this seems strange, but it is true. We had a good relationship, I also communicated well with my dad. Mom was very soft, she always spoiled me, and dad, on the contrary, was strict, ”he said.

In the last years of Leontieva's life, Vinogradov rarely visited his mother. But this was due not to their conflict, but to Dmitry's long-standing enmity with relatives. After a spinal injury that Valentina Mikhailovna received through negligence at Ostankino, relatives living in the Ulyanovsk region took care of her. The son is sure that the true goal of the relatives was the money and valuables of the legendary announcer.

“After she died, they drove a KAMAZ to the house to take out all my mother's things. They took literally everything. Moreover, my mother wanted to be cremated and buried in Moscow, but they insisted on a ceremony in the Ulyanovsk region. I didn't come to the funeral because I wasn't sure I could control myself. I was afraid that I would kill one of these scoundrels, and then we would talk about a criminal case. But justice still triumphed: I wished them death, and they died. You can say that I cursed them, ”said Dmitry.

Dmitry brings up his son, whose name is Valentine - almost like a legendary grandmother.

He was in love with Valentina Leontieva. He courted very persistently, but never achieved reciprocal feelings, both had families. This went on for 10 years. She said: “It was just not my man! It was interesting to communicate with Arkasha, but as a man, he doesn’t do anything for me!

Filmography of Valentina Leontieva:

1955 - Behind the window of a department store - television announcer (uncredited)
1962 - Blue Light-1962 (film-play) - host of "Blue Light"
1962 - Without fear and reproach - TV announcer (uncredited)
1964 - Blue light. 25 years of Soviet television (film-play) - presenter
1965 - At the first hour - a guest of the "Blue Light"
1967 - Kremlin Courier (film-play) - episode (not in the credits)
1974 - Northern Rhapsody - TV presenter
1993 - Just ... Aunt Valya (documentary)

Voiced by Valentina Leontieva:

1968 - Kid and Carlson (animation) - Kid's mom
1970 - Sweet Tale (animated) - television announcer (uncredited)
1970 - Friend Tymanchi - reads Russian text

Private bussiness

Valentina Leontyeva (real name - Alevtina Mikhailovna Torsons, 1923-2007) was born in Petrograd. Her father, Mikhail Grigorievich Torsons, had Swedish roots, worked as a chief accountant at Oktyabrskaya railway. Mother Ekaterina Mikhailovna worked as an accountant in a hospital. The family was creative, the children were often taken to museums and theaters, they arranged home concerts for Alevtina and her older sister Lyudmila.

The TV presenter said: “Dad was 20 years older than mom, I loved him madly. Years later, both my sister and I, getting married, kept our maiden name in memory of him. I remember wonderful musical evenings with competitions, balls and masquerades in our house, when dad played the violin.

During the siege of Leningrad, Leontiev and his sister served in an air defense detachment. Once, while parsing furniture for firewood, their 60-year-old father injured his hand and soon died of starvation and blood poisoning.

In 1942, when the Road of Life was opened, the family left Leningrad for the village of Novoselki, Ulyanovsk Region. “I, my mother and sister Lucy were saved. Lucy's son, whom she gave birth to at the beginning of the war, died on the road, his sister was not even allowed to bury him. She buried the baby's body in the nearest snowdrift, ”Leontieva recalled. In Novoselki, she graduated with honors from the ten-year school.

In 1945, Alevtina moved to Moscow with her mother, while her sister remained in the village, where she lived until the end of her life, working as an economist at a state farm. In the capital, Leontyeva wanted to enter the acting department, but was late with the submission of documents. She submitted documents to the Institute of Chemical Technology, but soon left it, began working as a cleaner in a clinic. Later she entered the Shchepkinskoe School and at the same time the opera and drama studio at the Moscow Art Theater, which she graduated in 1948 (course of the actor Vasily Toporkov, student of Stanislavsky).

The sister of the TV presenter said: “After graduating from the studio, she ended up in the Tambov Regional Theater by distribution. She played a lot, her role was "heroine". And then a young director [Yuri Richard] came there, he staged his graduation performance there. They liked each other, got married, and [in 1954] he took Valya to Moscow. She somehow did not work out with Moscow theaters, and then a competition for television was announced. She decided to try: suddenly it will work out, - as a result, she found herself a job for life.

The TV presenter's first marriage broke up after three years. After that, she married a diplomat, Khrushchev's personal translator Yuri Vinogradov. In marriage, the son Dmitry Vinogradov was born, with whom Leontieva had a difficult relationship.

In 1965-1967, she lived with her family in New York, where her husband was at diplomatic work.

After returning from the United States, she again went to work on television, where she hosted the program “With All My Soul”, the festive concerts “Blue Light”, as well as the popular children's programs “Good night, kids”, “Alarm clock”, “Skillful hands”, “Visiting a fairy tale”. In children's programs, she presented herself as Aunt Valya.

In the early 1970s, the second marriage of the TV presenter broke up, she did not marry again. She recalled: “My Vinogradov fell ill in the male part, I got him into the best clinic on the Gulf of Finland. And he recovered very soon, falling in love with a young nurse ... I also had romances on the side of him. My husband drank a lot, but sometimes I wanted to be a woman. So there was every reason to change."

In another interview, she noted: “Very quickly, our marriage became a formality. Yura did not file for divorce due to the fact that this would put an end to his career. My husband was constantly offended by me and said that he got a TV box as his wife.

In 1989, all Leontieva's programs were closed, she herself was transferred to the position of an announcer-consultant. In the same year, the autobiography of the TV presenter "Declaration of Love" was published.

From 1996 to 1998, together with Dmitry Krylov and Igor Kirillov, she hosted a television program called Telescope.

In 2004, she received a fracture of the femoral neck and a concussion - according to official version, fell at home. There were also rumors that her son had beaten her. After leaving the hospital, she moved to the village of Novoselki, where she was taken care of elder sister and sister's children.

Sister Lyudmila said: “The doctors did everything they could and warned us that she would have serious problems with her head. They wanted to give Valya to a nursing home, but I did not allow it. Valya herself said: "Only to Luce!" We provided her with excellent conditions, such as she would not have anywhere else: we took care of her and prepared everything that she asked for. Valya loved pasta.<...>When we took her away, the doctors warned that she would not last more than a year, but she still lived for three years.”

Valentina Leontyeva died on May 20, 2007 at the age of 83. She was buried at the Novoselok cemetery, as she herself bequeathed. Leontyeva's son has not seen his mother in recent years, he also did not come to the funeral.

Leontyeva's older sister died in September 2013 at the age of 93.

What is famous

The legendary Soviet TV presenter, "Aunt Valya" for millions of people who grew up on her programs "Good night, kids!", "Visiting a fairy tale", "Alarm clock". The most notable in terms of creativity was her program "From the bottom of my heart", which Leontieva led for 15 years. The program became the prototype of the modern TV project “Wait for me” and was dedicated to finding people who had lost contact with each other for many years. The program was filmed all over the country - the presenter traveled with her 54 cities of the USSR. In the issues of "With all my heart" Leontyeva became the pioneer of the talk show genre on Soviet television.

What you need to know

Leontieva loved her work and put it above everything else. Her friend Lyudmila Tueva said: “Valya wanted a child, but she had no time for everything - television sucked. At 39, not everyone decides to give birth. And three days after giving birth, she went on the air. The upbringing of little Mitya fell on the shoulders of her mother - Ekaterina Leontieva.

In 1982, the TV presenter's mother died. Valentina Leontyeva recalled those days: “I came to her, dying, in the hospital. "I'm cold, hug me," my mother asked. And so, she died in my arms. And the next day I had to fly to the shooting of the program "With all my heart" in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. And on my way - heart attack. And after the transfer - fainting. So I didn’t bury my mother.”

The TV presenter's son was offended because she did not pay attention to him in childhood. Leontieva explained: “I raised children of all Soviet Union and didn't have enough time for my baby. Mitya hated TV. Once, with tears in his eyes, he threw me in a completely grown-up way: "You are not my mother, you are everything." He probably has the right to be offended by me ... Mitya's life did not work out, in his 40s [at the beginning of the 2000s] he was never married, higher education did not receive, always interrupted by odd jobs. In truth, he's just used to sitting on my neck."

Direct speech:

On life after the war:“My mother and I moved in 1945, immediately after the Victory, to Moscow from Leningrad. The city was - solid catacombs: everywhere there were barriers from tanks, destroyed houses, trenches dug by captured Germans. Once I was walking near such a trench. Suddenly, dirty thin hands stretched literally from under the ground. The German looked at me with pleading eyes: "Bread, give me bread!" I looked at his hands and was stunned: only pianists and violinists have such thin, long, beautiful fingers. I begged the guard to let me feed this German. He was brought to our house, I poured him some soup. At first he ate very slowly, he didn’t even raise his eyes to me - he was afraid. Then he got a little bolder and asked where my parents were. I said that dad died in the Leningrad blockade from starvation psychosis, and mom was left alone with us (she saved us, forcing us to smoke so that we would less want to eat). The German had tears in his eyes, he did not finish his dinner, got up and left. Two years later, our doorbell rang. On the threshold stood the same German. True, now he was not at all grimy and skinny, but washed, combed, dressed in full dress, quite a handsome young man. Standing next to him elderly woman. He smiled at me and said, "I couldn't forget you, so I came with my mom to propose to you." I refused him, because I could not marry the enemy. Then his mother cried and said goodbye to me: “Baby, you don’t even know what you mean to me. You saved my son from starvation. I will thank you all my life.”

On failed romances:“When you fall in love, you take a basin, make yourself hara-kiri, dump your insides there and put it all under the nose of your boyfriend. And he is turned back. There must be some secret in a woman. And from the first day I was afraid of losing a man. I gave them gifts, and they gave me only flowers, and then occasionally. I got them phones, helped to "knock out" apartments. Sometimes she was in such a hurry to go on a date that she waited at her own entrance for half an hour so as not to come first.

About oblivion on TV (TV producer Vitaly Zaikin):“The director, who came to television during the perestroika years, shot all her programs in one day: “Good night, kids!”, “Visiting a fairy tale” and “With all my heart”. He invited Valentina Mikhailovna to his office and invited her to retire. To which he immediately received an answer: “I will now hang a sign on my chest with the inscription “Blame the boss for my death” and lie down under the tram at VDNKh!” Then she was transferred "behind the scenes" to the position of assistant director. And when we got to know her, we appointed her as a consultant in the sign language translation department. “That’s why I’ve been grinding my tongue all my life, so that in my old age I can communicate with gestures,” Aunt Valya ironically.

Leontiev about old age and TV (on the occasion of the 80th anniversary in 2003):“I love television, I love my colleagues with whom I have lived side by side for decades, I love my viewers who still write me letters and greet me on the street. I love my life and do not feel the age at all, although some people constantly hint at it to me. They write that I don’t see anything, I don’t leave the house, that I’m going to die. It's all lies! When they sent me an invitation to the next TEFI ceremony, at first I didn’t want to go, but when I read about my imaginary illness, I packed up and went so that the people could see: Leontyeva was alive and well. She got out of the car and said to the assembled spectators: “Look, my dears, at me, please, and tell me, do I look like a dying person?” Everyone laughed."

6 facts about Valentina Leontieva

• As a child, she played in a drama club. In the sixth grade, she won first place in a reading competition among Leningrad schools.
• During the blockade, Leontief and her sister were taught to smoke by their mother in order to kill the feeling of hunger. So the TV presenter got into the habit of smoking two packs a day.
• Leontief's first husband, director Richard, was fond of erotic photography. In memory of him, the presenter left several candid shots for which she posed.
• In 1982 she received the title of People's Artist of the USSR. In the entire history, only two announcers have become People's Artists of the Union - Valentina Leontieva and Igor Kirillov.
• In 1975, for the programs "With all my heart" she was awarded the State Prize of the USSR.
• In 2000 she received the TEFI award "For personal contribution to the development of domestic television."

Materials about Valentina Leontieva: