The legendary female figure on the World War II B-17 bomber, the Memphis Belle, had a strong connection to the north Hamilton County community of Soddy. Although Anna Mae Clift, member of the legendary Clift family (great-granddaughter of Union Col. William Clift and second cousin of actor Montgomery Clift) was born in 1896 and lived in the area only in her first years, her relatives proudly claim her Soddy heritage.
In her early 20s, the tall red-headed beauty left for New York to dance with the Greenwich Village Follies. Not long after her arrival a handsome young Peruvian artist, Alberto Vargas, spied her walking down the street. Normally shy, Alberto followed her to a local theater. When Anna Mae came out several hours later, he asked in broken English to paint her portrait even though he had no money. Surprisingly, she agreed to model and became the inspiration for his watercolors and eventually his wife.
Alberto fell in love with Anna Mae immediately. Because Anna Mae was a beautiful showgirl, somewhat of a gadfly, and loved to party, he was reluctant to express his true feelings for fear of rejection. Unbeknownst to him, Anna Mae felt similar love for Alberto. In 1930, she proposed marriage, and he immediately accepted.
Alberto had begun his career by retouching negatives and then worked as a freelance artist selling pen and ink drawings. In 1919, Florenz Ziegfeld, head of the Ziegfeld Follies, hired him on a handshake as the official portrait painter of his girls, including Anna Mae. The artist credited Ziegfeld with teaching him “the delicate borderline between a nude picture and a wonderful portrait with style and class.”
In 1934, Fox Movie Studios brought Alberto and Anna Mae to Hollywood, where he painted portraits of most of the leading ladies of the day, including Greta Garbo, Dorothy Lamour, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich and child star Shirley Temple. One might think that a handsome Latin man would be tempted by the beautiful women of Hollywood, but he remained true to his only love besides art, Anna Mae.