“Taught me not to disgrace myself”: Pugacheva’s former housekeeper spoke about the singer

Everyone knows Lucy. They still don’t allow passage, no matter where they see them. People, taken aback, stop: “You are the same Lucy!” Sometimes, if she is not in a good mood, she denies: “We made a mistake.” But often this number does not work, they still recognize him as a legend. He waves his hands: “Just please don’t call me a legend. We have only one legend – Alla, and who am I?

Now Lyusya is in great concern – how to congratulate her beloved Allusya on her anniversary? Allusya is there, Lyusya is here. She even prepared a small, elegant gift, but doesn’t know how to give it. He calls me: “Aren’t you going to Alla’s?” I say: “Who will I leave the Zedeshnoye farm to? We must also congratulate our Beautiful Alla, lay out the strip beautifully…”

But no matter how much Lucy, Lyudmila Ivanovna Dorodnova, denies superlative degrees, there is no escape from them. I don’t remember another au pair (the word “housekeeper” is terribly jarring) or “companion” (as this status was defined, for example, by the opera diva Elena Obraztsova) with such fame and notoriety. For many years, Pugacheva and Dorodnova were presented to the outside public as an interconnected construct, and Lucy’s promotion in the media can only be hopelessly envied by other stars.

She seemed to have already told everything she knew. To everyone and everywhere – newspapers, magazines, TV channels – without losing tact, respect, good manners, restraint. She talked a lot, but without unnecessary things. Almost. If anything happened, she caught herself in time and corrected herself – you can’t upset your beloved Allusya. After all, in essence – one family.

I say: “Well, since I called, let’s remember something.” Just not about the notorious bottle of cognac, which young Lucy grabbed as a gift to Alla in 1979, when she was asked to bring the singer a dress from the artist Elena Pelevina. “How can you go empty-handed to such a famous person, especially for the first time!” – Lucy recalled. She then managed Tamara Miansarova, also a famous singer.

“Who did you bring the bottle to?” — Alla was sincerely amazed. “You may not need sweets, but cognac will always come in handy,” Lyusya justified herself with all her innate spontaneity. Having taken the dress away, she stayed forever – to work. It grew so much that it essentially became part of the family. And that cognac stood unopened for a long time – a souvenir and a sacred symbol of the zigzag of fate…

“I liked her as a singer, the film “The Woman Who Sings” just came out. “I watched it 250 times,” recalls Lyusya. “I walked around and looked at her all the time, examined her. In short, I liked her. Then, when I started communicating with her, I realized how unique Alla is, unlike anyone else. To take her and replace her with someone – this will never happen! I think she is a great actress and singer.”

However, acting greatness is not a guarantee of worthy human qualities, often even the opposite. But it was the human side, according to Lucy, that became the foundation of her long and selfless service to her beloved singer and dear person. “We lived as one family,” she recalls, “together around the clock. Alla treated everyone who was nearby very attentively and sympathetically. We then began to travel abroad with concerts: the GDR, Poland – around the socialist camp, in general. Meetings, receptions… So she taught us, for example, how to hold forks, how to eat normally, so as not to embarrass yourself in front of decent people…”

An incident in Hungary finally confirmed Lucy that fate had led her to “her man” in this life.

“We arrived at the site,” recalls the “house manager.” — I turned on the iron to iron the dress. Beautiful white concert dress with gold Alla embroidery on a brooch on the front. I started ironing, applied the iron – and a piece of material remained on it… The dress is synthetic, and synthetics burn instantly, the iron was antediluvian, without adjustments like now. All in all, a disaster. I didn’t know where to go, there was a concert in a few minutes. And, of course, we must pay tribute and erect a monument to Alla during her lifetime. Another person would have thrown me out, fined me, whatever he wanted – he would have destroyed and trampled on me. Allah didn’t say a word! Like, well, it happens. Luckily, there were a couple of other dresses in stock, and she wore one of them to the concert. And I, of course, was ashamed that I burned her favorite dress at that time, so good. Back then, in an era of scarcity, the value of things was different than it is now. The next day I negotiate with translators to help me find such material. Found. I tried to somehow repair it, but it still wasn’t the same. As a result, this dress arrived in Moscow, I altered it a little, and Alla still worked in it…

Lucy also remembered another “catastrophe” in which Pugacheva’s human essence was revealed:

– We are already on Gorky (now Tverskaya Street. – “ZD”) lived, 1994. There were dishes in the sideboard near the fireplace – not ordinary, but decent ones. At the very top are Czech wine glasses made of Bohemian glass, with flowers stuck on them. Wine glasses were very fashionable and expensive back then. I don’t know how, but one of them fell to pieces. Again, I don’t know where to go, what to do? It was like being poured with boiling water. And what do you think?! Alla heard this “crystal ringing”, leaves the bedroom, sees the picture. She walked around the fragments and said: “Okay, as long as life isn’t shattered.” She has always been like that: wise, smart. And she also solves crossword puzzles… It’s always interesting with her…