3 History-Making Sidekicks to Have on Your Radar

Sidekick: Arthur Edward "Boy" Capel,

Coco Chanel's lover

Claim to Unfame: Turns out Chanel mixed business with pleasure. Capel, a wealthy Englishman, helped the designer open the Parisian hat shop that launched her career—and let her borrow his sweaters and polo shirts, sparking her gender-bending sense of style.

Sidekick: Alma Reville,

Alfred Hitchcock's wife

Claim to Unfame: Reville worked as an assistant director on Hitchcock's debut film, The Pleasure Garden, and cowrote two of his movies. While watching an early cut of Psycho, she was the only one who noticed actress Janet Leigh swallowing in the shower scene when she was supposed to be dead. Gulp.

Sidekick: Julia Warhola,

Andy Warhol's mother

Claim to Unfame: A sickly child, young Andy spent weeks at a time resting in his bed—which Julia relocated near the kitchen so she could keep an eye on him—and cutting pictures out of comic books she gave him. And every day for lunch she served him a piping-hot bowl of you know what.