My Friendship with Rudolph Valentino

I had met many well-known personalities during those weeks in New York City and among them was Rudolph Valentino. He was a magnificently built man and his disposition was as delightful as his physique. Just to see his expressive hand lying on the back of a chair was art. Valentino and I happened to be in the same group one afternoon. He came over and sat by me and we seemed to be friends immediately. No wonder women were crazy about him. They were when I first met him, although he had not became famous as an actor then. But he had already done his chores and worked for recognition the hard way. I knew all this, somehow, without being told. Rudy and I had a unique understanding. We were attracted to each other from that first afternoon. Call it sex if you will, but more correctly call it a dancing friendship, which is why our bond lasted, lived long and strong. Rudy was drawn to me that first meeting and he was waiting for me after a Ziegfeld Folly Rehearsal that night. We went dancing – danced hours and hours. I’ll never forget that night another night of dancing rhythm. I was in all white and Rudy, tall and dark was in black we provided a striking contrast. When we walked onto the dance floor it seemed that everyone stopped to look at us. How Rudy loved to tango! He had a sense of timing quite unlike any other man I’ve ever danced with. It was late when we started home that night, and in the cab he put his arm around me. There was something sweet and tender, almost child-like about Valentino. I responded to this. I felt that he wanted to make love to me. I hoped he would have the intelligent grace to wish me luck and just be my friend. I wanted to keep his dancing friendship. Rudy was sought after. Women adored him became fools over him. I didn’t go that far. I have never been the clinging kind; Valentino seemed to find this attractive because he said that I did things to his heart. He became my shadow. I found him sitting in the theater during rehearsals watching and waiting for me. One evening he walked with me in the park. It might have looked strange to many of our friends had they seen us walking in Central Park at two in the morning holding hands, saying nothing, happy together. Now I was about to make “Delicious Little Devil” and word came to me that Rudolph was in serious trouble and needed help. Jack de Saulles had learned that Rudy would be his wife’s witness in her divorce from him. So, Jack to discredit Rudy’s testimony and through his influence, position and money, had been able to have Rudy held on a false charge. But Rudy was able to prove within a few days he was innocent of that charge and was freed. I knew the anguish in Rudy’s heart. I knew that he realized that he could do nothing to help the woman he loved, and that Jack was determined not to let her have her way in the divorce which meant taking the child with her to Chile. Rudy was now unable to get work in Cabarets. Jack had seen to that. In my picture Rudy took the part of the playboy son of an Irish contractor. The part brought him to the attention of the entire movie industry. He was very good. So good in fact that he was soon as we all know, launched on the brilliant career that began with his part in the Four Horsemen.