2 Sep 1926 – Capitalizing Death

Pola Negri is a movie actress, has a large income, can afford to ride across the continent in a private rail car, and has more than one home.  But the size of her income depends very largely upon the amount and character of newspaper publicity she can garner. She has a press agent and has every reason to believe that he is the “high power” variety that knows how she can get more publicity and doubtless draws a big salary to match his power.  Pola Negri on the pacific coast saw the spotlight of national attention focused upon the dead Valentino. She had he had been friends and said they were engaged but there was no official confirmation, and it has been all said to be heresy.  She hastens to get aboard a private rail car travelling from New York to Los Angeles and this gained her the spotlight she felt was richly deserved.  Throughout the land newspapers carried her name on the front page with detailed stories of her career and arrival in New York with her near collapse.  Today Pola Negri’s potential wealth is greater by millions than it was before Valentino’s death. Every tear she shed at the dead man’s bier had a commercial value greater than so many of the purest diamonds.  The cost of a trip across the continent in a private rail car was like paying postage on a thousand-dollar check.  It was a red-letter day commercially speaking in the movie career of the “bella donna”.  She swelled the box office receipts of every motion picture theater in the land that hereafter exhibits films in which she plays a leading role.  The newspapers in New York and throughout the country printed the news and it was an interesting story they carried Monday morning about the Polish film stars visit to the bier of the dead Valentino.  It was legitimate news, too.  It was news of the sort of the millions like to read and was carried over the wires of the Associated Press and all other news agencies. In the routine of the days work, and in the line of everyday duty they helped to swell the coffers of those who employ Pola Negri to get and to weep before the camera.  The press agent had nothing to do with the transmission of the news throughout the land or the printing thereof in thousands of newspapers. But if he had nothing to do with the setting and the staging that resulted in the front news story, he doubtless would feel almost ashamed to accept his salary on the new pay day.  Now, perhaps Pola Negri, was prostrated with real grief one doesn’t truly know.  It’s possible she may of loved him or it is possible that none of the tears she shed was of the screen and stage variety. But few people who have seen her on the screen would have thought she was the type of woman who could truly be heart broken by the death of any man.  At any rate she could not have overlooked the press agent and financial possibilities in the trip across the continent and the dramatic appearance at the spot where the attention of a nation of motion picture fans was focused. Pola Negri is an actress and the whole thing smacks of capitalizing death.