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“Bow, wow, wow, ruff”, a series of canine exclamations come from under an umbrella. Peeping around the edges we discover Rudolph Valentino who is taking the part of Julio in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” for Metro. Mrs. Malcom Hamilton and Gertrude Selby having a “dog-gone” good time with a pair of dwarfish, fluffy, canines, who insist on staging a fight and barking loudly every time they are a familiar sight on set.

Dear Editor,

I have been of reader of your magazine for a number of years, and have found everything that is contained of great interest, as well as a help to movie fans. I have been a fan of Rudolph Valentino and the paragraphs below will tell you why:

I first had the opportunity to see Mr. Valentino in “Passions Playground” for that picture, he had a very small part, but he played it very well. I also had the pleasure of seeing him in one or two more pictures since
then and he then seemed to me as being a very capable actor. I heard he was going to star in the screen version of “The Four Horsemen” I was very happy indeed. He will make a great success as Julio the leading character in the movie. I now understand he is playing Armand to Mme. Nazimova in Camille, and I know that he will be taking his place on the center stage among other leading men in silent drama. I hope he will have a good many more admirers in the future.

Sincerely yours,
Lillian Crozier, 208 W.148th Street, NYC

Strangely enough it was Rudolph Valentino who first interested me in the value of pictures. That was five years ago in Paris just a short time before he passed on. At a large dinner party at a chateau just outside of the city. Valentino was the host and I was the guest of honour. As I sat at Valentino’s right at the big oval table beautifully set with thin old silver and rare Sevres porcelain I wondered what on earth I would talk about to this youth I had seen many moving pictures of course, but of the film people I know nothing. Suddenly Valentino looked me full in the face and I was shocked. Astounded. Here was a man whose personality would light up a room and had conquered the women of the world he was instead a true spiritual type. “How we talked”. What a dinner it was. Valentino and I both believed the same. I can’t say we believed the same religion. I don’t like that word and never use it. For what the world needs is more Christianity and less Creed. But we hold to the same spiritual principles. The Valentino evening remains a vivid memory. I never say him again. I thought then and I think now that he was an unhappy man. He was seeking the spiritual qualities which he could not find in his present material world.

A new critic of literature has advanced to join the army which already exists, a critic from the allied kingdom of the movies. Rudolph Valentino,–actor, artist, dancer, and now author,–has called attention to a different horizon for the novel in an article in the Bookman. Valentino’s ideas are not from the stereotyped mould designed for an interview with any given “star” (leaving blanks for name and sex). He offers some interesting and constructive suggestions. One of these is that authors for the screen must write better literature,–startling doctrine from a “movie man”! The average literary critic looks upon the scenario writer as on a lower rung in the anthropological ladder and on the actor as a mechanical if “artistic” mimic  who follows his director’s instructions as far as they are printable. The actor turns on the scenario writer in self-defense, and both combine to denounce the critic. The real trouble is deeper than the vicious circle. What is needed for the normal, healthy development of the moving pictures is good fiction of a distinctive type. It must have, besides dramatic possibilities, “color” and good delineation of character. Great novels of the past have been  unearthed, revamped, and set before the public as “super-productions”. Myths have been blended into history to make a film character of Robin Hood. “Eugenie Grandet”, rechristened “The Conquering Power,” made a “gripping  photo-drama”. But in all of these the character has appeared ready-made for the actor to interpret. The average scenario supplies nothing more than the mechanics of the plot; the conception of the character is left entirely to the actor,  a task which is usually beyond his powers. A new school of writing must be developed, a literature written directly for the moving pictures not taken over and adapted to it. And the school is not without apt pupils. Ibanez has achieved success as a cinema author, where he failed as a writer of scenarios, pure and simple. Rafael Sabbatini has developed a new variation of the historical novel built around one interesting central character and his work is likely to find a second outlet in the movie world. But only the edges of  the new field have begun to be tapped. The “problem novel” has come, soon to depart without leaving many regrets. The cycle of screen literature has not yet revolved past the point at which action is the main requirement. But with action, Valentino and other critics have recognized the need of real literary value and true characterization.

Here is the pink powder puff article published Sunday in the Chicago Tribune, which was the immediate occassion for the asserted wrath of Rudolph Valentino resulting in his challenging the writer to a duel:
“A new public bathroom was opened on the North Side a few days ago, a truly handsome place and apparently well run. The pleasant impression lasts until one steps into the mens washrooom and finds there on the wall a contraption of glass tubes, and levers and a slot for the insertion of a coin. the glass tubes contain a fluffy pink solid and beneath them one reads an amazing legend which runs something like this Hold personal puff beneath this tube and then pull the lever. ” A powder puff vending machine! In a mens washroom! Homo Americanus! Why did someone quietly drown Rudolph Valentino alias Valentino years ago? “And it was the pink powder machine pulled from the wall or ignored? It was not. It was used. We personally saw ‘two men’ as a young lady contributor to the voice of the people is wont to describve the breed step up – insert coin, hold kerchief beneath the spout, pull the lever then take the pretty pink stuff and pet it on their cheeks in front of the mirror. “Another memeber of this department one of the most benevolent upon the earth, burst raging into the office the other day becuase he had seen a young man combing and pomenading his hair in a elevator. but we claim our pink powder story beats his all hollow.  It is time for a matriarchy if the male of the species allows such things to persist. Better a rule by masculine women than by effemoinate men. Man began to slip we are beginning to believe when he discarded the strtaight razor for the safety pattern. We shall not be surprised when we hear that the safety razor has given way to the depthatory.
“Who or what is to blame is what puzzles us. Is this degeneration into effeminacy a cognate reaction with pacifam to the virilities and realities of the war? Are pink powder and aarlor pinks in any way related? How does one reconcile masculine cosmetics, sheiks, floppy pants and slave bracelets with a disregard for law and an aptitude for crime more in keeping with the frontier of half a century ago then a twenty century metropolis.” Do women like the type of man who pats pink powder on his face in a public washroom and arranges his coiffure in a public elevator> Do women at heart belong to the Wilsonian era of “I didnt rais my boy to be a soldier”. What has become of the old cave man line? It is strange social phenomenon and one that is running its course not only here in America but to Europe as well. Chicago may have the powder puffs, Lond has its dancing men and Paris its gigolos. Down with Decatur; up with Elinor Glyn. Hollywood is the national
school of masculinity. Rudy, the beautiful gardeners boy. It is the prototype of the American male. “Hells, bells, oh sugar! The foregoing editoral is mild, however, compared with the following published Nov 10, 1925, entitled “thank God for 50 yard McCarty” being a line crushing Chicago full-back: “right at the start we admit prejudice, all sorts of it. Our gorge rises our back hair prickles; we want to chew tobacco and spit; we wan to go home and assert our masculinity by rescuing those torn but so dearly beloved carpet slippers from the waste barrel on the back porch and wearing em despite orders to the contrary. Probaby there’s no one quite so cordially hated by the average American male as Valentino. We admit sharing the feling. Call it what you will. We repeat the admission and announce were proud of it. A symphony in green was Rudy when he passed through Chicago. thank heavens, our green suit went the way of wool five years ago. And a beavor
collar on his overcoat. Great guns, what a man. And the wrises watch worn on a slave bracelet? It gives us a horrible sinking feeling at the pit of the stomach to know that within the next few days tailors and clothing stores will be swamped with requests for green suits, think overcoat buyers will demand beavor collars, tha jewelers will be besought for slave bracelets whatever they are Just like Valentinos. Sadly we acknowledge ourselves that this will happen. “Rudy says he tried to make his wife happy. But a man with my particular temperament being very suspectible to any kind of beauty, whether in feminity or art really hasnt any business with a wife. There always is that feeling of disatisfaction; that consciousness of the women in the background.”  As they say in vaudeville and they shot Lincoln. “Rudy doesn’t like marriage because it cramps his style. He says there is too much fun to be found afield to be tied down by the conventions of monogamy. Rudy is a strayer, is this lover of things beautiful? Blood will tell. Heredity and early environment do mold the individual. Green suit, beaver collar, slave bracelet adorning this Don Juan. whos too self-important, too bent on gratifying his fancies, to fancy marriage. Rudys nothing more than a spaghetti-gurgling garnders helper, product of modern feminishm, and all the wishy-washy feminine gurgling in the work cant change him. Thank god for five-yard McCarty.

No matter what the critics may say about this actor we know that he has accomplished good work and if given a fair chance will continue to do so. No one can see his pictures, any of them, and then come away and say he isn’t a good actor. Why do they pick on him? Seemingly, someone is always hounding him.

From Alma Cooper, Huntington, WV

I am a Swedish Valentino fan. I will tell you that in Europe Rudolph Valentino is the most popular of all the American film stars. John Gilbert and Ramon Navarro are not so poular as Valentino. Here in Sweden all the girls love Valentino and we now anxiously await his next picture “Monsieur Beaucaire” was a wonderful picture and so was “A Sainted Devil”. I wish he will dance in all his pictures.

L.Hermon

George Glenbrook, Nevada writes Rudolph Valentino does spell his name Rodolpho but everybody seems to prefer Rudolph. So that’s that.

Marguerite Namara, the famous and brilliant young American beauty who has won fame and fortune in two worlds by the voice and dramatic ability, has forsaken the operatic stage to conquer the world of the movies. Miss Namara will be seen at the Star Court Theatre in her big production, ‘Stolen Moments,” with Rudolph Valentino, of “The Sheik” fame, to-night. The management, of the Star Court Theatre, after much negotiation, secured this famous picture for a limited engagement, and consider it one. of the events of the season. The story of the photoplay is from the prolific pen of IT. Thompson Rich, who has written many of the most successful plays of the past few seasons. He was commissioned at. a high price to supply Madame Namara’s first, film vehicle, “and if the metropolitan critic know what they are talking about, his work ranks high among his notable achievements as a writer. One of the features of the production are the gowns worn by Miss Namara, which were designed by the famous Chicot, of Paris, and imported.to America especially for use in “Stolen Momenta.” Good, clever comedies are to-day as rare as philanthropists, and in “Just Out of College,” a master picture also shown here to night, a Beanford in the comedy line is presented. Clean, fascinating, and clever, it exudes the spirit of adventuresome youth, and builds up in climaxes that astound us with their uniqueness and complexity. The plot is based on love and pickles, so that sounds good enough, but the film will prove to be amusing and gripping as the best; you’ve ever seen.

The result was that when Valentino arrived he had to have police assistance to force his way through the crowd of women that stormed the courtroom just to see him. Hundreds of women thronged the side-walks, refusing to obey the orders of the police to move on. They were on hand when Rudy arrived and there were more of them when he left, after paying half the bill of $165.00. It was ten minutes after he came out of the courtroom before the police could make a way for his automobile through the crowd. Such is the price of fame.

Rodolph Valentino after five days of fencing scenes, in “Monsieur Beaucaire” turned his back on the Paramount Studios on Long Island, New York and slipped off to Miami, Florida for a rest. When he returned he jumped right into the filming of the adaptation of Rex Beach’s story, “Ropes End”. Joseph Hembery is directing it.

Success doesn’t consist of doing good work only. Above all you must keep your feet on the ground. – Rudplh Valentino, 1924

Here is the pink powder puff article published Sunday in the Chicago Tribune, which was the immediate occassion for the asserted wrath of Rudolph Valentino resulting in his challenging the writer to a duel:
“A new public bathroom was opened on the North Side a few days ago, a truly handsome place and apparently well run. The pleasant impression lasts until one steps into the mens washrooom and finds there on the wall a contraption of glass tubes, and levers and a slot for the insertion of a coin. the glass tubes contain a fluffy pink solid and beneath them one reads an amazing legend which runs something like this Hold personal puff beneath this tube and then pull the lever. ” A powder puff vending machine! In a mens washroom! Homo Americanus! Why did someone quietly drown Rudolph Valentino alias Valentino years ago?
“And it was the pink powder machine pulled from the wall or ignored? It was not. It was used. We personally saw ‘two men’ as a young lady contributor to the voice of the people is wont to describve the breed step up – insert coin, hold kerchief beneath the spout, pull the lever then take the pretty pink stuff and pet it on their cheeks in front of the mirror. “Another memeber of this department one of the most benevolent upon the earth, burst raging into the office the other day becuase he had seen a young man combing and pomenading his hair in a elevator. but we claim our pink powder story beats his all hollow.  It is time for a matriarchy if the male of the species allows such things to persist. Better a rule by masculine women than by effemoinate men. Man began to slip we are beginning to believe when he discarded the strtaight razor for the safety pattern. We shall not be surprised when we hear that the safety razor has given way to the depthatory.
“Who or what is to blame is what puzzles us. Is this degeneration into effeminacy a cognate reaction with pacifam to the virilities and realities of the war? Are pink powder and aarlor pinks in any way related? How does one reconcile masculine cosmetics, sheiks, floppy pants and slave bracelets with a disregard for law and an aptitude for crime more in keeping with the frontier of half a century ago then a twenty century metropolis.” Do women like the type of man who pats pink powder on his face in a public washroom and arranges his coiffure in a public elevator> Do women at heart belong to the Wilsonian era of “I didnt rais my boy to be a soldier”. What has become of the old cave man line? It is strange social phenomenon and one that is running its course not only here in America but to Europe as well. Chicago may have the powder puffs, Lond has its dancing men and Paris its gigolos. Down with Decatur; up with Elinor Glyn. Hollywood is the national
school of masculinity. Rudy, the beautiful gardeners boy. It is the prototype of the American male. “Hells, bells, oh sugar! The foregoing editoral is mild, however, compared with the following published Nov 10, 1925, entitled “thank God for 50 yard McCarty” being a line crushing Chicago full-back: “right at the start we admit prejudice, all sorts of it. Our gorge rises our back hair prickles; we want to chew tobacco and spit; we wan to go home and assert our masculinity by rescuing those torn but so dearly beloved carpet slippers from the waste barrel on the back porch and wearing em despite orders to the contrary. Probaby there’s no one quite so cordially hated by the average American male as Valentino. We admit sharing the feling. Call it what you will. We repeat the admission and announce were proud of it. A symphony in green was Rudy when he passed through Chicago. thank heavens, our green suit went the way of wool five years ago. And a beavor
collar on his overcoat. Great guns, what a man. And the wrises watch worn on a slave bracelet? It gives us a horrible sinking feeling at the pit of the stomach to know that within the next few days tailors and clothing stores will be swamped with requests for green suits, think overcoat buyers will demand beavor collars, tha jewelers will be besought for slave bracelets whatever they are Just like Valentinos. Sadly we acknowledge ourselves that this will happen. “Rudy says he tried to make his wife happy. But a man with my particular temperament being very suspectible to any kind of beauty, whether in feminity or art really hasnt any business with a wife. There always is that feeling of disatisfaction; that consciousness of the women in the background.”  As they say in vaudeville and they shot Lincoln. “Rudy doesn’t like marriage because it cramps his style. He says there is too much fun to be found afield to be tied down by the conventions of monogamy.
Rudy is a strayer, is this lover of things beautiful? Blood will tell. Heredity and early environment do mold the individual. Green suit, beaver collar, slave bracelet adorning this Don Juan. whos too self-important, too bent on gratifying his fancies, to fancy marriage. Rudys nothing more than a spaghetti-gurgling garnders helper, product of modern feminishm, and all the wishy-washy feminine gurgling in the work cant change him. Thank god for five-yard McCarty.

Was Rudolph Valentino poisoned by a jealous woman whose advances he rejected? According to messages from the “Seccolo” of Milan, private detectives in New York are working on a clue which may lead to a solution of the numerous rumors surrounding the death of the famous film star. According to one report, a detective and his wife were the witnesses in a Broadway Night Club of an incident which, it is alleged may afford an explanation of an incident which, it is alleged may afford an explanation of Valentinos illness and death. Valentino, it is stated, was approached by a woman who was apparently in love with him. Valentino turned his back on her and entered into a conversation with another woman. With anger the spurned woman is said to have made a sign to two men. A lady detective says she overheard one of them say “The Indian method is infallible”. One can mix diamond dust with a drink, and it will cause death by internal perforation. Doctors will say death was due to an incurable malady or attributed to appendicitis.