“Fame is like a giant x-ray. Once you are exposed beneath it, the very beatings of your heart are shown to a gaping world.” — Natacha Rambova, December 1922.
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A church dedicated to the memory of the late Silent Film superstar Rudolph Valentino has been opened here. The opening service of the “Valentino Memorial Church of Psychic Fellowship” was conducted on a recent Sunday evening. The program ncluded piano selections from music used in Valetnino’s last movie “The Son of the Sheik”.
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Pola Negri was not a gourmet chef nor did she know her way around the kitchen like her mother. She was more interested in acting and her name in lights than a husband or family of her own.
It’s tough luck to be a motion picture actress and to have a “public” “Hello, glad to see you again. Let’s have a little talk over in this nice dark corner”. It was at the Famous Players Studio in Long Island. The girl who greeted me was dressed in a short and rather shabby blue serge skirt and blouse. On her head was a saucy little black tam. Tortoise rimmed spectacles shaded her eyes against the Klieg lights. I looked at her searchingly. Had I ever seen her before? Then gasped, “Good Heavens, its Dorothy Dalton” In real life, Dorothy Dalton is the most gorgeous person you can imagine, the sort of girl who buys all the beautiful clothes the rest of us only look at through the store windows. When a mere man sees Dorothy in her home or at parties he calls for a pair of blinders to protect himself against her charms. But in the studio one generally sees another Dorothy. “The tragedy of clothes” she sighted, as she drew up a studio chair and light a cigarette and adjusted her anti0kleig spectacles. I adore clothes always have. The lovelier and more feminine they are the better I like them. My idea of a perfect picture is one in which I can show off all the new clothes in the shops and do plenty of acting, too. But will the public stand for it? Hardly, they want to see me in ‘rough and readies’ garbed as a man and being a real roughneck. I decide after every new picture the next one will be just the kind I want. I lie awake nights planning what I will wear. And then I begin to read scenarios. Invariably the ones with the punch, the stories from which real box office success can be made, cast me as a gypsy or an apache or a girl masquerading as a man. Now, while I love clothes, I will forego them to really act. And I have to take out my love for pretty things in my few social hours”. Do you have to read many scenarios I asked Miss Dalton? “I do, and it wouldn’t be so bad if all my friends didn’t write so many scenarios and expect me to get them accepted. I have a cousin, who recently wrote an interesting and really good scenario that is, it would have been, if we were still doing one-reelers”. There is something refreshing about this lady she is unique and in one respect is willing to admit once upon a time, her popularity was on the wane. It was about two years ago, and then she did something which, up to now, no other motion picture star accomplished she “came back” in the face of a public that was losing interest. “Yes, I suppose no other actress has done it” said Miss Dalton, “some actresses have left the screen and returned to find themselves more popular than ever. I happened to have several bad stories. That is the reason, I’m so careful now to make sure I have the right story before I begin work. Miss Dalton works like a Trojan, and this in spite the fact she had a naturally lazy temperament before she became an actress. She comes of a fine Chicago family; was the spoiled young daughter of a well-to-do and prosperous real estate dealer. No one ever expected the willful Dorothy to work for her living. Her father was only too happy to gratify her every whim “as long as I didn’t ask for pearls and diamonds”. Dorothy’s mother was of the old-school and believe a woman’s place was in the home, and that she shouldn’t know too much about business life because it unfitted the girl for matrimony. May be it was just because Dorothy’s mother knew so little about business and was so helpless when it came to knowing about stocks and bonds and other investments that her father determined she was going to become a lawyer. “He wanted me to be able to look after the legal side of his business” said Miss Dalton “he thought if anything happened to him I would be able to look over his affairs and keep people from cheating mother” “My early ambition was to become a surgeon. I adored cutting things up. But finally, I decided I wanted to act. I would act, whether my family would let me or not. Nothing was going to stop me and it didn’t as you can see.
Blog readers are asking themselves who is Miss Hattie Wilson Tabourne? Simple, she was a famous Hollywood African American hairdresser whose artistic hairdressing skill was a major contribution to the movie industry and the careers of many Silent Film Stars in early twentieth century, Hollywood.
Miss Hattie came from a very humble background in Nebraska. As a young child, her family discovered she had a gift for hair dressing, and it was that talent that eventually led her to being discovered while working at a downtown Los Angeles Hairdressing establishment. Miss Hattie’s discovery led to a long-term contract working as a hairdresser for Famous Players-Lasky Studio and the rest is true Hollywood history. During her time, in Hollywood she styled the hair of Agnes Ayres, Dorothy Dalton, Nita Naldi, Cecil B. DeMille, Leatrice Joy, Lillian Rich, Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino during his movie “Blood and Sand”.
On 21 Mar 1923, Miss Hattie’s name was in the major papers as the creator of Gloria Swanson’s hairstyle called ‘Gloria’s Bob’. While working at Famous Players-Lasky Studios, she had the additional responsibility of training future hairdressers. On 23 Mar 1925, Miss Hattie died on an operating room table from complications as a result from a surgical procedure. At the time of her death, she was survived by a son. Miss Hattie is buried next to her mother at Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles. CA.
What makes a love affair that is talked about from one end of the country to another? The principals must of course be prominent. The man is handsome and the woman beautiful, why that helps. But when I think back over the love affairs that have had the most public attention, that have seemed to be the most envied. Winifred Hudnut and Rudolph Valentino were the sort of couple who ought to fall in love with each other and they did madly. The Rudolph Valentino fans breathed a heavy sigh of envy and within a few months they martially separated, and Rudolph was explaining in public that his wife wanted a career, whereas he wanted a home and children. In a word, what I remember is these famous love affairs is that they all ended unhappily. That is the type of great love? Does the romantic thing consider the real thing die in few months? Is it true that a passion makes a poor beginning for a marriage? I am sure that the answer is No. I am so sure that a mutual passion is the best beginning for a marriage. I am sure the basis of the marriages I mentioned was a powerful attraction which passed because it failed to develop into the real thing. We all make a distinction, though we do not all use the same words for it, between the physical and spiritual between love and passion it should prefer to make the distinction between passion and tenderness. Love requires both to be complete. Everyone has felt the physical attraction which is the basis of passion and the most usual beginning of love. But when you stop to analyze it, you will see a physical attraction is a comparatively impersonal thing. If you are at all aware of your wisdom of marrying a person of about our own age, of similar background, taste and ambition rather than sone who is much older or younger, or from a very different social environment, or with a different attitude toward life. But physical attraction is no respecter of wisdom. Perhaps that hidden part of ourselves, the primitive part which we all conceal even from our own minds is obedient to what civilization expects of us, every man is physically attracted to every woman and vice versa. We do not permit ourselves in recognizing it unless it has some suitability. Passion is almost impersonal in its beginning such as the case of Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova. That we force it to be personal. We control it, stamp it out, unless the person for whom we feel passion, or the possibility of passion meets some of our other demands. What happens to a physical attraction is marriage? The same thing that happens to any other physical desire, it dies of its own gratification until its renewed. There are happy and loving marriages in which there are no children. But I doubt if there is any happier surgery for a marriage, any better any promise, this is not a passing fancy but the real thing, then the actual desire for children or purely rational grounds it may be argued that there are already plenty of people in the world. Adding to the number is taking on a responsibility for which nobody is every likely to thank you. It is perfectly true it is difficult to experience and trying to the nerves to have children. Nevertheless, people who love want children. People who love usually to do have children. Love which result in children are at least three times as likely to become big loves as those that do not.
Paramount and Rudolph Valentino have no corner on the sheik market, if they did make the tribe popular. John Davidson has a role of the sheik in Pricilla Dean’s “Under Two Flags”. He is one of the players in “Fools Paradise”.
Natacha Rambova like most people of a certain age started applying for social security benefits. Her SSN number was 040-38-9066
Memories that bless and burn: When an Eastern Society Woman Introduced herself to Rudolph Valentino at the Coconut Grove and offered him $5,000 to teach her to tango.
Advertising a beauty clay, rather than the latest kind of Vaseline Rudolph Valentino “The Perfect Lover” charmed a goodly crowd of his feminine admirers at the Armory Thursday evening. Charmed is the word for the youthful Sheik of the movies, sleep and well-mannered, radiant with the fire of youth handsome in the extreme, and attired in the costume in which he first came into fame was a real Prince Charming as he danced with the beautiful Winifred Hudnut, now Mrs. Valentino No.2 on the raised platform in the center of the Armory Floor. Rudy’s following is feminine there is no denying that, for how else would he acquire the title “The Perfect Lover” and is that not sufficient to line up the menfolk as his mortal enemies? It is safe to say that many of the male gender present Thursday night under protest maybe and who went to scoff were won to the ranks of Valentino fans. For Rudy certainly made a good impression though rather stingy in his dancing act. “It was a long wait for the advent of the Sheik, but the womenfolk thought it worthwhile, and loudly and convincingly did they voice their welcome when Rudolph and his wife made their appearance at 9:30 pm. Preceded by their own Argentine Orchestra, the noted pair, attired in the costume so well remembered in “The Four Horsemen” danced the Argentine Tango, a replica of the scene from the famous Ingram picture. With Sombrero, sash, velvet and gold boots and spurs, Valentino appeared as he did in his first big picture, and the scene in the darkened Armory with the spotlight playing on the raised platform, was unique and delightful. Valentino began as a tango dancer and Thursday nights exhibition showed he lost none of his nimbleness. So appealing was the applause that Valentino and his wife consented to an encore, after which the hero of the screen proved his versatility by making a speech. Perfectly at ease, with an Italian accent Valentino took the occasion to denounce what he termed the “picture trust” which he declared was responsible for the fact he was not now appearing in movies. “It was not a case salary with me but rather one of self-respect for I was not willing to appear in the sort of pictures, which the trust insisted I should make. Pictures such as the “Sheik, Young Rajah, and others of this caliber are not the sort in which I care to appear. Valentino himself, he was voted every bit as handsome off the screen as on, and even the men declared him a ‘regular fellow’. Showing evidence of education and culture minus the egoism attributed to him, the former tango dancer, who rose to the exalted position of “worlds most romantic figure” as the program termed him, the young lothario bids fair to hold his present popularity. For whom else would the women fold wait for two hours. Because of the crowd in front of the Armory Valentinos party entered by a side door only to be met with shrieks of delight as he stepped out into the hall. He certainly gave em a big thrill. Running Valentino to a close second for honors was the orchestra which he brought with him and Mrs. Valentino a chilly third. Billed as an Argentines orchestra and attired in gypsy costume, they made a picturesque appearance. Their music proved a delight, especially when they played for the local dancers and they were roundly applauded. The hall was decorated in American and Italian flags. The crowd, no so large as anticipated appeared to have enjoyed its evening.
Although Rudolph Valentino did not appear in this film. D.W. Griffith did give him a screen test. I think he would of been a perfect fit in this film.
“Children ARE romance. They are the beginning and the end. They are romance, before their bright wings are clipped, before ever they have trailed in the dry dust of disillusion”.. – Rudolph Valentino, 1926
This newsarticle interview featuring Natacha Rambova, dancer, designer, and former wife of the late Rudolph Valentino. Miss Rambova feels her opinion on the subject of divorce can bring clarity and help women who read this article is reason for participating. Miss Rambova starts the discussion by saying “I would hate to suggest anything that would make this supposed democracy less free and equal than it is already. Nevertheless, I would like to see marriage made difficult and expensive and divorce easy and cheap to obtain”. A most beautiful lady says this a lady you all know and many of you have seen: a tall slender leady in a golden robe with great splashes of purple and a ruby turban bound closely about a pair of wondrous eyes and a brow like cream satin. A lady of experience she is, and of deep learning, with a flair for the mysteries of the East and an unquestionable conviction that we can communicate with the so-called dead, who live in a world of their own, a world of spirit, yet amongst our very selves. Natacha Rambova alias Winifred Hudnut once the wife of the most loved of all move screen stars Rudolph Valentino. Rudy to her, a Rudy still loved and still adored and still a friend, invisible but articulate. Miss Rambova typing manuscript at a table in a sun-flooded room high up above the Park, rises and comes forward looking like a being from a Tennyson poem or an Ibsen play, a sort of “Lady of the Sea” with slim cool hands and a quiet manner. It is a good thing Chi-Chi also present with his chop bone and a few Pekingese sniffles to remind us we are in the everyday world. For we are going to talk of a rather everyday thing divorce, why it is and what’s it all about. We asked Natacha Rambova to go on and say some more. How would she make marriage harder and divorce easier? Wouldn’t drastic laws tend to make people disregard them? Would that be better or worse than what we have now? Can human nature be “prohibited” by this statute or not? What of property and children? “It does seem”, she says from the corner of a deep black velvet sofa, “rather presumptuous to talk of legislating people into happy marriages, and my mind isn’t legal enough to work out a plan”. “But there should be some way to compel people to know more about each other before they marry. You’ll think me hopelessly unoriginal to advocate trial marriage. But if marriage were difficult to enter and could then only be contracted for a term of say, five years at a time, I believe men and women would try harder to remain attractive, kind and companionable so that they would be wanted for another five-year term. As it is too many people, once given the marital life sentence, cease making an effort to love and be loved. He’s taken me says the wife now let him work for me and make me happy. While the husband says I’ve married her and gave her a home now I can go my own way without having to pay attention to her all the time. There are many things about marriage besides its permanence says Miss Rambova. For instance, I don’t think a girl and a man of different races or nationalities ought to marry, unless they know each other’s background thoroughly and sympathetically”. Our mind flashed back to the Italian Rudy and his presumably Old World ideals of women, wives and marriage, and our glance traveled from his portrait in a silver frame on the piano to the beautiful living woman on the divan who legally freed herself from him less than a year before his death. Before we could frame the personal question, Miss Rambova went on “during courtship differences of opinion are diverting and rather ‘cute’. After marriage, they become tragic. They can never be smoothed over, because what has been implanted in the mind of youth, with centuries of heredity behind it, cannot be allowed. Arguments only make it worse. During courtship the arguments may end in laughter for your life is not actually affected by these differences of opinion. After marriage it is, and so the arguments end in tears and anger. “Another reason marriage goes wrong is that man and wife are either too much together or not enough. There is no life-balance living closely in small homes, as we do these days, leads to boredom or outright disgust. Being apart for long periods of time, as happens in the theatrical world and often when the wife is a business or professional woman gives each the bachelor habit and mutual interest dies. “Possibly the worst of all marriage wreckers is interference from outsiders. Husbands and wives are often not allowed to work out their lives in their own way. Relatives won’t leave them alone. Mothers, mothers-in-law and friends, relatives mixed in and cause hopeless situations. Sometimes the exigencies of public life rob a couple of happiness. There is no such thing as complete freedom of action. Everything we try to do is hampered more or less by what we owe others. Because of these and a hundred other things that make one American marriage in four a failure, we certainly ought to make it easy to get divorced. When you’re through your through, that’s all and should have divorce for the asking and without having to give any reason at all”. We asked the lovely Natacha, what she’d do in case only one party to the marriage wanted divorce and he other wanted to go on loving and trotting the double harness. “Grant it, anyhow she said. It’s one of the chances you take when you marry, and you should be ready for it. It’s all the more reason why everything from health certificate to a bank balance should be required before marriage, and then only a short-term contract be given on approval. To be renewed if mutually desired or cancelled, and one more chance given to make a permanent choice” “Oh just one more chance given”? “Well the divorced wife of Rudolph Valentino spread both slender hands wide, with eyes to match said otherwise it would be just a series of on approvals a sort of legalized free love and that would certainly not be constructive”. Miss Rambova doesn’t like the “Interlocutory decree” feature of divorce. She thinks once you’re through your through and a six month wait before a second marriage can take place leads to hardship and temptation”. But I couldn’t help but wonder why she would say that when she did the very thing with her former husband. Her and Rudolph Valentino married before the decree was up and there were charges of bigamy making them front page news. During the interview, Miss Rambova speaks of Rudolph Valentino with tenderness and understanding. One senses that proficient actor as he was, was in some ways quite a child and that the beautiful young woman with the magenta turban loved him with just a touch of the maternal. “No one, she says simply was ever more devoted to Rudy than I was and still am. Which makes me add from deep, deep feeling of its truth that no marriage can be a true marriage without spiritual love, for other love vanishes, is often destroyed by persons and by circumstances. But love that is of the spirit lives on”. There you have it readers Miss Rambova’s opinion on divorce.
Mrs. Edward Franklin White, Deputy Attorney General of Indiana, in an informal opinion expressed the belief that the latest marriage ceremony of Rudolph Valentino and Winifred Hudnut at Crown Point, Indiana last week was illegal. The Indiana law, according to Mrs. White, provides that the woman be a resident of the county in which the marriage license be granted.
Rudolph Valentino and his dancing partner during the Mineralava Tour kindly spurred an offer of Louisiana officials to marry there. The Sheik and his dancing partner left New Orleans for Montgomery, Alabama ignoring the elaborate wedding plans prepared for them by interested parties. Dominick Tortorich, who stage-managed their appearance here at the concert hall last night was said to have arranged for a clergyman and witnesses. Attorney General Coco informed promoters of the project that if the marriage was performed it would be “legal beyond doubt”. But the Sheik and his soon to be again wife sped out of town in their specially appointed Pullman Car and matrimonial plight still unresolved.
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John Seitz was a well-known Hollywood Cinematographer and was paired with director Rex Ingram on 12 films. During the 1920’s he was the highest paid cinematographer and was the only one to receive credit in advertising. During the filming of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” was a film of firsts. The director worked closely with cinematographer to develop a matte shot and low-key lighting. Seitz first introduced a dance dolly when filming the tango scene with Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry. Total cost of the production was $1 million. Cinematographer John Seitz’s breathtaking pictorial effects also helped launch Valentino’s and Terry’s careers.
In 1950, Gloria Swanson, a former costar of Rudolph Valentino starred in the academy award nominated movie titled Sunset Boulevard about a faded silent film legend named Norma Desmond. Throughout the movie there are several scenes that refer to Valentino. The first is her 1929 Italian luxury automobile an Isotta-Fraschini 8A, for $28,000. This car symbolized luxury and elegance in the Silent Film world and Norma (Gloria) said this was the same type of car Valentino owned. The car used in Sunset Boulevard is now displayed in Museo Nazionale dell ‘Automobile in Turin.
The second is Norma and Joe (William Holden) dance the tango together. To shoot the tango, cinematographer John Seitz used a device called a Dance Dolly, which amounted to a sort of moveable platform on wheels. Nothing special there. But when you learn that Seitz first introduced the technique to shoot Valentino dancing the tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, you might be more than a little impressed.
“Valentino said there’s nothing like tile for a tango!” — Norma Desmond to Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard (1950)…
Research shows there is nothing that truly says Valentino preferred tile to tango. In 1922, Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino did dance the tango together in the silent film “Beyond the Rocks”. So I would like to believe Valentino did prefer tile to tango on.
All About Rudolph Valentino 
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