14 Jul 1926 Muscle Admiring Brooklyn Girl Clashes with Boyfriend
| Monday or Tuesday will prove whether Rudolph Valentino challenge to fight an editorial writer is bona fide or not. “Rudy had wonderful muscles and I’ve seen him in pictures stripped to the waist, and you can’t fake a picture like that” said an indignant Brooklyn girl last night. Men are jealous, that’s what’s the matter. I’d like to see a picture of the fellow who wrote that article. Most editors, I’ve seen are little and wizened and wear glasses. I don’t think they are so very masculine as a bunch, by any means. Rudy does wear allot of jewelry. He’s an Italian and gladiators wore rings and bracelets, you may remember. Most American men would look ridiculous in a slave bracelet. Rudy does not its suits his type. He is almost oriental looking”. But the man with the Brooklyn girl took decided issue. Valentino’s muscles may look good to his women admirers but any trained athlete can see the fellow is soft. He is a soft fop and the fellow who wrote the article is right. I think this challenge to fight is merely a publicity stunt. I bet he never goes near the office of the Chicago Tribute when he gets to the city. Valentino’s second will be guess who? His press agent of course. |
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9 Mar 1937 – Rudolph Valentino Former Co-Star Clara Kimball Young
Twenty years ago, Clara Kimball Young had an annual income of $200,000, but the hand of ill fortune has swept away her wealth. Miss Young began her career on the stage when she was three. When pictures rose above the nickelodeon class, dramatic actresses were in demand and Miss Young rose to great heights in the higher type films. Her first picture “Cardinal Woolsey” made by Vitagraph in 1912, her Camille shocked the folk of yesteryear, but they sat up and took notice just the same. Her outstanding beauty, especially her magnificent dark eyes and her hands were the toast of the world. She received as many as 10,000 fan letters in one day. Perhaps the fan letter fad is passing, for today no star receives as much mail as that. Miss Young lives in Hollywood with her father, Edward Kimball, who is a favorite with the old-timers of the film colony. She has accepted the changes in her life philosophically.
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12 Oct 1923 – Sheik Swamped By Demand for Hair Locks
Rudolph Valentino Silent Film Actor is on holiday in London, has been inundated with requests from English flappers with continuous requests for locks of his hair. He would probably have been balder than Bob Fitzsimmons, if he had complied with each request.
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12 May 1929 – I own it now
On the little finger of his left hand, Joe Herman wears the sapphire ring that belonged to Rudolph Valentino. He wouldn’t sell it nor the Valentino slave bracelet which is also his. At 72nd Bowery under the L opposite the arch of Manhattan Bridge. There within one great room are 62 dealers behind glass showcases arranged in tiers. This location is how Valentino’s jewels got to the exchange.
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24 Jan 1929 -Richard Hudnut Estate Left to his Wife
Richard Hudnut perfume mogul and a former father-in-law to Rudolph Valentino left his entire estate to his wife with the exception of $4000 bequest according to the terms of his will. Mr. Hudnut claimed Foxlair Camp as his legal residence. The will was filed by the National City Bank, New York with Mrs. Hudnut and their stepdaughter Natacha Rambova as executors. The petition gives value of the real estate as $10,000 and personal property $50,000, but it is understood the estate is actually many times over these figures. The will first provides Woodlawn Cemetery Inc of Bronx County shall be given the Hudnut burial lot and $4000. Mr. Hudnut’s first wife is buried there and the will provides that plots shall be provided for other relatives. The remainder of the estate is given to his present wife. The will provided in the event she died before him for $110,000 in specific bequests to nephews, grandnephews and friends leaving the residue of the estate to Miss Rambova. The will states that “for reasons I deem sufficient I have omitted from the provisions of this will” Frank Hudnut (Half-brother), Maude Louis Chaplin (Half-sister), Eugene Beals (Son of the first marriage). Mr. Hudnut had previously given large considerable amounts of money to Mrs Beals the will said.
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1922 Hudnut Summer Home, Foxlair, North Creek, NY
Richard Hudnut, entrepreneur and New York City businessman, often visited the Adirondacks with his family. In 1890, he discovered the Oregon valley in the Town of Johnsburg in Warren County, and by the turn of the century had purchased 1,200 acres of land there. Although it took him 10 years to acquire the estate it was the ultimate summer home. Foxlair was located near North Creek, NY in the Adirondack’s. The main house was 270 foot long and was three stories high with a huge double staircase and a veranda across the front. Foxlair was fashioned in a French Chateau style that was favored by Richard Hudnut and was furnished with European furniture. One of Richard Hudnuts trusted employees Thomas Thornloe was superintendent for the estate as well as over 40 servants on staff, a 9-hole golf course along the valley and a host of barns for carriages and animals. The estate also had a Japanese Teahouse and a nature house built near the river. There was also a large aviary to grace the porch. Every summer during the afternoons, dancing pigeons put on a show for the famous guests who came from around the world to enjoy the great outdoors and the legendary Hudnut hospitality. In 1922, his adopted daughter Natacha Rambova went to Foxlair in seclusion during her future husband’s ongoing legal battle over his movie contract with Famous Players-Lasky.
This was a family residence until 1938. After Richard Hudnuts death the estate was endowed to the Police Athletic League of NYC as a summer camp for boys. In 1970’s, Foxlair was burned to the ground IAW the Adirondack Park Agencies Master Land Use and Development Plan which required all state land to be kept in a natural state. There are still remnants of the stone foundation to be found and overgrown stone stairways.
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21 June 1917 – Theodore Kostloff in CA
Theodore Kosloff. a graduate dancer from Petrograd and Moscow imperial ballet schools, formerly a member of Serge de Daighlleff’s famous Ballet Russq and latterly at the head of a miniature Ballet Kusse which came to Los Angelos last winter on the Orpheum circuit, has become so enamored of California and the movies that he has Joined the local colony of artists. He is working in conjunction with Cecil de Mille at the Lasky studios at Hollywood. Vera Fredowa, Natacha Rambova, Alexandre Ivanoff and other dancers of the Russian group seen here last winter also have taken quarters in this city on St. Paul street.
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“My tenacity was bred of necessity. I was determined never to return to dancing”. – Rudolph Valentino
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7 Jun 1925 – Mrs. Valentino
Mrs. Valentino busily supervising the presentation of a most beautiful setting, was very gracious when asked to pose. The classic nose, indicates an inquiring turn of mind, according to the artist. The lines below her heart are cubist designs for curls, we guess. Otherwise, quien sabe?
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17 Jun 1928 – Never Heard of Him
A garden has been opened on the roof of the Italian Hospital in London celebration of the birthday of Rudolph Valentino. The garden has been provided by the Valentino Association. The matron of the hospital had not heard of Valentino until recently.
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2019 – New Rudolph Valentino Book Published
Ms. Donna HIll has just published an updated version of her fabulous book on Rudolph Valentino the Silent Idol. This new edition is available for sale on lulu.com for $35.00. I bought my copy and for this price and new pictures, its a must for any Rudolph Valentino fan. Congratulations to Ms. Hill…
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Aug 1926 – A fond memory of Rudolph Valentino
Helen Smith, Des Moines was an ordinary girl that had an experience she will never forget. For the first time she traveled to New York City, on the same railroad as Rudolph Valentino in Aug 1926. Her first introduction was when he first seen her, he replied with an Italian accent “little Irish girl, what is your name”? She relied O’Shaughnessy. With that he smiled and replied, ‘I like the name that was my former wife name before she was adopted by the Hudnuts”. During our conversation “he spoke rather endearingly of his former wife. I’ll always believe he was in love with her”. She recalls only once during the entire trip did, he eat on the diner and no once did he go to the observation car. He hated the eyes of the staring public. “When a curious crowd would look at him with much the same look that a little boy gazed in on a caged animal. Valentino would remark ‘in this work your soul is not your own, neither is your life”.
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4 Apr 1938 – Mystery of the Lucky Valentino ring
When the late Rudolph Valentino’s effects were auctioned off in December 1926, items put on the block included emeralds, rubies, sapphires set in pins and rings and were valued by Executor George Ullman at $50,000. What happened to these jewels after their sale is not known today. But a simple silver ring, which may not even have belonged to Valentino, has helped keep alive the memory of the handsome Italian boy with the hypnotic smoldering eyes, who rose from sweeping out halls in new York to become a $1,000,000 a year movie star and to be known as the greatest lover of the screen before his untimely death at age 31. The modest silver band was found by movie starlet Rochelle Hudson in 1939, 13 years after Valentino’s death. Miss Hudson were in the hills above Falcon Lair, the hill-top home occupied by Valentino at the peak of his fabulous career. The glint of a small object in the path caught her eye and she picked it up and saw it was tarnished. There was a brief speculation on how it happened to there. Without giving it further thought, Rochelle put the band in her picket and continued the hike. Later that day, Rochelle tossed the ring on her dressing table and forgot about it. It was found by a maid who cleaned it with silver polish. As the maid was rubbing the inside of the band, she gasped at the words began to be legible “Rudy Valentino 24”. The maid excitedly showed the discovery to Miss Hudson. However, the actress was to young to have known much about the greatest of all movie screen lovers. She had seen only one of his pictures and could not remember the name. Rochelle ran the following ad in the classified section of the Los Angeles Examiner: “Ring found, man’s bearing inscription “Rudy Valentino 24”if the mysterious veiled woman who has made an annual trip to Valentino’s grave can identify herself, I will gladly make a present of the ring to her “BOX H9284”. The news ad first appeared on Tuesday 5 December 1939 and ran for three days with no response. A reporter reading the ad, had given it additional publicity for a story in the news section of the paper. Miss Hudson was surprised. “I expected at least 50 people claimed to be the ‘mystery’ woman she said. “Even if there isn’t such an actual person, at least I thought some of Rudy’s admirers would tr to get the ring”. A short time later, Rochelle gave the ring to a publicity man, Bev Barnett, who made further efforts to find the “woman in Black” without success. Giving up the search he put the ring in a dresser drawer, in his home. In Feb of 1940, Barnett’s home was robbed, and the Valentino ring was among the missing things. The rings history began to get even more interesting from this time on. On 29 October 1940, a neighbor came to the home of Los Angeles Police Officer William F. Mollie and reported that someone was trying to break into her house. Molle went to investigate and in the rear of the house, he suddenly was fired upon by the bandit. The officer emptied his service revolver at the fleeing man and chased him down the street. Policeman Molle testified later “he ran right past my wife, Helen, who was standing on our front lawn. My gun was empty, so I couldn’t have protected her. As I run past her, she handed me another gun. “I caught the man, shoved it in his back and he choked: don’t shoot me anymore. I’ve got enough then he collapsed from two bullet wounds in the abdomen”. The lone-wolf burglar, identified as James Willis, dd from his wounds. In his pockets, was a key which led officers to a warehouse in South Los Angeles and $75,000 in loot. Among it was the Valentino ring. Barnett went down and claimed the ring and recovered everything else that had been taken from his house. Thus, the silver band became known as the lucky ring. “if the ring hadn’t shown up” said Barnett, “I wouldn’t even have known that other stuff was there”. Superstitious Hollywood always loves good luck trinkets. Some time later, Gene Autry was in a dispute with Republic Studio. He filed suit to break his contract. “How about that ring of Valentino’s? he asked, the publicity man. “Let me wear it”. Gene wore the ring during the first trial of his suit against the studio, which eventually resulted in his departure from Republic. After World War II the ring came into possession of Actor Robert Armstrong who eventually sent it to a Mrs. Cooper of Chicago, long a collector of Valentino relics. She in turn, sent it back to Hollywood to James Gleason following the death of his wife, Lucille. There is no great intrinsic value to the ring, and nobody knows if it is even an authentic souvenir of the screen’s great lover. If it didn’t belong to him, where did he get it? Did one of this wives or feminine admirers give it to him? Jean Acker his first wife, has said she knows nothing of it. But then the inscribed date, 24 was after their marriage had been broken up. Rudy married Winifred Hudnut known as Natacha Rambova in Mexicali, Mexico on 14 May 1922. A few days later, the famous bigamy charges hit the headlines because Valentino’s divorce from Jean Acker was not due to be final, until 11 Mar 1923. The excitement died down when Valentino and his exotic bride said the would not live together in California until they could be remarried. They did go through with the second ceremony in Crowne Point, Indiana. This was in 1923. In 1924, the date on the ring, Rudy and Natacha were living in Whitley Heights, in the hills above Hollywood. Whether it ever belonged to him or not, the ring has done more to keep alive the memory of Valentino than any of his treasures that went under the auctions hammer. It probably will keep cropping up again as long as Hollywood believes in good luck
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17 Oct 1938 – Cursed Ring Wearer Refuses to Sell
Miss Marian Fowler appearing with the ballet choris at the Roxie Theater in New York City had met and was entertained by Del Casino, a distant relative of the late Russ Colombo. He wears the ring previously owned by Silent Film Star Rudolph Valentino and left to him by his cousin. He was offered $300.00 for the platinum ring with an agate setting, that originally cost $7.00 but refused the offer.
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11 Nov 1945 – Suicide Attempt Bares Former Dancer Story of Secret Marriage to Valentino
From the shadow of death yesterday came a strange story of a 39 year old former Ziegfeld dancer she married Movie Sheik Rudolph Valentino a year before his death, bore him a daughter and lived in mystery for 20 years. During that time, it was said she paid annual visits to his grave as the legendary “Lady in Black”. The story unfolded yesterday as a result of an asserted suicide attemp by Marion Wilson, glittering Broadway before she came to Hollywood in the history-making 1920’s. It was told by Miss Wilson’s third cousin Perry Combs of Hollywood. While Miss Wilson was in a Santa Monica Hospital suffering from the effects of an attempted overdose of sleeping pills Combs declared: “my cousin told me she and Valentino were married in 1925. She kept it a secret she feared news of the marriage might hurt Valentino as a romantic actor. “She became pregnanat and went abroad to have the baby a girl in either Italy or France. The baby was a girl, now about 19 or 20 years of age and has never been in the United States. Valentino setup a trust fund for her and she grew up with his sister. Combs said the daughter is now in London attempting permission to come to the United States to visit her mother. Although denying miss Wilson known on the stage as Marion Benda, ever married Valentino George Ullman, the former matinees idol manager and room mate at the time of his death in 1926, admitted Valentino and the stately beauty were friends. “Rudy dated her from time to time” said Ullman, “but I’m sure there was no marriage. As for her having a child by Rudy, there were 35 other women who advanced that claim after he died”. Ullman said Valentino and Miss Wilson were out dancing together the night he was stricken with the illness that proved fatal and she was with him when he was put to bed for the last time. “I believe had Valentino married her Ullman said, “I occupying the position I did in his life would certainly have known of the event. He squired her about New York on a few occassions but their relationship was short and formal. Miss Wilson was married to Dr. Blake Watson in 1932, shortly after her divorce from Baron Von Boechlin a German. Released from the hospital late yesterday, Miss Wilson moved to a waiting automobile in a wheel chair and driven to an undisclosed location in North Hollywood. Although at first reluctant to discuss her claims to having been Valentino’s wife, she finally declared “You can go to New Jersey and find out whether I was married to Valentino or not”. Apparently on the verge of collapse Miss Wilson refused to name the city in which such proof might be found. She did, however deny being the “woman in black”. There was never a “woman in black” she wearily declares “that was just a publicity stunt put on by the studio”. Combs, who found Miss Wilson unconscious late Friday, said that during the week she had taken 68 sleeping pills. Friday he added she took 10 more and became despondent intimating she might commit suicide. Combs said he left Miss Wilson on an errand for her and when he returned found her lying on the floor and called police, six more capsules had disappeared from the bottle in his absence Combs said. At the time of Valentino’s death, following production of his final movie “Son of the Shiek” Miss Wilson and her pseudo husband were planning for the future and were hoping he would retire in five years, Combs declared. He said Miss Wilson and the actor were married in France. But what happened to her declaration of look in New Jersey? No response. He said she adopted the stage name of Benda becase she once posed for the artist Wladyslav Benda creater of the famous Benda Mask. She and Valentino were introducted by Ben Ali Haken a Hollywood producer, Combs said. A woman who asked her name not be revealed said Miss Wilson told her Valentino and her had two children. One was a girl 20 years living with Valentino’s sister in London and the Boy a 16 year old serving in the Italian Army.
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28 Sep 1920 – Race King Featured in Kinema Film
When Rudolph Valentino, the Universal player drove his car to victory in the road race between Naples and Rome in 1905, he saw an amateur motion picture photographer grinding an ungainly looking camera at the finish line. The camera was set low to the road Valentino said, and as I swept by I thought for an instant that it was a hand organ and wondered if the monkey would get under my car. After the race, I examined the contrivance, and laughed in a superior sort of way when the fellow assured me that he had a splendid moving picture of me as I passed him at seventy miles an hour. A week later, the photographer sought admittance to the Valentino estate at Taranto and showed his film to the astonished young man. That evening the drawing room of the palatial home was turned into a motion picture theatre. With a crude projecting machine that jumped and flickered dismally, the photographer exhibited his film of the race. Little did Valentino think on that summer’s evening that he would one day be a celebrity of the screen and that he should have the distinction of supporting Dorothy Phillips as one of her leading men in her greatest Universal success “Once to Every Woman”.
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Places where Vilma Banky Lived
2282 La Contente Drive, Whitley Heights
Built in 1927, 2282 El Contento Drive, Whitley Heights, this Spanish style home with 3538 square feet of space with five bedrooms and five bathrooms supposedly once home to silent film-star Vilma Banky. This is a two-story entry hall, living room with massive hand-painted beams and oak flooring throughout. Spacious formal dining room, kitchen and breakfast room with huge city views and open directly to pool & outdoor dining terrace. There are four en-suite bedrooms and the master has sitting room, large private terrace and fireplace. This was last sold in 2016. There is no record that Vilma Banky actually lived there.
Vilma Banky Malibu Home
Vilma Banky & Rod LaRoque Los Angeles, CA
Vilma Banky & Rod LaRoque Los Angeles, CA
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“I have a future. I don’t want any woman hampering my career”. Ninety percent of marriages are proposed when the man is lonely or intoxicated. The only way to escape loneliness is by marrying – Rudolph Valentino, during an interview with Herbert Howe”
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24 Apr 1922 – How to Succeed in Love by Rudolph Valentino
Valentino learned about “women from her” a lesson that he carried to the boulevards of Paris. There he learned love in its casual phase the love that is based on the bubble of the hour, that has now for its patron saint the francs of the stranger, now the art of the artist, and then the heart offering of the poet. Also, he saw the other side of the picture. The sincere love of the poor native or stranger, who, in the midst of infidelity, of pretense and thoughtless pleasure, clung to a man, and the man to her, with the same simple love lonely in the midst of a crowd that might have been found in the peasant remoteness of the Midi. Such formed the basis of the Valentino school. To him loving is an art a game of finesse. It must not be played with speed or crudeness. There is no place for the quick canvasser or the man who has to catch a train. It is his doctrine that he would never care to kiss a woman who made it possible at the first, second, or third encounter. It must be nursed he insists. Love cannot be forced, deduces this youthful safe of affection from his world study. It is worthless unless it is given freely and happily, and there can be no joy in what is taken by force or with reluctance. The bliss of a kiss, he opines, lies in the receiving end of the vibratory combination, and blessed he is who can gradually reaches a state where two souls and two hearts drift in concentric circles toward each other and then whirl into one mad embrace as two floating chins approaching the vortex of a whirlpool might circle and circle and circle closer and closer with each moment, and then take the plunge into that mad torrent side by side. That is the Valentino theory of love. His notion of the American is a man who forms instant desire to kiss a woman the first time he sees her; who is too hurried to wait, too crude to conceal from his telltale eyes the purpose that lurks in the mind. But a kiss is something that tells a story. When four lips are to join in the greatest of human sentiment that ever comes to a world that was supposedly born in sin and misery then it is the women who gives the kiss! And the kiss that is given is worth all of the stolen fruit, all of the captured lip trophies that have been recorded in the world from the time of the Queen of Sheba first, felt the magic of Solomon’s touch down to the latest osculatory treasure that marked a belated goodnight at the vestibule of a New York flag. It’s all a game. There you have the rudiments compiled by a master.
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12 Sep 1925 Wide Scope Sought By Valentino Company’
Rudolph Valentino may turn his hands to other lines of endeavor, judging by articles of incorporation of Rudolph Valentino Productions filed yesterday, at the County Clerk’s office. Besides motion pictures and their appurtenances, the company is empowered to deal in “musical compositions” and “general photographic and music reproduction”. The corporation has $25,000 of capital stock of which $300 has been subscribed for by the directors. These are George Ullman, Beatrice Ullman, and Rudolph Valentino. The articles were filed with the Secretary of State at Sacramento sometime ago. Raymoney Stewart is the attorney
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26 Nov 1925- Townsville Daily Bulletin London Rudolph Valentino Returns
Rudolph Valentino, the famous cinema actor who just arrived from America, was the centre of an extraordinary scenes at a West End Cinema theatre, where he personally attended the occasion of the screening of one of his films. He was surrounded by a seething crowd, mostly women. The police forced them back and the doors had to be locked after the performance. Valentino rather than face the crowd which remained in the street, had to escape over the roof of the theatre.
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16 Apr 1931 NY Gossip
The slinkingly frocked and perfectly turbaned Natacha Rambova is carrying on at her modernistically fronted shop a few steps off Fifth Avenue daily. Her salon is a junkle-jumble of bags, perfume, objects d’art, Indian scarves, antique jewelry, modern costume jewelry, and Persian brocades. She opened it shortly after the passing of Rudolph Valentino and it is a flitter of black glass and chrome. Miss Rambova chief diversion is attending spiritualistic seances and is said to be convinced she has received numerous messages from the film star.
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21 May 1922 – Winifred reaches Chicago
Winifred Hudnut alias Natacha Rambova reached Chicago today, enroute to her secluded home in New York with a pledge of love for Valentino on her lips and tears in her eyes when she heard the latest news of the screen idol. All the way on her trip from Los Angeles she steadily refused to discuss the case, which scores of news reporters who guarded the train at almost every station or who were already on it when it started, but at the last moment when someone suggested her silence might result in misjudgement of Valentino and asked her if she loved him, her lips formed one word “forever”. then she resume her attitude of silence. Persons on her train said she told them she would “never never leave” Rudolph but planned to return to him one day. The only time she had real joy on her face was when the porter gave her telegrams from Valentino.
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All About Rudolph Valentino 
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