This author is not buying the excuse, Mrs. Rudolph Valentino is giving the press these days. “I won’t sit waiting for a husband who goes on lot at 5:00 a.m. and gets home at midnight and gets mails from girls in Oshkosh and Kalamazoo” and trying to look disappointed, reproachful and hurt while giving a press statement. Seems Mrs. Valentino is not good at fibbing and confessed the marital vacation is in reality a separation. George Ullman, Mrs. Valentino’s personal representative was with her today in charge of negotiations. He is not, her lawyer, and she could not conveniently remember her lawyers address. Ullman admitted he was open to the charge of alienating Mrs. Valentino’s artistic affections.
Posts Tagged With: George Ullman
21 Aug 1925 – Mash Notes to Sheik Cause Wife to Leave
2 Sep 1930 – Rudolph Valentino’s Fans Still Care
Hundreds of letters which continue to pour in are from mature women who claim to be in touch with Rudolph Valentino says George Ullman, Former Valentino Business Manager. “Some claim he is their lover, and visits them regularly. Others assert he is trying in vain to get into communication with former friends on earth. They there are the persons who say is trying to relay messages through them about the disposition of his estate. Look at some of the letters which have been addressed on the general subject of Rudolph and his affairs.
From New York – “You might think that I am a sort of flapper, but I am a home girl. I wish you would come to New York and talk to dear Rudy with me. Oh, make haste, the time has come, make haste”.
From Douglas, AZ – “I have been spending the nights in the desert with Rudy and I am enclosing a message”. George, I am so lonesome. June Mathis is with me and she, too is lonesome. It is dark out here and we are afraid. Please George, get in touch with me through this medium Black Feather asks it also”.
From Oneida, NY – “I am told by Rudy that I am the only spirit he cares about. I could never give you an idea of how very romantic Rudy really is..I think he loves me”.
From St Louis, MO – “You should get in touch with Mr. Valentino at once. He is indeed very lonesome and blue. He misses the attention that was showered upon him on earth. He believes that if he is in touch with you conditions will change”.
Hundreds and hundreds of letters like that, but none is answered. The letters which have to do with Spiritism are few indeed compared to the thousands of admirers who write to Ullman for a word of Rudy and now and then comes a pathetic letter from some person in a far-away place who has just learned of his death.
24 Apr 1929 – Makes you Wonder?
17 Apr 1935 – ZUNILDA MANCINI, Respondent, v. S. GEORGE ULLMAN, Appellant.
20 May 1930 – Executor of Valentino Raises Veil on “Tricks”
How the popularity of Rudolph Valentino motion-picture actor, was capitalized for the benefit of his estate, was disclosed yesterday by George Ullman, Business Manager of the late actor and appointed executor of Valentino’s Will by provision of the testator. Ullman appeared in Superior Judge Stephen’s court to answer the charges of Alberto Guglielmi and Maria Strada, brother and sister of Valentino. It was asserted in a complaint filed by the Guglielmi’s that Ullman had mismanaged the estate, causing a loss of $80,000. When the complaint was filed, Superior Judge Crail suspended Ullman as executor, and yesterday Judge Stephens appointed R.F. Stewart, assistant trust officer of the Bank of Italy to service until the 29th when a hearing on the question of removing Ullman permanently will be conducted. Value of the estate now is $250,000 in real estate and 125,000 in personal property, according to the complainants in the suit to dismiss Ullman, but the defendants declare the property is worth more, and that he built it up from practically nothing. Under the guidance of his attorney, Ullman made a statement which he said will be substantiated by evidence at the hearing. “Instead of losing money for this
estate I converted liabilities into assets so, I have immortalized the name of Valentino, so successfully that I will wager today that all over the world there are thousands of motion-picture fans who do not know that Valentino is dead. “The estate was 160,000 in debt when Valentino died. We had organized the Valentino Production Corporation shortly before, and when I took charge as executor the assets were two films Son of Sheik and The Eagle. It was my job to exploit these films and pay off the indebtedness.” “Pictures by dead actors previously had not proved very successful, but in the case of Valentino I managed things differently. The world knows how the dean man’s friends co-operated with me in gaining thousands of columns of publicity at the time of the funeral. We organized Valentino Clubs all over the world, and they went over big too. “Then I had the task of disposing of my friend’s personal effects. He had about 16,000 worth of hardware, which he had collected as
souvenirs; swords, armor and the like. It cost me 35,000 to fix up legend’s and publicize this stuff, but I sold it for 97,000. And they criticized me for spending this 35,000 too”. Of course, I resorted to some tricks. For
instance, Rudy had lots of books but he had only autographed a few of them, and he didn’t have a book mar. I had a mark designed, stuck it inside the covers of this books which made money for the estate.
5 Jan 1938 – Valentino Photo Album
Chaw Mank said that in his estimation the late silent screen star Rudolph Valentino was the greatest personality he saw on the screen. After Valentino’s death, Mank wrote to the late star’s business manager George Ullman and asked for some token from the Valentino home. “I received an album containing photographs of Valentino, pasted by Valentino himself, and captioned in his own handwriting” he said. He has been offered $500 for the album, he said.
10 Feb 1927 – Valentino Utopia Plan May Be Aired in Court
Shortly before his departure for NY on the trip that ended with his death, Valentino and Ullman are said to have signed an agreement with the Beverly Ridge Company for the purchase of 110 acres of hills, stretching from Falcon Lair, the Valentino home to the Chaplin and Pickford-Fairbanks estates. The property was to be cut up into home sites of five and ten acres each and sold to members of the film colony. Pola Negri was among those who had agreed to build on the land, according to the report. It was the plan of Valentino to erect a stone wall enclosing the entire tract, with gates keepers lodges at the three entrances. Behind these walls, the residents of Valentinotown were to live shielded from the gaze of curious tourists. The property was valued at approximately a million dollars, the Hanson Finance Company holding a mortgage for $700,000. Valentino and Ullman when they signed the contract calling for the payment of $140,000 within sixty days also issued a note for $20,000 payable in thirty days. The note fell due as the actor lay on his deathbed. Then the contract expired, Ullman failing to make good the $140,000. As a result of this, the Hanson Finance Company foreclosed on the property, throwing the Beverly Ridge Company into bankruptcy, according to attorney Andrews. Beyer as receiver has made several demands on Ullman for the amount of the note and the contract. On the advise of Attorney Gilbert, these have been ignored, resulting in the notice by Andrews of court action.