Famous Players Lasky Studios, Long Island, NY is where Rudolph Valentino filmed two movies there, one of which, “A Sainted Devil” (1924), was ostensibly set in South America but was shot in part in Farmingdale and “Monsieur Beaucaire,” a 1924 Rudolph Valentino movie shot in Queens, NY.
Between movie pictures Rudolf Valentino paid a visit to Chicago, and proved that it was possible for even such a nagnet as he has become to the feminine half of the U.S.A. to walk abroad unmolested and unchallenged. Rudy made a bet that he would even enter a theathre without being recognised and WON. But he had thoughtfully provided himself with a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles and a beautiful beard, and not even the people sitting next to him knew that the gentleman they hailed as a perfect beaver was the actor so enthusiastically worshipped as “The Sheik”.
What would Halloween be without a story such as the one that you are going to be reading in a moment. First off, the Internet has all sorts of stories about Valentino’s Cursed Ring posted on Facebook groups, websites and blogs. So I found an old book that had something about Valentino’s Cursed Ring which I thought you the reader might enjoy.
In the vault of a Los Angeles bank lies a silver ring set with a semi-precious stone. It is not a particularly pretty ring or even a very valuable one (depends on story version). But the chances are that no one will ever dare to wear it again. For it bears one of the most malicious curses in the history of the occult. Successive owners have suffered injury, misfortune, even death. After all these years, people still believe that it was this ring that send Rudolph Valentino to a premature grave. Certainly, the violent incidents that have surrounded it over the past 60 years or more can hardly be shrugged off as mere coincidence. It was in 1920, that Valentino, at the peak of his success, saw the ring in a San Francisco Jewelry Store. The proprietor warned him that the ring had a record of ill-luck, but Valentino still bought it. He wore the ring in his next picture, “The Young Rajah” which is now a lost film. This film was the biggest flop of his career to date and he was cut-off from the screen for the next two years. He did not wear the ring again until he used it as a costume prop in “Son of the Sheik”. Three weeks after finishing the film, he went on tour to New York. While wearing the ring, he suffered an acute attack of appendicitis. Two weeks later, he was dead. Pola Negri, alleged fiancé’ of the now deceased movie star asked to pick a memento from Valentino’s possessions, chose the ring and almost immediately suffered a long period of ill health that threatened to end her film career. A year later, while convalescing, she met a man who was almost Valentino’s double: Russ Colombo, who was competing as a crooner against Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee. When Pola was introduced to him, she was so struck by his resemblance to Valentino that she gave him Rudolph’s ring, saying “From one Valentino to another”. Within a few days of receiving the gift Russ Colombo was killed in a shooting accident. His cousin passed the ring on to Russ’s best friend, Joe Casino. Also, at the height of his popularity as an entertainer, Casino took no chances with the ring. Instead of wearing it, he kept it in a glass case in memory of his dead friend. When he was asked to donate the ring to a museum of Valentino relics, he refused, saying he treasured it for sentimental reasons. As time passed, Joe Casino forgot the ring’s evil reputation and put it on. A week later, still wearing the ring he was knocked down by a truck and killed. By now, the curse was front-page news. When asked what he proposed to do with to do with the ring, Joe’s brother Del explained that he could not allow himself to be intimidated by a curse or a ghost or whatever it was. He didn’t believe in things like that. Del Casino wore the ring for some time and indeed nothing untoward happened. Then he lent it to a collector of Valentino relics who suffered no-ill effects either. This caused several newspapers to speculate that at last the evil influence of the ring had come to an end. And that, it seemed was enough to trigger off a new wave of violence. One night soon afterwards, the home of Del Casino was burgled. The burglar, a man named James Willis, was seen by the police running form the scene. A policeman fired a warning shot but the bullet went low, and killed Willis. Among the loot found in his possession was the Valentino Cursed Ring. It was that time that Hollywood producer Edward Small decided to make a film based on Valentino’s career. Only 21 years old, Dunn died 10 days later from a rare blood disease. A year after Jack Dunn’s death, a daring raid was carried out in broad daylight on a Los Angeles Bank in which the thieves got away with a haul of over $200,000. In a subsequent police ambush, two of the gang members were caught and three passersby were injured. The bank robber’s leader Alfred Hahn, was ultimately jailed for life. At his trial, Hahn remarked “If I’d have known what was in that vault apart from money, I’d have picked myself another bank”. For in the bank’s safe deposit was Valentino’s Cursed Ring. The executers of Del Casino, who have owned the ring for the past ten years, have left it in the bank vault under lock and key. It has not seen the light of day for years. But the bank is now allowed to forget its existence. Since 1960, there has been a $50,000 robbery, a fire, and a 3 week strike of cashiers. Can an inanimate object exert a malign influence on those who come in contact with it? All those over the years, suffered the curse of Valentino’s ring have little doubt it can. It you doubt this then I guess it makes a great Halloween story.
Source:
The Strange and Uncanny (1967).
Jetta Goudal had been cast as the female lead opposite Rudolph Valentino in The Sainted Devil. In a highly charged, tabloid filling confrontation, Valentino’s wife, Natacha Rambova, demanded that Jetta be dismissed from the film. There are conflicting versions of the clash of the divas. Some alleged they fought over Goudal’s proposed wardrobe for the film and others suggest that Valentino and Goudal were attracted to each other and Rambova was jealous. From the beginning of the filming of “The Sainted Devil” it was clear that something was bound to happen between two such strong personalities. The part Jetta was to play required elaborate costuming and with her exotic taste was nothing short of fantastic when exerted upon the process of conceiving her gowns for the film. Two eminent costume designers found them so difficult that they refused to accept the more spectacular designs. Natacha swiftly settled the matter and booted Miss Goudal. In her own memoir, Natacha Rambova insists she was falsely accused “of sacrificing Rudy for my own selfish ambitions—I wished ‘to become a power in the industry.’ Fortunately, my conscience is entirely free from this despicable accusation.
In 1966, New York Times obituary of Miss Rambova, Jetta Goudal brings up again the incident and insisted it was Rambova’s jealousy of her beauty that caused her being dismissed from the film. However, Natacha Rambova alluded that the quarrel began when she criticized Jetta Goudal’s movie wardrobe. ‘Also, the obituary alleges Jetta was reported to of committed suicide after she was dismissed from the movie. It is not clear whether Jetta’s emotional distress was a reaction to losing the man, losing the fight, or losing the film role. Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova were divorced a year later. Rambova insisted that gossip had caused the divorce
Love me Love my dog says Natacha Rambova one-time wife of Rudolph Valentino. So the United States linear Manhattan sailed away today without either. All because ships officers insisted firmly that Miss Rambova could not have her Peke in a cabin with her. The Peke would never live to set foot on home soil, she told them tearfully, if they were separated. They turned a deaf ear.
I have been reluctant to write on this subject, but so many interviews, purporting to come from me, have been printed that I think it maybe best to put myself on record over my own signature. I shall have to disappoint the reader who expects something sensational. I did not beat Natacha Rambova my former wife. She did not throw flat irons at me. Sorry but we did not do those things and no did I object to her having a career her own career. Nor did I demand that she bear children. I wanted her to have what she wanted, in so far as I could get it for her. In other words, I wanted her to be happy, and tried as any man would, to make her so. There was never any issue about her staying at home and keeping my house. No woman that anyone knows stays at home and keeps house anymore. Los Angeles wives have their own cars, as a rule, and go and come as they please. Fortunately, I was able to free my former wife from housework and from all forms of drudgery. If she wanted to keep house I would have “fired” the servants and let her “express” herself in that way. If she wanted children, I would have engaged nurses and urged her to “express” herself in that way. She did not want to do these things and frankly I did not give them any thought. Dissatisfaction in marriage as in other family life is apt to be cumulative. There is no sudden erratic or dramatic offense which determines one to “leave home” to be rid of the presence and influence of relatives and out of the environment at all cost. There is often a steady decline in mutuality of interest, in sympathy, in esteem. The child which leaves the home does so because of a long series of misunderstandings, or thwarted plans, which leads him to believe that he can best accomplish the thing he feels it in him to do if he is away from those who blindly or selfishly or arbitrarily “love” him. He suffers a loss of material things the safeguards and comforts of home goes hungry, or maybe or is undernourished over a period of years to enjoy a mental and spiritual freedom which seems to more than compensate for the lack of what his family considers “the real things”. So, it is apt to be with a young man who is too closely circumscribed by an ambitious girl. At first, she stimulates him to “bigger and better” things. She is indeed generous and helpful. He is touched and flattered by her consecration to his aims, her devotion to his interests. Eagerly they plan his career. He welcomes her counsel, and following it, finds it sound. Sound, because in the first flush of life, while she is much enamored of him, she is thinking with her heart, rather than her head, and intuitively arrives at correct conclusions. She has “guidance’s” and powers of divination which calculating women can never exercise for the man she seeks to promote for gain and self-aggrandizement only. They marry. She gives up her career, if she has one, to better and more completely aid him in his. Almost imperceptibly but slowly and surely her attitude changes. It gradually dawns on him that, while she has given up her career, she has not given up a career. She has started on a new one, which is to “manage” and make a success of him. Now, you will say, a man should be deeply grateful for that. Yes, and no. Wait a minute. In the friendship and courting period’s, she considered him, weighed and advised him with relation to his profession or art he was trying to master, with relation to the public or patrons he was trying to serve, to please, to win, to hold. She was anxious for him to do the finest and best thing it was in him to do; and at the same time, please or conciliate those with whom he had to deal promoters and make those little concessions to pride and vanity and even pocketbook, which would make for lasting success in the long run. She was disinterested, and able to see him at long range, and his true relation to others. With marriage and the needles and pins routing of everyday living servants, household budgets, clothes, his friends, her friends, his family, her family and the like she inevitably began to consider him, and then, also, with relation to herself and her relation to him. Would they interfere, would they presume to give advice or make plans without first consulting her? In other words, would they usurp her position as friend, guide, and philosopher, would they jeopardize her place and power? Then there enters the ever-present question of money much money. Keeping up an establishment, entertaining, and all that, seems so necessary; and if one does not make money, more and more money, one falls behind the procession and of course, once having got in the procession, there is nothing for it, it seems, but to stay in. There is the couple ahead, which would turn and stare, and the couple behind, which might titter, and the couples on either side who might exchange knowing looks, as if a pair fell out and walked along quietly by the side of the road. Acquaintances must be appraised according to their places in the procession. People must be cultivated or discarded in direct proportion as they might help or hinder one in “getting on” socially, professionally, or financially. Those lovable and improvident soul’s writers, artists, musicians who follow their own rather than publics tastes must not be “picked up”. They “aren’t” anybody, don’t know anyone of importance and are often a little “seedy” in appearance, and run down at the heel. The most charitable in the procession regard them as a lot of harmless nuts. The others are careful not to regard them at all. Were they alive, and living in Hollywood, Byron and Wilde would be very much in demand at smart affairs? The Browning’s would be sought after by an exceedingly small clique. Keats, Shelly and Burns would scarcely get a bid to dinner, no matter how badly they might need one, nor how much bright and beautiful conversation they might bring to a table. Now, I am being a Latin, am not what you Americans call “practical” by later. No Latin is, or can be, practical 24 hours a day. We maybe as mercenary, or more mercenary, than you in the barter of our wares, or talents; but we spend ourselves and our money in different ways. This is an experience which I believe I have in common with the American husband that after a few years of married life he finds only those of his friends of whom his wife approves, remaining; only those of his or her relatives of whom she approves, visiting; and all of her friends, whether or not they like him, or he them, invited to the house on each and every occasion. Well that happens when a man discovers he is being “managed” in every department of life life, those in which he may need direction, as well as those in which for the sake of his own development, he should be allowed volition and selection? The result is that all “management” becomes irksome to him. He suddenly becomes as assertive as he has been “easy”. He finds that he can hire a competent counselor and business advisor, and “live his own life” so to speak. What does the wife do when her husband’s career is taken away from her? She can go back to her own career, or take up a new one, or wash her hands of careers, and be just a wife; for after all a business manager has not tender womanly breast a tired actor may lay his head of an evening. If her love is greater than her pride, she will surrender gracefully, and make the adjustments which will enable them to start all over again on a new basis. If her pride is paramount, she will probably slap him across the face with a bill of divorcement. The world knows what happened in my case, and that is the answer. I have no regrets, no remorse. I enjoyed being married to Natacha and did my utmost to make her happy. Whatever she may say or think now, she too got a lot out of our life together both in material things and good times. She cannot tax me with the old “you have taken the best years of my life etc.”. The best years of her life are yet before her. She is as ambitious as ever she was, as high-spirited, as bright and keen. She can still achieve anything within her logical range. I bear her no ill-will and wish her the best of success. Neither am I broken-hearted. Nor am I out of a home. I have a secretary, and I have a few dependable servants, so I am week taken care of. This summer I brought with me from Europe my brother and his wife. They supervise my household, and I may entertain whom I like, when I please; and have that “monarch of all I survey” feeling which is so nourishing to the male ego. Perhaps this account of my second wreck on the reefs of matrimony will give the lie to the line which has been tacked onto me. That I am “a great lover” both on and off the screen. I suppose it is intended for a compliment, but I do not relish it. I wish above everything to be known as a great artist and am working earnestly and steadily to that end. I hope eventually to be given a picture which will demand something more than a physical performance, and I want to be ready when the times comes. After all, a man gets tired of being talked about and written about as though he were a processional “handsome” man. For this reason, I need to concentrate on my work and plan for my future as never before. And what may happen is on the lap of God. However, I must admit that I am not insensible to the charms of the fair sex.
In an exclusive interview with a representative with the NY Times yesterday Valentino announced he will not return to Hollywood pending the outcome of his litigation with Famous Players-Laskey. Papers in the action will be filed early next week and yesterday the company retained Guggenheim, Untermyer and Marshall in an attempt to force Valentino to continue the program outlined in his long-term contract. All day yesterday, the idol of thousands of film enthusiasts sat in a rear room of the office of his counsel, Arthur Butler Graham, at 23 West, 43rd Street in preparation of Valentino. It is understood that Sim Untermyer will be arraigned by Graham in the courts. To prevent Valentino with another production Guggenheim, Untermyer appealed to Hays, High Chief of the affidavit stating the actor’s case will be forwarded today by Valentino’s counsel. Although the fact is generally known Valentino far less compensation the players of equal import pictures. His salary is to be $1200 a week. Valentino contends Paramount netted more than $1,000.00 in “The Sheik” his first star vehicle, and that “Blood and Sand” his current picture will nearly double that amount he says, is not commensurate with these profits and furthermore, he insists Famous Players-Lasky abrogated its part of the contract by failure to provide the publicity agreed upon. After Valentinos marked success in “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” Metros dramatization of the Ibanez novel he was called to NY by Famous Players-Lasky and offered a contract at a sum that to the theater gods and goddesses is nominal. He refused at first, but when the company agreed to augment the salary with extra publicity he signed for a period of several years. Sleek of hair as always and with a ring of beaten silver on earth has his little fingers Valentino smoked innumerable cigarettes as he discussed his case yesterday for the first time since his arrival in NY. For days, he has been incognito refusing interviews and remaining in complete obscurity. “I will not return to Hollywood at the present time: he said. The reports that I will desert America and return to Italy are ridiculous. I have made great success in America and shall remain here. “If I return to Italy it will be only for the purpose of visiting my parents whom I have not seen in 10 years. I have no plans for contracts with other companies. I do not intend to make any until this matter has been settled satisfactorily. I would like to have it understood that I will stand by any contract I make, as long as the other party does likewise. He refused to discuss his private affairs and ignored mention of the name of “Miss Hudnut”, whom he married to in Mexico before the interlocutory degree from Jean Acker had become final. But from another and no less authoritative source the Times learned the Valentinos will not live under the same roof until Jean Acker has passed legally of Rudolph’s life forever. Along Broadway in the motion picture offices, Valentino is known as the “gold mine of the screen” according to his counsel. When his case is called Graham expects to introduce as witnesses the editors of film magazines, who will testify that 70 to 80% of the “fan letters” about screen players received by these publications concern Valentino. Since her marriage to Valentino and return to New York, Miss Hudnut has evaded reporters. She remained for several months at the Hudnut summer camp Foxlear, at North Creek, NY and at one time was said to have booked passage to Europe which for some unexplained reason was cancelled. No she has moved into the Biltmore Suite of her foster parents. She will not return this season to the employ of Nazimova, whose art director she was. Although the Valentinos are living apart, there has been no break in their happy relations. It was admitted yesterday they have been together frequently and will continue to see one another at intervals until the California law permits them to take up their life together.
In 1918, being called a powder-puff was considered a negative and demeaning word if your a man. In 1926, Rudolph Valentino was called this same thing by an unknown newspaper reporter from the Chicago Tribune. Regardless of the time period, I found how interesting this article related to Rudy.
“According to Irwin Zeltner (1971), Hollywood has had many famous feuds, but not cam compare with the feud between two 1920’s silent film stars Gloria Swanson and Pola Negri. At the time, both were two of the most exotic women this town had known and experienced. The battleground was Paramount Studio in which their movies were made. When I first met Gloria Swanson, I was a bit startled by her voice. It was anything but musical. She was charming, but I quickly noted she spoke with an unmistakable midwestern accent. My first impression of her was she appeared tiny. Reared in Chicago by her U.S. Army officer father, in her early teens she was employed as ribbon clerk in a store not far from the stockyards. Somehow, like so many other famous discoveries, she landed a job with Mack Sennett Studios. She was standing in the doorway of a shack on the Sennett lot one day, when the great star maker Cecil B. Demille chanced by. DeMille, as he told me later, did a double-take and his intuitive perception told him this young lady had personality, charm, and appearance wholly distinctive. In a short while Miss Swanson was before the DeMille camera clothed in costumes that then were a shock to Hollywood. Her hair was done up in bizarre styles, and in a few lessons, she was taught to gesture with an elongated cigarette holder. The soon-to become famous Miss Swanson was thus prepared for the roles she was assigned to, and these were mostly females of questionable morals. With everything against her, she somehow remembered her public-school motto “Perseverance Wins”. How well I remember how exciting my duties were in behalf of two of her productions “Feet of Clay” and “Madame Sans Gene” released a couple of years later. These activities brought me in close contact with Miss Swanson and during one of our frequent meetings I was astonished when she spoke out most critically of Pola Negri who had appeared on the Hollywood scene to challenge Gloria’s pre-eminence as “Queen of the Movies”. “Mr. Zeltner”, she said I am the topmost female star of our industry and I cannot seem to get our Paramount Studio to subdue that Pola Negri woman, that foreigner, that gypsy. I listened carefully, as Gloria after a moments rest continued her tirade. Her eyes glinted, and she was relentless and more sharply demanding than ever. It was not long in coming a showdown with Paramount Studio officials and Adolph Zukor a kingly little man who was President. In his effort to calm the tempestuous Miss Swanson, Zukor offered her a contract in which Paramount was to pay her upwards of one million dollars annually. But she would not give an inch. About this time, I had luncheon with Miss Swanson, and no sooner had sat down when I ventured to inquire about her latest Paramount offer. Her reply was quick “Mr. Zeltner I am forming my own production company. I am the reigning female star of the movie world and determined to remain as such”. I will make arrangements to release my pictures through an affiliation with United Artists. She would be joining Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplain, Harold Lloyd, Rudolph Valentino. It was not long, after Gloria now complete master of her fate, realized her star was glowing less brilliantly. Gloria carried her head high, persevered as was her wont and never for a moment allowed her battle with Pola Negri to lapse. Miss Negri kept up the challenge. However, it was now Hollywood History that Miss Swanson won that war, and for along time sustained her exalted position. It was producer Ernest Lubitsch, who brought the gifted Pola Negri to America and to the Paramount Studio. Here she immediately clashed with Gloria Swanson. I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Negri on the day of her arrival. This very exotic female was a genuine gypsy. Her father died in exile in Siberia after he had become involved in Poland’s fight for independence from Russia. Miss Negri in my opinion was a beautiful and talented woman. She achieved considerable success on the Warsaw stage. In Berlin, impresario Max Herinhardt directed her to state and screen stardom. Miss Negri was well-known on the European Continent as a dancer, having graduated from the Russian Imperial Ballet School. Her combined abilities were now being praised in movie and stage circles in America and juicy contracts were being offered to her. Somewhere in between Miss Negri married and then shelved a real count. The one thing, I keenly remember of Miss Negri on the day of her arrival was that she kept reminding all and sundry that she was a countess. It was only natural for Lubitsch, to star her in his epic “Gypsy Blood”. This of course, was produced by Paramount Studio. Her role was that of a sultry vamp, and the picture was a box-office success. Soon as the cameras started to grind on this picture, and all through production her famous clash with Gloria Swanson on the same lot flared and it forthwith, grew in intensity. The battle between them both was so bad Paramount officially shifted Gloria to the East Coast Studio. Later when they sent her to Paris, one of her first achievements was to acquire a titled husband a marquis. Now her fight with Miss Negri was really joined. While this was all going on, Miss Negri was succeeding in turning everyone in Hollywood against her. She held everyone and everything in contempt. She avoided all social contacts, remaining in solitude and her music and literature and an occasional visit from a European friend. Miss Negri found herself completely rejected and she took great comfort in the romance and love that quietly existed between her and Rudolph Valentino. Incidentally, I was one of only a few close friends of Rudy’s to know of this romance. When word came to Miss Negri in Hollywood the Latin Lover was on his deathbed, she made a transcontinental dash to be at his bedside. It is true among Valentino’s last words were “If she does not get here in time, tell her I love her”. This message which she received in Hollywood, gave her license to display great grief and some have said was laying it on too thick. About this time, her popularity started to rapidly decline, and Paramount Studios found it hard to sell her films. Heroic efforts were made to remold the temptress image, but everything fizzled. Abruptly she went back to Germany, where she was understood and admired. Again, she married to a fake Prince and I was not surprised by the news at all. I received a cable invitation to come to Germany. This and a later letter detailed her desire for American promotional campaigns for her pictures. She was frank enough to state our methods applied to her German Films would rebound in her favor in the U.S. and this she wanted more than anything else. Even though she was offering me an amount more than what I was currently earning I respectfully declined. My regard for Pola as an actress never wavered and nor my respect until one day, I received authentic information from a remarkably close friend in American news that Miss Negri was linked with Adolf Hitler. My friend queried her on this, and she never denied the association with the Fuhrer. Her only comment was that there had been many prominent men in her life, with Valentino heading the list.”
It’s one of those days, and I am posting articles for years 2025-2030. Researching and writing for this blog has been a labor of love. The overall theme and content was something I imagined in a way where history comes alive in away to be believed. I was surprised to find my blog was a 2021 Bloggy Award Winner. There was no official announcement sent to me but still it’s an honorable mention which I do appreciate.
The Bloggy awards suggestion about “the number of posts on the homepage can be lessened so the reader doesn’t have to scroll down a lot”. The response is that has to do with the wordpress theme that was selected and that is not something within my control to change.
I’m always hoping this blog is recognized and treasured for the information contained by viewers and fans of Rudolph Valentino.
Again, thank you to the Bloggy Awards.
Approximately 100 years ago, Ramalda Lugo, center, walks beside her daughter Lena, left, and an unidentified man. Ramalda holds a piece of paper to her face. Mrs. Lugo is an Indian woman who lived in Palm Springs and testified in a Los Angeles Court she saw the bridal party at the cottage as honored guests of Dr. White. Both the mother and daughter were able to identify Mr. Valentino and his bigamist wife Natacha Rambova from pictures. Both testified the couple stayed in the cottage “together” for a couple of days.
Now for a choice bit of scandal. You remember I told you that Valentino had picked Vilma Banky as his leading lady. Well, it seems they are going around together quite a bit. Last night Rudy took Vilma to the preview. Everybody was astonished at this. After the preview, the party I was with and myself walked around the piers and didn’t go home right away. Quite some time later we went home, and we rode behind Valentino’s car—and Vilma was with him. This morning, the whole studio was talking about it and the papers carried a big story regarding it too. Mr. Goldwyn asked me to get Vilma to come over to see him—I located her in Valentino’s bungalow! She came over and I kidded her a bit before she went in. I heard Goldwyn tell her that she must not do anything that will in any way ruin her reputation, etc. etc. When she came out, she gave me a wicked wink and said in her charming broken english, “Before, Marion Davies everyone else say look at me unt zay nozzing,” (with this she raised her head, lifted her shoulders, and turned her nose up indicating that they all more or less snubbed her). “Last night, Marion Davies zay ‘Hello Vilma’ so I will go wid Valentino—eh?”It didn’t take her long to catch on and with of all men who was supposed to be so attached to his wife. However, I can hardly blame him because she is very pretty, whereas Natasha is anything but good looking. Valentino is going to be in N.Y. for the opening of “The Eagle” and Mr. Schenck wired Goldwyn to have Vilma come to N.Y. and also make a personal appearance with Valentino . Mr. Goldwyn just wired us to explain to Mr. Schenck that in view of the relations between Mr. and the second Mrs. Valentino and the fact that Vilma is quite friendly with him , it wouldn’t be good policy to have Vilma in N.Y. at the same time Valentino is appearing. So, Vilma is not going to N.Y. Mr. Goldwyn can’t afford to have any scandal to arise around Vilma as that would be sure to kill her popularity. You, know of course that Fitz is going to direct Valentino in “The Son of the Sheik” and Vilma is going to play opposite him.
Reference:
Belletti, V. (1923). Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary. University of California Berkley Press. P.82, 122
Hollywood’s search for a new male star to play the role of Rudolph Valentino matinee idol of the 1920’s reached out to Ft Bliss, Texas today where an Army private recommended his First Sergeant. He is handsome the Soldier wrote and has a pair of eyes that are attractive enough to bring Betty Grable to this command. Enclosed in the letter was a photograph one of more than 20,000 which have poured into the United Artists Office in New York since The Are You A Second Valentino Contest opened 1 April. Many letters come from wives, who coyly insist their husbands are “the great lover of the century” or “a real swooning type and I should know”. Men who write to suggest themselves are somewhat, more modest, qualifying their boasts of star material with such phrases as “of course, you would have to fix my nose? Or “I have no real sex experience, but I can learn”. There are also please from young boys who insist Valentino should be shown as he looked in his teens and add each is the very to handle the role. “My teacher said I could act good when I played the role of Old King Cole five years ago in grammar school” said one budding actor 19 years old. A 15-year-old Chicago boy said bashfully that he knew he wasn’t the great lover type, but he would do his best, and the mother of a 17-year-old lad wrote that year son was young but very slick. A policeman in Jacksonville, Florida asked for a chance to be a Valentino the Second and a Japanese girl wrote her brother now training to be a minister would be a great choice. The judges – Mary Pickford, Edward Small, Gregory Ratoff, and Pola Negri will choose four winners who will be given $500 war bonds, trips to Hollywood and screen tests. The contest closes 15 June.
Rex Ingram and Rudolph Valentino in the MGM film ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’. During a scene break the director is giving the star a painting lesson, to prepare him.
One of the future Rudy’s was a dark-haired boy of six years. “Come here, Valentino” Mr. Knoles commanded. “Look here, my name’s not Valentino” protested the embryonic Barrymore. My name is Warren Whittington McCollum. As for this Valentino person, who is he? I never heard of him! That for “The Sheik” and “The Son of the Sheik”.
Vilma Banky will play Valentino’s leading lady in the “Son of the Sheik”. We hope she’s bedouin “The Sheik” than in some other fiolms.
The names of five witnesses, whose testimony is believed “of great value” were obtained today at Indio, Cal., by Los Angeles detectives who are investigating in Mexican border towns, both above and below the line, the recent marriage at Mexicali, Lower California, of Rudolph Valentino, film actor and Winifred Hudnut, a motion picture art director, known professionally as Natacha Rambova. A telegram containing that declaration was received from the detective tonight by Tom McClelland, deputy district attorney, who is assisting Thomas Lee Woolwine, district attorney, in an inquiry designed to determine whether Valentino committed bigamy in remarrying before the interlocutory decree of divorce he received here January 10, last, from Jean Acker, screen actress, became final, WOULD BLOCK PROBE. McClelland also stated he had received a visit today from representatives of “motion picture Interests” who had attempted to discourage the investigation. He quoted them as saying: “There is much money involved. It will be a very disastrous enterprise to the industry if the Valentino case is prosecuted.” lie said he replied. “When you find damaged goods, you must take the hazard of the gain.” ,He declined to name his visitors. He said they made no “threats. ’ but rather a “plea’ because of the financial value of Valentino’s contracts and the probable effect of prosecution on the “box office.’’ McClelland said that W. I. Gilbert, attorney for A alentino, had notified him that the a<tor was ready to go to the district attorney’s office whenever desired. Miss Acker, late today, made an appointment to go to that office tomorrow morning to make a statement in connection with the case. It was also announced by McClelland that an investigation of the divorce and re-marriage of Henry B. Walthall, also a motion picture actor, had established to his satisfaction that the proceedings were absolutely legal. He said he was still investigating u report that Frank Mayo, another film player, re-married at Tijuana. Lower California, on October 2 last, four days after an interlocutory decree of divorce from his first wife was granted here. The May investigation of the alleged visit to El Centro of Rodolph Valentino, film actor, and his bride, Winifred Hudnut, before their marriage in Mexicali, lower California, last Saturday, was begun here today by E. R. Simon, district attorney of imperial county, at the request of Thomas Lee Wnolvvine. district attorney of Los Angeles county. Valentino and Miss Hudnut are said to have passed Thursday and Friday of last week in El Centro. This and the arrangements made for the wedding at Mexicali, in Mexico, 12 miles south of El Centro, are being investigated, Simon stated. adding that he hoped to report to WoolwiIne not later than next Monday. Two detectives sent from the office of Woolwine conferred today with Simon
On Apr 1923, an announcement was made of the sale of a large shoe store. A 10 year lease had been signed on the store building that was one of the oldest shoe firms in the area initially established by Morgan & Stoll. The new owner S.Ferragamo from Italy made the Hollywood Boot Shop, 6683 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA telephone 577-101 one of THE places to have shoes made by hand. Ferragamo studied the art of shoe making in Italy and at UCLA. Ferragamo’s shoes first appeared on the silver screen in Cecil B. DeMille’s “Ten Commandments”. The creme of Hollywood movie society had their shoes customed made at his shop earning him the nickname “shoemaker to the stars”. Rudolph Valentino had ALL of his shoes made at his fellow Italians shop. In 1927, Ferragamo left Hollywood for his native Italy.
It was Rudolph Valentino had all of his shoes custom-made at his shop.
“Natacha was immensely admired wherever we went. But I became rather angry about that. In one of the cafes, we stopped at for supper, there was a group of officers present and they sat there, boldly, without attempt at camouflage, looking her up and down. I was just about getting ready for a good fight. Then it came to me that I probably did the same thing before I left Italy. I had forgotten that it is almost a custom of the country, a habit. But I felt resentment, because it really wasn’t a look of curiosity, polite or otherwise, It was a sort of mental undressing. The very boldness with which they did it should have disarmed me. For all the boldness of it, because of the boldness of it, I suppose, there was also a sort of naive innocence. It was stripped of all subterfuge, all attempt at concealment. In America, decidedly, had such an event taken place, I would have risen and smashed the offenders in their several jaws”. – Rudolph Valentino
Fame has many fans. To be famous signifies the recognition of some sort of success achieved. And no surer fashion of determing the essential elements which make for higher popular acclaim can be found that which an individual exhibits in their handwriting. It is the intimatic link between the nerve-action of the hand and the mind. So when you regard the signatures of screen stars, you are looking squarely at the hgih or low lights switched on by the electrical currents of their personalities. The steady glow holds your attention. The power underneath you feel even if you do nnot know the cause. For this reason, if for no other, there is a wide demand for the personally-written signatures of men and women prominent in this expression of the drama. Likewise, upon the signature every writer unconsciously places great stress in using certain strokes that declare the prominent traits. Handwriting is the natural private gesture of each person’s whole makeup, and you will see that it only requires the eye and mind working together to form a fair judgement. In the same healthy atmosphere travels R. Valentino, whose even well-poised first moves ambitiously upwards, gesturing with his rather flamboyant capitals, exclamatory of his intense vitality and the conscious belief in himself. Each carefully-connected stroke invites you to look into his active mind, beeming with an intense desire to make good. In each curve lurks a laugh. In the straight base-line, strengthened by the long underscoring sweep, be assured you frankly t hat he has a great deal of nerve and will never be satisfied until you meet him frequently. That bold hook on the end of his “t” shows his grit, his clinching hold on every detail in order to produce in a versatile manner with artistic finesse. The way he gathers his letters together a clutch denotes his practical side. Once attempt to worst him by any ill treatment and his whole temperment will arise with an adequate come-back. It would surprise you, as he is tactful and pleasing in manner. by nature vitally strong, he is the type who will meet flame with flame and enter into the gaiety of living. Yet, pressure being even, he understands the art of self-dominance. By this his advance along, the stellar way can be measured by the height of his signature. “Very High”!
The Young Rajah,” Rodolph Valentino’s new Paramount picture which Philip E. Rosen is directing, has many fascinating situations and gives the athletic star a chance to show his metal. Wanda Hawley is the pretty leading woman and her co-star Rudolph Valentino is spending all his spare time lately with boxing gloves, fencing foils and a medicine ball—that is, whenever he isn’t riding horseback.
Mr. Rodolph Valentino is back at work on “The Young Rajah,” with Philip Rosen at the megaphone. The adaptation is by June Mathis. The story starts with a mysterious scene and works up to a dramatic climax which it would be hard to excel.
Baron James H. deRothschild, eldest son of the famous French family of financiers, was a guest at our West Coast Studio recently and under the escort of General Manager Victor H. Clarke, Paul Iribe, Fred Kley, Rodolph Valentino, and Adam Hull Shirk, inspected with keen insight and a ready comprehension the intricate W’orkings of the big plant where our pictures are made.
Sensational to the limit are said to be the scenes which Mr. Valentino does sword and cape play before the real fighting bulls. He was trained for the dangerous business by Rafael Palomar, famous Spanish matador, and became highly proficient in the art.
Rodolph goes to San Francisco May 5th to appear at the mammoth benefit to be given by the Mayor’s Citizen Committee to raise funds to help entertain the disabled veterans at the Convention June 26-30 of the Disabled American Veterans of the first World War. Silent Film Star Rodolph Valentino will be escorted by a squadron of cavalry and prominent officials to the hotel and will be royally welcomed.
When Valentino and Naldi were working before the camera, the entire personnel unconsciously drew around them and watched with awe the wonderful acting of this pair. Can you see Mr. Valentino doing a Spanish dance with Nita Naldi, and Lila Lee playing the beautiful Spanish wife? This production was directed by Fred Nihlo, the one and same man who directed “The Three Musketeers”-—that alone should be enough for any exhibitor to know, that together with this marvelous story, under the guiding hand of this capable director and with Rodolph, Nita Naldi and Lila Lee, it will do a record-breaking business at his box-office.
Perhaps you adoring lady-fans would like to know what becomes of the violet scented mash-notes you send in reams and reams to Rudolph Valentino “screen lover”. He gets only 900 of them a week and said recently that if they continued he might be forced to retire from the big screen. Forced to retire “by pestering women”. This may break the hearts of countless flappers but truth must out. His “fan” letters are turned over to Madame Rambovas maid, who is supposed to answer them in he name of the star. We did find out all money received from admiring fan letters and it is no small sum either goes to the maid. So maybe you might want to think twice about sending money.
Agnes Ayres has received legal permission to drop “Shucker” from her name, having recently dropped the gentlman to whom the last name belongs. Thought Agnes real name was Henkle? A boy who claims to be her brother makes a none too lucrative living by mowing lawns around Hollywood. Says he’d rather do that than work in films! Wow! Agnes is a mighty fine girl, anyway.
The editor of a movie periodical was enraged recently because of Katherine MacDonald’s refusal to pose for some hair-dressing pictures for his magazine she being the only star in Hollywood to pass up this form of publicity that takes so well with the feminine “fan” readers. It wasn’t because she wanted to be up-stage. Then why? Shh! Because the American Beauty is said to wear more “puffs” than real hair!
Rudolph Valentino, the Italian actor who played leading roles in Rex Ingram Productions for Metro “The Four Horsemen” and “Conquering Power” was being shown through the Italian gardens of a Hollywood hostess. “How charming” he exclaimed, with bubblinh Latin enthusiasm. “We have nothing like this in Italy”. Well of course you don’t
All About Rudolph Valentino 
You must be logged in to post a comment.