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| Rudolph Valentino |
Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home. She has received the wonderful visit of one of her closest friends, Claire Fontaine, who shares lots of hobbies with The Grandma.
They love classic and mute films and they have been talking about Rudolph Valentino, the Italian actor based in the United States who starred in several well-known silent films and became a sex symbol during the 1920's.
Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895-August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik.
He was a sex symbol of the 1920s, who was known in Hollywood as the Latin Lover, a title invented for him by Hollywood moguls, The Great Lover, or simply Valentino. His premature death at the age of 31 caused mass hysteria among his fans and further propelled his status as a cultural film icon.
Valentino was born in Castellaneta, Apulia, Kingdom of Italy and named Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella. His father, Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fedele Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella, was Italian; he was a captain of cavalry in the Italian Army, later a veterinarian, who died of malaria when Rodolfo was 11 years of age.
After living in Paris in 1912, he soon returned to Italy. Unable to secure employment, he departed for the United States in 1913. He was processed at Ellis Island at age 18 on December 23, 1913. Although he found unparalleled fame and success in America, Valentino never filed the necessary papers for naturalization, and so retained his Italian citizenship.
More information: Smithsonian Magazine
Arriving in New York City, he supported himself with odd jobs such as busing tables in restaurants and gardening. Valentino once worked as a bus boy at Murray's on 42nd Street and was well liked, but didn't do a good job and was fired. While he was living on the streets, Valentino would occasionally come back to Murray's for lunch and the staff would slip him some food.
Around 1914, Restaurateur Joe Pani who owned Castles-by-the-Sea, the Colony, and the Woodmansten Inn was the first to hire Rudolph to dance the tango with Joan Sawyer for $50 per week. Eventually, he found work as a taxi dancer at Maxim's Restaurant-Cabaret. Among the other dancers at Maxim's were several displaced members of European nobility, for whom a premium demand existed.
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| Rudolph Valentino |
In 1917, Valentino joined an operetta company that traveled to Utah, where it disbanded. He then joined an Al Jolson production of Robinson Crusoe, Jr. which was travelling to Los Angeles.
By fall, he was in San Francisco with a bit part in a theatrical production of Nobody Home. While in town, Valentino met actor Norman Kerry, who convinced him to try a career in cinema, which was still in the silent film era.
Valentino and Kerry moved back to Los Angeles and became roommates at the Alexandria Hotel. He continued dancing, teaching dance, and building up a following that included older female clientele who would let him borrow their luxury cars. At one point after the United States entered World War I, both Kerry and Valentino tried to get into the Canadian Air Force to fly and fight in France.
With his dancing success, Valentino found a room of his own on Sunset Boulevard and began actively seeking screen roles. His first part was as an extra in the film Alimony, moving on to small parts in several films.
Despite his best efforts, he was typically cast as a heavy (villain) or gangster. At the time, the archetypal major male star was Wallace Reid, with a fair complexion, light eyes, and an All-American look, with Valentino the opposite, eventually supplanting Sessue Hayakawa as Hollywood's most popular exotic male lead.
By 1919, he had carved out a career in bit parts. It was a bit part as a cabaret parasite in the drama Eyes of Youth that caught the attention of screenwriter June Mathis, who thought he would be perfect for her next movie. He also appeared as second lead in The Delicious Little Devil (1919) with star Mae Murray.
More information: Factinate
In 1919, Valentino also impulsively married actress Jean Acker. Their marriage was never consummated.
Displeased with playing heavies, Valentino briefly entertained the idea of returning to New York permanently. He returned for a visit in 1917, staying with friends in Greenwich Village, eventually settling in Bayside, Queens. There he met Paul Ivano, who would greatly help his career.
Valentino's final film for Metro was the Mathis-penned The Conquering Power. The film received critical acclaim and did well at the box office. After the film's release, Valentino made a trip to New York, where he met with several French producers. Yearning for Europe, better pay, and more respect, Valentino returned and promptly quit Metro.
After quitting Metro, Valentino took up with Famous Players-Lasky, forerunner of the present-day Paramount Pictures, a studio known for films that were more commercially focused. Mathis soon joined him, angering both Ivano and Rambova.
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| Rudolph Valentino |
In November 1921, Valentino starred alongside Gloria Swanson in Beyond the Rocks.
In 1922, Valentino began work on another Mathis-penned film, Blood and Sand.
Valentino went on strike for financial reasons. At the time of his lawsuit against the studio, Valentino was earning $1,250 per week, with an increase to $3,000 after three years. This was $7,000 per week less than Mary Pickford made in 1916.
He was also upset over the broken promise of filming Blood and Sand in Spain, and the failure to shoot the next proposed film in either Spain or at least New York. Valentino had hoped while filming in Europe he could see his family, whom he had not seen in 10 years.
Valentino returned to the United States in reply to an offer from Ritz-Carlton Pictures, working through Famous Players, which included $7,500 a week, creative control, and filming in New York.
The first film under the new contract was Monsieur Beaucaire, wherein Valentino played the lead, the Duke of Chartres.
During the filming of Monsieur Beaucaire, both Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks approached Valentino privately, due to his contract with Ritz-Carlton, about joining with United Artists. Valentino's contract with United Artists provided $10,000 a week for only three pictures a year, plus a percentage of his films. Valentino chose his first UA project, The Eagle.
More information: Los Angeles Public Library
In 1923, Valentino published a book of poetry titled Day Dreams. He later serialized events in various magazines. With Liberty magazine, he wrote a series entitled, How You Can Keep Fit in 1923. My Life Story was serialized in Photoplay during his dance tour. The March issue was one of the best-selling ever for the magazine. He followed that with My Private Diary, serialized in Movie Weekly magazine. Most of the serials were later published as books after his death.
On August 15, 1926, Valentino collapsed at the Hotel Ambassador on Park Avenue in Manhattan. He was hospitalized at the New York Polyclinic Hospital. Following an examination, he was diagnosed with appendicitis and gastric ulcers, and surgery was performed immediately.
During the early hours of Monday, August 23, Valentino was briefly conscious and chatted with his doctors about his future, but soon lapsed into a coma. He died a few hours later at the age of 31.
An estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of Manhattan to pay their respects at his funeral. Suicides of despondent fans were reported. Windows were smashed as fans tried to get in and an all-day riot erupted on August 24.
Over 100 mounted officers and NYPD's Police Reserve were used to restore order. A phalanx of officers lined the streets for the remainder of the viewing. Polish actress Pola Negri, claiming to be Valentino's fiancée, collapsed in hysterics while standing over the coffin.
More information: The Guardian
An American may speak love with his lips;
the Italian must say it with his eyes.
Rudolph Valentino
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