His fame eclipsed all the stars of the interwar era. Rodolfo Guglielmi di Valentino D, Antonguola / that's his full name! / lived only 31 years and starred in the cinema only five of them. But his eight films made him famous, secured him a permanent place in the history of the seventh art.
+++
He was born on May 6, 1895 in Italy. His father was a minor Italian nobleman, and his mother - a beautiful Frenchwoman. At the age of fourteen he entered a naval school in Venice. Then he enrolled in agronomic sciences at the University of Genoa, but did not graduate. At the age of eighteen he went to try his luck in America. And since he was handsome and slim, he easily found work as a cabaret dancer.
In 1918, he accidentally ended up in Hollywood and was hired for a small role in a silent film. For three whole years, he worked as an extra and a performer of episodic roles, barely managing to support himself. Finally, in 1921, when he was 26 years old, he got the main role in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and suddenly became famous. His success was simply sensational! Everyone, especially women, were in a frenzy of delight over the unknown handsome man. A black-haired Latin male, with expressive velvet eyes under arched eyebrows and heavy eyelids. He was truly the complete antithesis of the rough Anglo-Saxons who had conquered the screen. And this exotic appearance made him terribly attractive and desirable. He was a real “Latino lover” – “Latin lover”, never seen before on screen.
In fact, Rudolph Valentino /this will be his pseudonym/ is the screen personification of the dream of escaping from life, of the longing for other exotic and also erotic experiences. Next: ”Lady of the Camellias” by Dumas- son /1921/, ”The Sheik”/ 1922/, ”Beyond the Rocks” /1922/, ”Monsieur Bocquet”/ 1924/, ”The Black Eagle”/1925/. The last one turns out to be ”The Sheik”/ 1926/. In August of the same year, Rudolph Valentino suddenly fell ill with acute peritonitis and died in a New York hospital.
The funeral procession of the Hollywood idol lasted for six days.
On August 23, a torrential rain fell in New York, but this did not stop the crowd of thousands of his admirers who came to say goodbye to the “Sheikh”. After the procession on Broadway, it was as if a typhoon had passed: dozens of overturned cars, hundreds of broken shop windows, one hundred and twenty-three lost children and a carpet of flowers!
The silver coffin, in which the body of the handsome man was placed under heavy unbreakable glass (alas, death has changed him a lot), continues its journey on a train – in a special composition to Los Angeles. And he will travel for a whole week, stopping in Kansas, El Paso, Yuma and Colton, so that his devotees can see him off from there, until he finally reaches Hollywood.
On September 7th, the funeral mass is held at the church of the “Good Shepherd”. Here are his brother Alberto, his fiancée, the movie star Paula Negri, his two ex-wives Joan and Natasha, his impresario George Ullman. But none of them wants to cover the expenses of his funeral! And Rudy left behind only debts - a whole 160,000 dollars / an astronomical amount for the time! /, as well as an unpaid villa in Hollywood... Then Ullman decides to send letters to all producers, directors and artists in Hollywood asking them to help. 2000 letters sent and only… 120 dollars!
Yes, Rudolph Valentino was not needed dead by materialistic and greedy Americans!
Even by his female admirers! A newspaper runs a subscription, but only 200 dollars are collected. Finally, good people are found to bury him. This happens on September 14, a week after the funeral in the church. An Italian family from Naples, the Balboni, gives the necessary amount and buys a place in the Hollywood cemetery.
After his death, his fame grows even more. Books and plays are written about him, films are made /one of which was recently shown on our televisions/. He has quite a few followers and epigones, but still he cannot be repeated. It was truly unbelievable!
The myth of Rudolph Valentino can only be compared to the myth of Greta Garbo.
FROM THE “DIARY OF RUDOLF VALENTINO”:
Women love not me, but the image they see on the screen.
I am the canvas on which women paint their dreams.
I am starting to look more and more like my worst imitators.
I really think I was happier sleeping on the bench in Central Park than I was in all my years playing the “ideal lover”.