Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, sex symbol, and early pop icon. Known as the "Latin Lover", he was one of the most popular stars of the 1920s, and one of the most recognized stars from the silent film era. He is best known for his work in The Sheik and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. His untimely death at age 31 caused mass hysteria among his female fans, propelling him into icon status.
Dating back to the de Saulle trial in New York, during which his masculinity had been questioned in print, Valentino had been very sensitive with his public perception. Women loved him and thought him the epitome of romance. However, American men were less impressed, walking out of his movies in disgust. With the Fairbanks type being the epitome of manhood, Valentino was seen as a threat to the All American man. One man, asked in a street interview what he thought of Valentino in 1922, replied, "Many men desire to be another Douglas Fairbanks. But Valentino? I wonder..."
Women in the same interview found Valentino to be "triumphantly seductive", and that he "put the love-making of the average husband or sweetheart into discard as tame, flat, and unimpassioned". Men may have wanted to act like Fairbanks, but they copied Valentino's look. A man with perfectly greased back hair was called a "Vaselino".
Some journalists were still calling his masculinity into question, going on at length about his pomaded hair, his dandyish clothing, his treatment of women, his views on women, and whether he was effeminate or not. Valentino hated these stories, and was known to carry the clippings of them around and criticize them.
In July 1926, The Chicago Tribune reported that a vending machine dispensing pink talcum powder had appeared in an upscale hotel washroom. An editorial that followed used the story to protest the feminization of American men, and blamed the talcum powder on Valentino and his films. The piece infuriated Valentino and he challenged the writer to a duel and then a boxing match. Neither challenge was answered. Shortly afterward, Valentino met with journalist H.L. Mencken for advice on how best to deal with the incident. Mencken advised Valentino to "let the dreadful farce roll along to exhaustion", but Valentino insisted the editorial was "infamous." Mencken found Valentino to be likable and gentlemanly and wrote sympathetically of him in an article published in the Baltimore Sun a week after Valentino's death:
“It was not that trifling Chicago episode that was riding him; it was the whole grotesque futility of his life. Had he achieved, out of nothing, a vast and dizzy success? Then that success was hollow as well as vast — a colossal and preposterous nothing. Was he acclaimed by yelling multitudes? Then every time the multitudes yelled he felt himself blushing inside... The thing, at the start, must have only bewildered him, but in those last days, unless I am a worse psychologist than even the professors of psychology, it was revolting him. Worse, it was making him afraid...
Here was a young man who was living daily the dream of millions of other men. Here was one who was catnip to women. Here was one who had wealth and fame. And here was one who was very unhappy."
After Valentino challenged the Tribune's anonymous writer to a boxing match, the New York Evening Journal boxing writer, Frank O'Neill, volunteered to fight in his place. Valentino won the bout which took place on the roof of New York's Ambassador Hotel.
Boxing heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, who trained Valentino and other Hollywood notables of the era in the art of boxing, said of him, "He was the most virile and masculine of men. The women were like flies to a honeypot. He could never shake them off everywhere and anywhere he went. What a lovely, lucky guy."
In 1923, Valentino published a book of poetry which was entitled Day Dreams. He would later serialize 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.
Valentino was fascinated with every part of movie-making. During production on a Mae Murray film he spent time studying the director's plans. He craved authenticity and wished to shoot on location, finally forming his own production company, Rudolph Valentino Productions, in 1925, Valentino, George Ullman, and Beatrice Ullman were the incorporators.
On May 14, 1923, while in New York City, Valentino made his only two vocal recordings for Brunswick Records; "Kashmiri Song" (from The Sheik) and "El Relicario" (Blood and Sand). The recordings were not released until after Valentino's death by the Celebrity Recording Company, as Brunswick did not release them on the fact that Valentino's English/Spanish pronunciation was subpar.
Valentino was one of the first in Hollywood to offer an award for artist accomplishments in films. The Academy Awards would later follow suit. In 1925, he gave out his one and only medal, to John Barrymore, for his performance in Beau Brummell. The award, named The Rudolph Valentino Medal, required the agreement of Valentino, two judges and the votes of 75 critics. Everyone but Valentino was eligible.
In the film "The Sheik", Valentino played Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan. In the 1926 sequel "The Son of the Sheik", he reprised the role (as well as playing the sheik's adult son Ahmed).
RIP
Rudolph Valentino
(May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926).
You are dearly missed.