6 May: Rudolph Valentino

This date in 1895 saw the birth of silent-screen star Rudolph Valentino. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. He was born in Italy to an Italian father and French mother. They named him Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella.
2. He didn't do well in school but earned a certificate from an agricultural school in Genoa. Attempts to find work in Italy were unsuccessful, so he struck out for America and was processed at Ellis Island at the age of 18 on December 23, 1913.
3. He worked at various jobs such as gardening and washing dishes. He didn't do a great job as a bus boy at at Murray's on 42nd Street, New York, and got fired, ending up living on the street for a while. Even though he'd been crap at the job, his former colleagues liked him enough to slip him free food when he went back to eat there.
4. He was eventually hired as a taxi dancer, someone who would dance with patrons of a club who would pay him per dance. He danced the Argentine Tango in his first major film, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and is credited with bringing the dance to America.
5. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was released in 1921 and became one of the first films to make $1,000,000 at the box office. It was the sixth-highest grossing silent film ever. Valentino went on to star in The Sheik, as Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan. The character was a somewhat stereotypical Arab man, and Valentino did his best to debunk the idea that Arab men were "savages". He once said, "People are not savages because they have dark skins. The Arabian civilization is one of the oldest in the world... the Arabs are dignified and keen-brained."
6. Acting and dancing weren't his only talents. He spoke four languages (at least) and he could sing and write. In 1923 he recorded two songs, Kashmiri Love Song (from The Sheik) and El Relicario (from Blood and Sand) for Brunswick Records. He published a book of poetry, Day Dreams, in 1923, which was snapped up by his fans, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. He also wrote for magazines about how to keep fit, and serialised his life story.
7. Despite having thousands of adoring female fans, his personal life wasn't such a success. He married twice. His first marriage, to Jean Acker,  was one of the shortest celebrity marriages on record – six hours. Theirs was a whirlwind romance, lasting just a few days. However, they had a row on their wedding night and she locked him out of the room, so the marriage was never consummated. Ironically, after their divorce, they became good friends. The same year he divorced Jean, he married Natacha Rambova, an actress and dancer he met while making the film Uncharted Seas. The law at the time stated a couple had to have been divorced for a year before they could marry other people and Valentino got arrested for bigamy. He and Natacha had to live in separate apartments until the year was up and they could marry again legally. The marriage lasted four years, and had turned so sour by the end that she was banned, by contract, from turning up on any of his film sets, and her legacy in his will was just one dollar. At the time of his death, he was involved with two women, Marion Wilson Benda and Pola Negri. The latter claimed at his funeral that she was engaged to him, but he'd never actually admitted that to anyone else.
8. There were rumours aplenty that Valentino was actually gay. Rumour had it that his brief marriage to Jean Acker was one of convenience to conceal the fact both were gay. Women loved him but men weren't impressed and were known to walk out of his films in disgust (do I detect an element of jealousy here?) and his masculinity was often questioned in print. This infuriated Valentino so much that he challenged the writer of one column to a boxing match (it would have been a duel, if duelling had been legal). Another journalist called him a "Pink powder puff". There was a lawsuit in the offing when Valentino died. One of the last things he said was to his doctor, asking "Well, doctor, and do I now act like a 'pink powder puff'?" His doctor replied, "No, sir. You have been very brave. Braver than most."
9. Valentino was just 31 when he died. He suffered a perforated ulcer which mimicked appendicitis, a condition that would later be named "Valentino's syndrome". He survived the surgery and seemed to be getting better but his weakened condition led to severe pleuritis. Doctors weren't hopeful, but didn't tell Valentino this, and chatted with him about his future before he lapsed into a coma and died on 23 August 1926.
10. He had his own Poe Toaster for a while. For many years on the anniversary of his death, a mysterious woman, dressed in Black, would lay a wreath of flowers on his grave. Nobody ever found out who she was for sure, though a woman named Ditra Flame claimed to be her. More recently, the tradition has been carried on as a kind of publicity stunt by numerous copycats. The current "woman in black" is the motion picture historian Karie Bible. Valentino's ghost is said to haunt The Hollywood Knickerbocker Apartments, formerly the Knickerbocker Hotel, where Valentino was a regular customer.

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