I suppose now is as good a time as any to talk about Joseph Michael Schenck, real name Ossip Schenker (December 25, 1876 - October 22, 1961) ... the Russian-born studio executive who caused George Ullman so much grief. After all, it really was Schenck who was behind most of Ullman's troubles when it came to Rudy.
Joseph M. Schenck
Schenck's involvement in Rudy's acting career has been well-documented in this series, and there is no book written about Rudy that does not include Schenck's activities in some way. Schenck was a young man when he knew Rudy, and he grew older with Ullman and continued his shady ways until he ended up doing a stint in prison. More on the incarceration in a bit, though. While Schenck's imprisonment had nothing to do with Ullman, I can't imagine Ullman was too upset when he heard the news!
By 1926, Joseph Schenck was the chairman of 'United Artists' studio and he was easily the most powerful man in Hollywood motion pictures. He put business first, over anything else. This included his wife, Norma Talmadge, who would divorce him and go on to marry again, whereas Schenck never married after the one time with Norma.
Schenck thought nothing of ruining anyone's life or career as long as he got his own way. His childhood of want and terror had seemingly scarred him for life and he was never going to let that happen again.
It was within the last two years of Rudy's life that George was able to negotiate the two contracts with Joseph Schenck's 'United Artists' company. His last two pictures, 'The Eagle,' and 'The Son of the Sheik,' were made under the first of these two contracts. Under the second contract, Rudy would have made 'The Firebrand,' with Estelle Taylor as his leading lady.
When the second contract with United Artists was a completed negotiation, Schenck took out a life insurance policy on Rudy to protect his studio's interest in the picture. I have already shown, through George's statements from his memoir, that Schenck offered to buy out Rudy's contractual percentage on 'The Eagle' and 'The Son of the Sheik' just a few weeks after the actor's death ... and George refused. This was a wise decision on Ullman's part, but infuriated Schenck.
Ullman was proved to be right, the films did make astronomical amounts of money at the box office and so Ullman confidently contacted Schenck sometime later and informed Schenck that he had reimbursed 'United Artists' for all the funds that Rudy had received in advance of his making the future film, 'The Firebrand,' and that the life insurance policy that Schenck had taken out more than covered those expenses, plus some.
Because this life insurance policy had provided for this profit, Rudy's estate was entitled to 25% of that profit (as per the second contract) that was due him from 'The Firebrand.' George demanded the 25%. Schenck was highly pissed and refused to pay, but George would not let this subject rest. Schenck finally had no choice to but to honor the second contract he and Rudy had negotiated and give Ullman the 25% due Rudy, and Ullman promptly invested this $40,000 into Rudy's estate.
At this point, George attempted to again discuss the verbal offer of a position with 'United Artists', but Schenck now claimed he did not remember making any such offer, and there was never another word, kind or not, said between the two men.
However, Schenck worked in the background tirelessly to ruin Ullman after that. He funded Alberto's lawyers, bypassing Pola Negri. He hired the best lawyers in Hollywood to fight Ullman. it took Ullman a while, apparently, to figure out that Schenck was behind it all, and there was no way that Ullman could compete financially with Schenck and Schenck's connections in the business world. Schenck was just too powerful.
Keeping in mind that Schenck did make sure that George's life was difficult (to the point that George even lost his home to foreclosure) I'd now like to tell you all what actually happened to Joseph Schenck, although it strays from George Ullman's story a bit. You remember what I said about karma? Well, here we go ...
In 1933, Schenck helped Darryl F. Zanuck establish 20th Century pictures, which merged with Fox Film Corporation in 1935. Schenck served as chairman of this renamed 20th Century-Fox. Organized crime had coveted Hollywood from a distance for years, but had been unable to make serious inroads into the area thanks to the brutally effective work of the Los Angeles Police Department's 'Hat Squad' a group of detectives which were formed to keep the city Mafia-free.
However, the mob was always still around (and always had been), and Schenck was a part of it, as were Rudy and Ullman, by association. The studio's weak link was through the growing thorns in their collective sides, the unions, whose membership and collectives spanned across state lines. This is a history I am familiar with ... my first husband was a business agent for the Teamster's union.
When I was 18, I almost married into the A.P. Giannini family ... whose patriarch was responsible for ruining Frank Mennillo, a good friend of Rudy's. A.P. Giannini also was the man whom Rudy went to for a loan for business at one time. Giannini refused to give Rudy the money and advised Rudy to make it in life on his own, whatever path he chose. I grew up hearing stories of the mob and their involvement on the West coast in all areas of business, including the movie industry in Hollywood.
In 1936, Willie Morris Bioff, a Chicago mobster out of the remnants of the Al Capone gang who ran the 'International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Machine Operators' behind the scenes, told the studios they could avoid strikes (along with the implied work slowdowns and spontaneous theatre fires) for $2 million. All agreed to pay, but Schenck made one of the payoffs with a personal check, which came to the attention of the 'U.S. Internal Revenue Service' agents. Thanks to the paper trail, Schenck was indicted for income tax evasion.
With some applied pressure and soul-searching, Schenck testified against Bioff and the titular union president, George E. Browne, in 1941 as part of a plea bargain. In 1946 he began to serve a one-year sentence for tax irregularities and bribery (of the union officials) but was pardoned by President Harry Truman after having served only four months.
After his release from the Connecticut State Federal Penitentiary, Joe Schenck returned to Hollywood and through his old connections became the head of production at 'Fox Studios.' By the 1950s, Schenck was still very powerful in Hollywood and was responsible for Harry Cohen's contracting of Marilyn Monroe. Schenck also gave us our first peek at Marlon Brando.
Schenck died in 1961 at the age of 84 after suffering a major stroke from which he never recovered in his Beverly Hills home in Los Angeles, California.
More from George's 1975 memoir:
*********************************************************************************************************
"Hollywood studio executives, forgetting for the time being that a duplicate star can never succeed the original, put out scouts and conducted contests and advertised extensively inviting applicants for an actor to sweep into Valentino's place as 'The Great Lover.' Many, many tests were made of men whose photographic likeness even remotely resembled Rudy's. A feature writer for 'The Los Angeles Times' had labeled Valentino as nothing more than the product of Hollywood creation. This, of course, is pure nonsense because there really was something extraordinary that happened when Rudy was photographed in any role. He had magnetism in person, of course, but the camera revealed something deep and mysterious which attracted women primarily, but also many men. It might have been the refection of his soul!
There were thousands of pictures sent to me and to Edward Small, who was then one of the most successful independent producers of motion pictures. He had declared his intention of producing a motion picture about Valentino's career. One such photograph was sent to Small by Alfred and Lynn Fontaine, the famous actors who had appeared in many Broadway stage successes. They wrote that Anthony Dexter not only resembled Valentino but was also an excellent actor, having appeared in a play with them. Mr. Small signed Tony Dexter to a long-term contract and spared no expense to have Dexter trained in dancing, fencing and horseback riding. He engaged voice teachers to try to get Dexter to simulate Rudy's voice and others to teach him to walk and assume Rudy's on-screen mannerisms as much as possible.
Other producers, sensing a possible quick buck, also issued announcements that they were preparing screenplays based upon the life of Valentino. Mr. Small announced that he would base his production on my book, 'Valentino As I Knew Him' and engaged several prominent writers to prepare screenplays. I talked with Mr. Small on several occasions and tried to make him understand that there had to be more to a picture than the bare outline in my volume because there was a spiritual aspect about Rudy that should be an important ingredient. But, even though several very excellent screenplays were presented to him, he and George Bruce, a writer friend of Small's left Hollywood for Palm Springs to write their version of the Valentino screenplay. I read this before production began and vehemently told Small that it was very bad.
But he went ahead anyway and the resulting picture was almost amateurish. The 'star' Tony Dexter, tried to emulate Valentino, but the result was rather pitiful. This picture lost a lot of money for Columbia Pictures Corporation who had financed and released it, and caused the almost total oblivion of Tony Dexter, who really was a competent actor.
There were at the time several reports placed by imaginative persons in letters to magazines and newspapers about the activities in the little town, Castellaneta, in Southern Italy where Valentino was born. When Rudy visited the place during one of his trips abroad, the villagers were most abusive to him because he wouldn't dole out sufficient largesse out of the millions he was supposed to have accumulated in the United States!
These published reports of the posthumous honors supposedly being bestowed upon Valentino were just pure fiction. For, from later travelers to that city, I learned that very few natives actually even remembered the Guglielmi family or the Valentinos' brief visit!
Mr. Irving Schulman, the eminent author, wrote a book which he called, 'Valentino.' I quote here from his book a part relating to the Italian star, Marcello Mastroianni, who had announced his intention of appearing in a stage musical in which he would portray the title character in a play entitled 'Rudolph Valentino.'
[...At a press conference, when asked by me of the attending reporters, why he wanted to do the play he replied, 'as a film actor, I want to do this stage musical as an experiment, just for him' Asked if the show would be seen on Broadway, Mastroianni replied, 'Perhaps if it is a success in Rome.' 'Ciao, Rudy!' ('Goodbye, Rudy!') opened in Rome on January 6, 1966, and for three hours Mastroianni cavorted about, the only male on stage with a bevy of thirteen leading ladies. It was scorned by even the gentlest of critics. Mastroianni's performance was censored as unskilled, pedestrian and shallow.' ]"
*********************************************************************************************************
There were men from almost every country in the world who aspired to be the 'next Valentino.' There are so many, in fact, that I tried to list them once, but the list was incredibly long. I gave up. It is possible to search them and their photos, but not a good use of my time.
As we know, the winner for the 'Valentino' movie was Anthony Dexter. I do not know how much was spent on voice coaching for him, but none of it took. He was somewhat convincing as Rudy until he opened his mouth. Then the entire illusion left us ... and fast.
Anthony Dexter
I found something interesting the other evening ... I was watching 'Frankie & Johnnie' which is an Elvis Presley movie ... one of my favorites. It was produced by Edward Small. It was campy and actually not a very good movie, but I just love anything with Elvis in it and this one doesn't come around too often. It was just as bad as the 'Valentino' movie, though.
I also found it interesting that Joseph Schenck was funding Edward Small's production company, at least he was financing 50% of it, but he specifically refused to fund any part of the 'Valentino' movie. I believe this was because Schenck knew that the movie was supposed to be based on the Ullman 1926 memoir. With all the threatened lawsuits, the movie ended up resembling the Ullman memoir very little.
True to form, it was every bit as horrible as the Franco Nero movie, 'The Legend Of Valentino' done in 1975 ...
Franco Nero as Valentino
... but I absolutely loved the Ken Russell 1970 movie starring Rudolph Nureyev. It was colorful and campy and lovely. Of course, Nureyev looked nothing like Rudy, but that mattered little to me ... I thought the atmosphere of the film was gorgeous. and, in my opinion, nobody can dance like Rudolf Nureyev.
Rudolph Nureyev as Valentino
... I also enjoyed the Gabriel Garko take on Rudy ...
Gabriel Garko as Valentino
... I am looking forward to seeing the movie 'Silent Life: The Legend of The Lady In Black' if it ever sees the light of day. As of today, it is not available to watch anywhere, but I've held out hope for years just life everyone else that it will be available ...
Vladislav Alex Kozlov as Valentino
IMO, the best actor to play the part of Rudy was Edoardo Ballerini in the short, 'Goodnight, Valentino.' That actor should definitely have been given a full-length movie on Valentino ... and that would have been it for all of us. There would have been no further need to search for an actor to play 'The Great Lover.' He is an excellent actor, and at the time he did this short film, he was at the perfect age. I believe the problem was that there was not a decent screenplay out there for him.
Edoardo Ballerini as Valentino
And there was one more notable guy who went by the name of 'Rudolph Florentino.' The Los Angeles Police were called out to his apartment in 1953 for something, I do not know what, and when they arrived they found man dressed in his regalia as a 'sheik.' He said he was 'Rudolph Florentino' and he told the police he was a lifetime devotee to Rudolph Valentino. The floor of his apartment was filled with sand and 'Florentino' had put up a tent with his harem lounging within. 'Florentino' took his sand, tent, harem and Rudy collection and turned his apartment into a museum for the fans of Rudolph Valentino. Good on him.
Also, at times 'Rudolph Florentino' would team up with the medium Carol McKinstry in attempts to make contact with Rudy.
Now, we turn to a different direction with Ullman's 1975 memoir:
*********************************************************************************************************
"Valentino and his wife were seriously interested in occultism and any form of spiritualism that came to their attention. I have already remarked upon the influence of Miss Cora McGeachy, whose letters she said were written while she was in a trance and conveyed messages purportedly from souls, old and new, in the beyond.
The Valentinos, and my wife and I, frequently attended séances in New York at the residence of Víctor Miller, an antique dealer who sold Rudy very many antique pieces of armor and jewelry at high prices. There, Mr. Miller assembled a number of other psychics and spiritualists and as a group they called upon spirits to manifest themselves.
Frequently one or more of these 'believers' urgently and loudly claimed that they had seen a spirit known to them. I cannot dispute this, but neither Rudy, Natacha, or my wife nor I ever saw or heard anything beyond the heavy breathing of the assembled guests.
We frequently attended gatherings of endowed parsons but, excepting for the automatic writings by Miss McGeachy, we were not fortunate enough to 'see' or hear any persons from beyond the grave!
After Rudy died and while administering his estate, I made valiant efforts to sell Rudy's last unhappy home. I had to engage a caretaker to keep the curious and vandals away. On one occasion, early one morning, a tenant phoned me at my home to tell me that he hadn't been able to sleep since he came there because of various ethereal sounds in the house. He pleaded with me to come up at once and hear these sounds myself.
I drove to 'Falcon Lair' that rather windy, cold night and soon he called my attention to sounds one could imagine were groans and other sounds somewhat like the soft music of a harp. I cannot say why, but I had no fear or apprehension and slowly prowled around the house until I located where the sounds originated. They were caused by some loose wiring near the partly open door leading to the tunnel which connected the main house to the servant's quarters. So the caretaker remained in the house. Later, however, he became a 'believer' in spiritual communication, and persuaded my wife and I to attend another séance in Hollywood where, the talented medium told him, Rudy was certain to appear, but only if I was present.
We attended a séance there one night. There were about twenty people present and the manifestation began in a dimly lighted room. The voices came from behind a curtain and a wraith-like figure in white gauze appeared for a moment, breathing the name of one of the persons present. Some of these people believed entirely because they wanted to believe and several times one would cry out for forgiveness or blessings or enlightenment.
I noticed that all of the wraiths were about the same height and build and that the voices were almost alike. The great moment arrived when the voice said, 'I am here, George. I am Rudy.' And the same figure stepped out from behind the curtain, this time dressed in her version of a Sheik! It was quite difficult to withstand the impulse to approach the figure but it disappeared behind the curtain in a few seconds. Later I spoke to the Medium and complimented her on her histrionic ability and gave her a five dollar bill.
No purpose would be served if I were to write about the many persons who by the court's permission and upon the payment of a few dollars, lived in the 'Falcon Lair' house for short periods. Spiritualistic Social Clubs, a man who had acquired some of the armor from the bank which had become the administrator of the estate, by paying a fraction of its value and hoped to attract buyers to the house, and many others. There is no truth whatever in statements I have read that any of the transient tenants had spent their own money to repair or redecorate 'Falcon Lair.'
'Falcon Lair' was later actually bought by Doris Duke, a very wealthy woman. The purchase price was not very much but Miss Duke, an ardent music lover, wanted the house occupied by musicians. As far as I know, Miss Duke still owns what is left of 'Falcon Lair.'
Natacha, who outlived Rudy by several years, tried, without any success, to become involved in some branch of the theatrical field. I believe that picture executives recalled her behavior when she was Rudy's wife and, at that time, more than now, did not welcome any female into the motion picture field. But as far as possible she did capitalize upon her relationship with Rudy. Several books, magazine stories and paid interviews by Natacha appeared for more than two years after Rudy died."
*********************************************************************************************************
Natacha did publish, in her memoirs of her life with Rudy, a section in which she describes her contacts with him in the afterlife. She titled this section 'Revelations.' There were several others who attempted, without success, to contact Rudy ... one of the most famous being Harry Houdini. Another who claimed it would definitely still be possible to make contact with the actor, though, was the Hindu Theosophist, Jiddu Krishnamurti. Many others used their Ouija Boards and held séances. The film actress Mae West was convinced she had been able to contact Rudy's spirit. Some people claimed they saw the spirit of Kabar in various places, probably most often at 'Falcon Lair' when they were stealing souvenirs. Even famed direct-voice medium, Leslie Flint, held a session in 1949 at 'Falcon Lair,' and orbs appeared while he channeled Rudy.
Leslie Flint, 1949, at Falcon Lair ... direct-voice channeling session
There was an astrologer who went by Princess Springwater, claiming to be of Mohawk descent, who also said that Rudy gifted her a ring. There was another questionable claim by one Mme. Fourie of Johannesburg, South Africa who claimed that she had a vison of Rudy in which he spoke to her.
George Ullman received a letter from one psychic who said that Rudy was living in Paris, and that he most definitely was not dead. In Europe, especially Italy, there was a healthy market for 'Rudy's cufflinks, shoelaces, handkerchiefs and spare teeth.' I don't know about all that. Perhaps the cufflinks, laces and linen made their way over there to Italy via Maria, but I have strong doubts about the teeth! I'm pretty sure they stayed with Rudy and went to the mausoleum in Los Angeles.
I got a bit sidetracked during this blog, in which I intended to bring up Bill Self, but I shall do that in my next blog, because he actually did play an important part in the George Ullman story. For those who are not aware, Bill Self was one of the greediest collectors of his time, in my opinion. He is long gone from this earth-life, but he has been replaced by others just as greedy today.
I don't think I'm ever going to agree with the philosophy of collectors, in general. I believe that Rudy's belongings should be in a museum and shared with all his fans. If someone has the means to acquire these things, great. Share them, don't be greedy and hoard them. I'm not talking about those who have posters, photos, small things that give them pleasure that we can already see on the internet, anyway. I'm talking about those who have, say, his shaving kit, or his driver's license, or his CLOTHES. I even know of someone who claims to have one of his cigarette butts. Come on, people. Get a grip.
Darkmum
THANK YOU FOR READING MY NEWEST POST!
IF YOU THINK YOUR FAMILY/FRIENDS WOULD FIND THIS INFORMATION USEFUL,
IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL IF THEY WOULD SIGN UP & JOIN US!