Rudolph Valentino has been described in every way possible. I believe that every aspect of the man has been either praised to no end or vilified just as much by his detractors. In truth, I have also done my fair share in pointing out each and every positive and negative trait that Rudy may have had, although I cannot be sure of the truth, of course.
And neither can any of the so-called 'Valentino experts,' unless they were there when he was living and knew him personally. Oh, yes, we can certainly speculate, but there is not one of us who can be absolutely sure. Sadly, we are left with only the gossip magazines of the day to go by, and I have yet to read even one article that does not ring of falsity.
There is even one article floating around that purports to have had Rudy, himself, fill out the answers to questions as to his likes and dislikes, and so that magazine (and other fans today) claim that all the information contained MUST be true.
I certainly cannot dispute that it is Rudy's handwriting in the article. It sure looks like it belongs to him ... but I have to wonder if he was instructed to write the answers by his then-publicist? Because Cesaré Borgia as an 'idol' (one of Rudy's answers to the quiz questionnaire) just makes no sense, unless Rudy was some kind of madman. Because that particular Borgia was a madman ... as history tells us, anyway. In addition, at other times in his life previous to this, Rudy had claimed to dislike Cesaré Borgia exactly because of this ill repute.
I have always thought of Rudolph Valentino as having a 'sheen.' A 'sheen' is a quality of things that are shiny, usually with reflected 'light.' Anything that shines has a 'sheen' not unlike satin in candlelight or a beautiful head of hair. OK, perhaps Rudy could not boast a great quantity of hair, but what he had certainly did shine!
I think you can see where I am going with the analogy of the reflection of 'light,' though. Rudy had a special 'light' that shone from his soul outward into the world. It emanated from him into the cameras, both in his films and in his still photos ... in both studio photos and candids. I do not know if Rudy had this 'light' in real life. I would like to think so.
We should remember that Rudy's films we see are in black-and-white and not in a format that our modern eyes are used to immediately converting to color. The few filmed scenes I have seen tinted look very artificial to me. Rudy was made for black-and-white, it seems, but if I knew him personally ... I would probably think otherwise.
It is difficult for us to imagine the 1920s surroundings or the people as living with color ... but they most certainly did. I think this is why I like the movie that Ken Russell did in the 1970s so much. Campy as it was, and as off-the-mark as Nureyev's acting was when he portrayed Rudy, the colors and atmosphere of that film just drew me in and awed me.
Here is an old video that I did about Rudy and one of his favorite hobbies. He was an amateur photographer. Somewhere there were loads of photographs, all lost to time. We only have a few that Rudy took that we can see today ... most of those we see of Rudy using his cameras were taken by Paul Ivano:
I love to write. I thrive on writing. I have never claimed to have any talent like that of William Shakespeare ... no one has ever come close to using words in fresh new ways as the Bard did. Which takes me back to 'sheen.' Shakespeare used the adjective for 'sheen' (for 'beautiful, bright') in "Hamlet." He used 'sheen' as a noun and it's been that way ever since. A 'sheen' is a luster that happens because of reflected light. A well-polished table has a 'sheen,' as does a car that's just been washed. Shined shoes have a 'sheen.' If it's shiny and beautiful, it has a 'sheen.'
Rudy is resplendent with 'sheen,' which is truly from the early 17th century; apparently related to the verb 'shine.' He shone with a seductive sensuality that no other man seemed to possess; before his time, during his time, or even since. And this seems odd to me, since Rudy was definitely not the best-looking man I've seen in my life. He was nice-looking, but he was not a man who would normally send women (and more than a few men) into spasms of ecstasy when they saw him on- or off-screen. And, yet ... he did.
He had 'IT.'
The point of this blog entry is not to extoll upon Rudy's virtues. You all know about all those. It is to explore my own feelings about his 'sheen' and why that 'sheen' became tarnished and faded for me over the years. It took me a while to figure out exactly what happened, and I actually did not entirely get it sorted until I was in the middle of the 'S. George Ullman' series which I shall present to you in the month of December, 2023.
Now, don't get me wrong, here. Rudy still shines even more brightly than before when it comes to him as a person, it is the myth of the man which lost its 'sheen.' I guess everything happens for a reason. with truth sometimes comes a true awakening of the soul.
I have known of the existence of Rudolph Valentino as far back as I can remember. There was not one particular moment in which I 'discovered' Rudy.
In actuality, I have about fifteen binders filled with Tim Curry clippings, whereas I have very little that I have gathered together (as a fan) that pertains to Rudy, and much of what I do have has been gifts. Tim Curry is another actor I fell for when I was in my teens, even more so than our beloved Elvis Presley.
I slowly amassed Curry's movies, first on VHS, then on DVD. I acquired all his audiobook narrations, no matter how much I liked or disliked the story he was narrating ... if Tim had anything to do with it, I have it. I even made a point to get hold of his cartoons. He must have done about 200 voice-overs, if not more.
Regarding my Tim Curry recollections, I also want to point out that I freely shared any and all of my collection with whomever I could. All the Curry fans wheeled and dealt and helped their fellow collectors complete their collections. That was back then. Now, they are worse than the Rudy-fans. Even worse are the 'Dark Shadows' fans. The internet was young to households, so much of it was done via the mail service, UPS and FedEx. Since Curry had done much of his work overseas, it was even more of a challenge for some. We loved it and helped and respected each other!
My point is that I am not a rabid Rudolph Valentino fan.
Beginning a bit over twenty years ago, though, I began to appreciate the finer qualities of Rudy, and I really got involved in learning about him when I was editing books, most specifically for the late Dominic Caruso. Dominic and I disagreed vehemently about certain aspects of Rudy's life and times, but the point is ... I began to learn. I am like a sponge when it comes to learning. I love to learn and when I latch onto a subject, I do not stop absorbing information until I either get tired of it or I can find no new information of note.
I know a great deal about Rudolph Valentino. I have been a member of several groups and administrated two Facebook groups about Rudy, one at Dominic Caruso's request along with another administrator. Another was a private group I opened myself with an art deco expert, a photo tinter, and eventually took on a co-administrator. I also ran a group for a short time about Rudy's second wife, Natacha Rambova, whom I later discovered (quite by accident) was my cousin by blood.
Jealousy & envy soon reared their ugly heads and rather than embrace me into the fold, I was ostracized, mostly by a few higher profile people who feared I might take their places, I suppose. I had no such ideas, but I was anxious to learn more about Natacha, of course. Still, a multitude of problems came my way. I closed my groups down and opened a blog called 'DarkMum's Light,' where I hoped to blatantly expose the lies that had been circulated about me. However, the damage was done. I had been black-listed on the internet among the Valentino community.
There is very little that can be done when this happens. It took me a while to accept this reality, but after I did, I decided to move on in the best way that I could. I know that I made mistakes. I tried my best to apologize, but it seemed the more I made those attempts, the worse it all got. So, I just stopped. When I stopped, it actually got even worse! Once a mob mentality develops about anything, and I mean anything, you have two choices. Protect yourself or let yourself be (metaphorically) killed. I chose to protect myself and let time take care of it all. Time IS doing its job and karma is making her calls.
After a short break, I opened a new blog with a new name, 'DarkMum Dearest,' (still on Blogspot/Blogger) with the hope and intention to actually only mention the other groups and the authors who had caused me problems only if I had to defend myself. Things just got worse and I found myself 'defending' rather than spending my time doing the writing I enjoyed.
I felt that I had accomplished what that blog had been set up to do and so I then moved it under the name of 'Darkmum's Musings' to a new platform. I called the actual website the same name, 'Darkmum Dearest.' That was almost a year ago, and things have grown slowly, but I have been able to maintain control of this website (I've had to really put strict parameters on membership) and I am now ready to implement some further plans in 2024. I've already begun with a few small changes, and I shall let you know as I go on as I get more ideas that I hope will make my website and blog more user-friendly.
I feel that I need to address something rather sad that happened when it comes to Rudy. The 'sheen' I was talking about, and the fading thereof ... this was caused not only by my own waning interest in the life of Valentino. It was caused by the actions of the Facebook forums which I allowed myself to become entirely too involved with over the years. These Facebook forums, all of them, are poison to those who want to expand their minds. They are stunting to the growth of minds of those who want to learn about Valentino.
All these forums are really good for is so the administrators and members can post the same stuff over and over again. It never changes. The great videos that are made change little, perhaps they are a bit more creative, depending on who makes them.There is a sad, sick hierarchy on these forums that I allowed myself to become embroiled in, and I can see clearly that it is only getting worse. Facebook is run by peoples' political leanings ... I find myself longing for the simpler days of MySpace ... rudimentary as it was.
The others who ruined my enjoyment of Rudy were the collectors. The greedy, greedy collectors and the so-called 'experts.' They know who they are, and I just got tired of their smug, self-indulgent attitudes. I no longer even check into their websites or blogs. I imagine they are incredibly busy now filling the minds of the new Rudy fans with their old, false narratives of Rudy's 'sleeping on a park banch' story of his coming to America and touting themselves as bonafide experts on all things Valentino.
My enjoyment of Rudolph Valentino I can see was now basically false. I mean, I can appreciate him for what I saw in my 'Rudolph Valentino Haven' forum. I appreciated Natacha Rambova in 'Natacha's Niche.' Sadly (and oddly), there are about three or four main people who run all the Facebook forums now, and they go from forum to forum posting the same things because they have NO CREATIVITY and can only copy from the false information that has been published online for decades.
The one Natacha Rambova forum which presently exists is ridiculously juvenile. Even the title, 'Babykins' is juvenile. It is nothing like what I had planned for mine. Of course, I had intentions of actually teaching people about Natacha, the woman ... not some love-sick girl who probably did not even exist. I'm going to concentrate on blogging about what interests me ... and only bringing out Rudy's 'sheen' on occasion when I feel it can again shine for me, or when I feel I have something of substance on Rudy, Natacha and the people they associated with to share. When I can teach something.
Today ends November, 2023 posts. Tomorrow we begin the last month of the year 2023 and I plan to put up my series on George Ullman. It is a long series and will take most of the month of December. Since I do not celebrate Christmas, I have no hectic shopping to do. It is always challenging enough to just get groceries during this time of year. Our Yule decorations are already up and we look forward to a nice, relaxing December each year.
I would like to remind all of you to please be careful with the busy traffic as you shop. I know most people are NOT wearing masks and not observing proper hygiene procedures because they feel that COVID is gone. Sorry, folks ... you are wrong. Let me tell you there are still viruses of every kind out there just lying in wait for us all. I am still trying to recover from this last one that got to me a week before Thanksgiving and I will not be surprised if it stays with me for most of December. I realize you all love your freedoms and it may be difficult to remember that there are still many of us who are vulnerable to getting sick ... very sick. Please give us a thought. We would like to live to enjoy our loved ones as much as you would.
Rudy, hand-tinted photo c1920 from his portfolio
Darkmum
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