Early Years
Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguolla, who would be known professionally as Rudolph Valentino, was born on May 6, 1895 in Castellaneta, Italy. Valentino’s Italian father Giovanni, a veterinarian, died when the actor was only 11 years old. His mother, Marie, who was French, raised the boy and his three siblings on her own.
Valentino was a poor student, who wanted to get by on his good looks and charisma. Eventually, he attended an agricultural school in Genoa, Italy, where he eventually graduated. With difficulty finding employment in both Paris, France as well as his native Italy, he decided to head across the Atlantic Ocean. He arrived at Ellis Island in New York City on December 23, 1913. He was 18 years old.
Valentino’s early days in New York City were filled with suffering and misery. Due to performance issues, he was unable to hold down a job long-term. This included being a busboy at the restaurant Murray’s, which was on 42nd Street. Nevertheless, he befriended his co-workers and they would always sneak him free food.
Eventually, Valentino found work as a dancer. First through restaurateur Joe Pani, who hired him and Joan Sawyer to dance the tango at his nightlife hotspots Castles-by-the-Sea, the Colony, and the Woodmansten Inn. Once he was better established he went to work at Maxim’s Restaurant-Cabaret.
Relationship with Blanca de Saulles
While working as a dancer Valentino became involved with Blanca de Saulles. She was the wife of a wealthy businessman and real estate magnate, John de Saulles. Although it has been debated, it is believed that they were in a platonic relationship. This is because he testified on her behalf in court that her husband had been unfaithful.
In an act of defiant revenge, Mr. de Saulles had Valentino arrested on a trumped-up vice charge. With no real evidence to charge him, he was released after a few days in jail on a $1,500 bond. Subsequently, the charges against him were dropped. In the ensuing days, Bianca unloaded a pistol on her ex-husband over custody of their son on August 3, 1917.
Heading West
In order to avoid any publicity or testimony in the de Saulles murder trial, Valentino left town and headed west. He joined a theatre company in Utah and soon was in a production of Robinson Crusoe, Jr. with Al Jolson, which was headed to Los Angeles.
After a brief stint in San Francisco starring in the play Nobody Home, Valentino, and his friend and fellow actor, Norman Kerry headed back to L.A. Their goal was to try to break into the movie business. Kerry and Valentino were roommates at the Alexandria Hotel at 501 South Spring Street before Valentino went out on his own, renting a room on the Sunset Strip.
Silent Movies and First Marriage
While living on the Sunset Strip Valentino began to appear in movies. His first on-screen appearance in Hollywood was merely as an extra in the 1917 movie Alimony. Deemed too exotic looking to be a leading man by the Hollywood Brass, Valentino began to find steady work as the “heavy” in bit parts in many movies. Examples of this were Eyes of Youth (1919) and Passion’s Playground (1920).
On November 6, 1919, Valentino married actress Jean Acker. Acker was a lesbian involved with a silent actress and eventual proprietor of the Garden of Allah Hotel. Valentino met Acker at a party two months prior to their wedding. They soon began to see each other socially, before engaging in a “lavender marriage.” These marriages, which involved homosexual stars, were typically arranged by the studio to hide their sexual orientation from the public.
Valentino, who was unaware of Acker’s sexual orientation, was locked out of his hotel room on his wedding night by his bride before the marriage could be consummated. Valentino tried in vain to “win her back” by writing Acker love letters. Eventually, he gave up and filed for divorce.
Metro Pictures
While en route to Palm Springs, Florida, Valentino read a copy of the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The book immediately captured Valentino’s imagination. After a bit of research in the trade rags, he learned that the rights to the book were owned by Metro Pictures.
Valentino traveled to New York City and went to Metro’s headquarters. When he arrived he learned that the studio executive June Mathis was trying to find him to cast him as Julio Desnoyers in the picture. Mathis was the second most powerful woman in Hollywood after Mary Pickford. Subsequently, Valentino was signed to a salary of $350 per week for the movie. However, he did not get along with the movie’s director Rex Ingram, and Mathis was forced to moderate between the pair.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) became a smash hit at the box office earning over $1,000,000. As a result, Valentino was cast as the leading man in the Alla Nazimova vehicle Camille (1921) at Metro. The costume designer for this film, Natacha Rambova (born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy) become romantically involved with Valentino soon after filming began.
Upon release, Camille was considered too avant-garde for audiences and did poorly at the box office. Valentino made one more film for Metro, The Conquering Power (1921), which was a hit at the box office. Once the movie was released, Valentino quit the studio as they had refused to give him a pay raise.
Famous Players and Marriage Scandal
Not long after leaving Metro, Valentino signed with Famous Players-Lasky. He talked Mathis into joining him at the studio. The pair had developed a close bond during the making of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Valentino even thought of her as a second mother. Part of her arrangement with Famous Players was that she would continue to write and develop projects for Valentino.
“She (Mathis) discovered me, anything I have accomplished I owe to her, to her judgment, to her advice and to her unfailing patience and confidence in me.”
– Rudolph Valentino