VALENTINO WEEK

DeLongpre Park

 By Allan R. Ellenberger

Developed in 1924 for $66,000, De Longpre Park is named after painter Paul De Longpre, whose celebrated home at Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Avenue was the first tourist attraction in Hollywood.

On May 5, 1930 (Valentino’s 35th birthday), at twelve o’clock in De Longpre Park, actress Dolores del Rio drew back a velvet curtain to reveal the bronze figure of a man with face uplifted.

The statue, entitled “Aspiration,” was designed by sculptor Roger Noble Burnham and was paid for with contributions from fans and admirers. The inscription reads: “Erected in the Memory of Rudolph Valentino 1895-1926. Presented by his friends and admirers from every walk of life — in all parts of the world, in appreciation of the happiness brought to them by his cinema portrayals.”

A week later, neighbors, who insisted that they were not consulted on the matter (and that the only statue in the park should be of De Longpre himself), made an official protest. Regardless, nothing came of the matter and the statue remained. No more was heard of the statue until a few years later when a woman named Zunilda Mancini came forward, claiming to have donated $6,900 towards the statue, which actually cost only $1,500. She sued Valentino’s former manager, George Ullman in court and was awarded the difference of $5,400.

“Aspiration” as it appeared in the 1930s

The year after the unveiling, a fourteen-year-old girl was found on a bench near the statue. Police said she had been chloroformed and most likely sexually assaulted. She died at Hollywood Hospital without regaining consciousness. Three years later, on November 1, 1934, the caretaker of the park found the lifeless body of thirty-year-old Ann Johnston in a rest room just a few feet away from “Aspiration.” Next to her was an empty poison bottle. Since she left no note, it remained unclear whether her suicide was related to Valentino or, as the police surmised, was due to a nervous breakdown she recently suffered.

The statue has been the object of vandalism several times over the years. On February 2, 1952, it was found broken from its base and lying on the park lawn. Taken to the city service yard for repairs, it was not returned for nearly twenty years.

Close-up of repairs made in the 1970s

In July 1979 a bronze bust of Valentino sculpted by Richard Elllis and paid for from the estate of one of his fans, was mounted on a tall, white pedestal several feet from “Aspiration.”

 Bust of Valentino that has stood in DeLongpre Park for almost thirty years

Shortly afterward a group of concerned neighbors initiated a campaign to revamp the neglected park. To this day, “Aspiration” is the only monument ever erected to honor an actor in Hollywood.

Warning: De Longpre Park is located in a rather shabby part of town, surrounded by a metal fence and locked up at night. Please take reasonable precautions when visiting.

If you are in the Los Angeles-Hollywood area this Saturday, August 23, be sure to drop by the Rudolph Valentino Memorial at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The service is held at the Cathedral Mausoleum and begins at 12:10 p.m. - the time of Valentino’s death in New York. Arrive early as seats go quickly. See you there.

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 EMAIL: Hollywoodland23@aol.com

VALENTINO WEEK

Valentino’s Crypt

How Valentino came to be in his final resting place 

By Allan R. Ellenberger

Once Rudolph Valentino had been interred and the obsequies completed, the thought of how the actor would be remembered was foremost in everyone’s mind. The city of Chicago, home of the infamous “Pink Powder Puffs” editorial, formed the Rudolph Valentino Memorial Association in the hopes of erecting a remembrance of some kind. The Arts Association of Hollywood proposed a monument that would be the forerunner of a series of memorial to pioneers of the film industry. A committee of local Italians, which included director Robert Vignola, Silvano Balboni, and his wife June Mathis, suggested the construction of an Italian park on Hollywood Boulevard with a memorial theater and a large statue of Valentino as its central feature. Despite those grandiose projects, no memorials actually materialized — and it slowly became apparent that the same would happen with Valentino’s final resting place.

After Valentino’s death, a decision could not be made as to where the actor’s body would finally rest. George Ullman, Valentino’s manager, was confident that Alberto, the actor’s brother and the person who would have the final say, would consent to interring the body in Hollywood. The Mayor of Castellaneta, Valentino’s birthplace, cabled Alberto imploring him to have the actor’s body returned there for burial with ceremony. Valentino’s sister Maria, who at first wanted her brother brought back to Italy, later concurred with the Hollywood delegation, thanks in part to the suggestion of William Randolph Hearst. To solve the problem – at least temporarily – June Mathis offered her own crypt at Hollywood Cemetery mausoleum until an appropriate memorial could be decided upon or built.

When Mathis died in New York less than a year later and now was in need of her crypt, a decision had to be made about what to do with Valentino. As a good-will gesture, Silvano Balboni offered to have Valentino’s casket moved to his crypt next to Mathis’ until the Valentino estate ironed out its problems. On August 8, 1927, cemetery workers entered the Cathedral Mausoleum and, what proved to be one last time, moved Valentino’s remains to the adjoining crypt, number 1205.

While public memorials were being considered, Valentino’s body continued to lay in a borrowed tomb. At the time of his death, architects were asked to submit designs for a mausoleum, with an estimated cost placed at $10,000. Photoplay magazine published plans for a proposed tomb by architect Matlock Price in the November 1926 issue.

 The Memorial that might have been…

The design incorporated an exedra, a half-circle of columns standing serene and dignified against a dark background and curving towards the observer. Within that half-circle, a “heroic” bronze figure of Valentino as the Sheik, seated on an Arabian horse, towered above the onlooker. Following the curve of the exedra, a broad bench sat under two pergolas running across the ends of the terrace, which was paved with red Spanish tile.

These plans also went nowhere, and a permanent mausoleum for Valentino has never materialized. In May 1930 a memorial to Valentino was finally erected in De Longpre Park in central Hollywood, the only one of its kind dedicated to an actor in the film capitol.

The Valentino statue, “Aspiration,” in De Longpre Park 

In April 1934, after Valentino’s body lay in a borrowed tomb for almost eight years, Silvano Balboni sold the crypt to Alberto. Balboni returned to Italy and never returned to the United States; Valentino now had his own resting place.

Rudolph Valentino’s crypt in the 1930s (LAPL)

Every year on August 23rd at 12:10 p.m. (the time that Valentino died in New York), scores of fans gather near his crypt at Hollywood Forever Cemetery to remember the man. Regardless of the circus atmosphere that once prevailed at these events during the past eighty-two years, whether it be reports of the actor’s ghost or the appearance of mysterious, dark-veiled women, it is hoped that somehow the spirit of Rudolph Valentino, the “Great Lover,” now rests in peace.

If you are in the Los Angeles-Hollywood area this Saturday, August 23, be sure to drop by the Rudolph Valentino Memorial at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The service is held at the Cathedral Mausoleum and begins at 12:10 p.m. - the time of Valentino’s death in New York. Arrive early as seats go quickly. See you there.

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EMAIL: Hollywoodland23@aol.com

VALENTINO WEEK

The 82nd Annual Rudolph Valentino Memorial Service

HOLLYWOOD FOREVER CEMETERY

6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood

Cathedral Mausoleum foyer

Saturday, August 23, 2008

12:10 pm

By Tracy Ryan Terhune

This coming Saturday - August 23, 2008 marks the date of the 82nd anniversary of the passing of Rudolph Valentino. And keeping with long time tradition, once again we will be celebrating the LIFE and legacy of Rudy in the annual Valentino Memorial Service. (Contrary to some misguided opinions we do NOT celebrate his death. Only a person who’s never attended the respectful recent memorials would think in that way.)

This year our key-note speaker will be Tim Considine. He himself was named a “Disney Legend” in 2006 for his classic Walt Disney television work in the Spin and Marty serials as well as the Hardy Boys and co-starring in The Shaggy Dog and much more.

Tim’s father was United Artist producer John W. Considine Jr. - who produced Valentino’s final two films: The Eagle (1925) and Son of the Sheik (1926). His father was, along with Charlie Chaplin, (and others) a pall bearer for Valentino’s West Coast Funeral on September 7, 1926. He will speak for the first time publicly on his father’s stories and association with Rudolph Valentino.

Also there will be a new introduction video on John W. Considine Jr which is being edited by Bob Birchard. Also a complete new Valentino Tribute video will be shown.

Legendary musician Bob Mitchell (who will turn 96 next month) will once again be on hand to both play the music and sing two Valentino related songs.

Much more is in the works - and I hope anyone who’s in Hollywood next Saturday will make plans to be there. 12:10 is the time it starts, which is the exact time of day that Valentino died.

Please note: there will be NO outdoor Valentino screening this year.

Tracy Ryan Terhune has been the emcee of the Valentino Memorial Service for several years and is the author of Valentino Forever: The History of the Valentino Memoral Service (2004) and Valentino The Unforgotten (2007). He is also the moderator of the Valentino Yahoo Group and has a website dedicated to the silent film actor.

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Rudy

Rudolph Valentino was born Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaelo Pierre Filibert di Valentina d’Antonguolla Guglielmi 113 years ago today, in Castellaneta, Italy. He was the son of French-born, Marie Berthe Gabrielle Barbin (1856-1919), and Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fidele Guglielmi (1853-1906), a veterinarian. He had an older brother, Alberto (1892-1981), a younger sister, Maria, and an older sister Beatrice who died in infancy.

Below are photographs from my personal collection of tributes to the actor in his home town of Castellaneta, Italy. Click on image to enlarge.

A bust of Valentino sits next to a juke box

in a Castellaneta bar. At the base of the bust

there is a laurel branch. (© Allan R. Ellenberger)

A young fan kisses a statue of Valentino that once

stood in his birthplace. (© Allan R. Ellenberger)

Monument dedicated to Rudolph Valentino

in Castellaneta in 1961 (© Allan R. Ellenberger)

Rudolph Valentino

 Rudolph Valentino and his wife, Natacha Rambova

BORN: May 6, 1895, Castellaneta, Italy

DIED: August 23, 1926, New York, New York

TUESDAY, May 6, is Rudolph Valentino’s 113th birthday. To celebrate you may want to pay homage to your idol this week at the following five Valentino places of interest.

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1. Walk of Fame Star, 6164 Hollywood Boulevard, south side between Argyle and El Centro Avenue.

Rudolph Valentino’s star on the “Walk of Fame” was one of the original 1,500 installed in 1959. The spot where his Star is located was at one time the front entrance to the Hastings Hotel (formerly the Regent), built in 1925 by producer Al Christie on land where, many years earlier, he had filmed one of the first movies made in Hollywood. The hotel was badly damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and was demolished. The site is now a parking lot used for the Pantages Theatre and nearby subway.

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 2. Hollywood High School Mural, southeast corner of Orange Street and Hawthorn Avenue.

Located on the west side of Hollywood High School (1521 North Highland Avenue) is a large mural of Valentino in profile as The Sheik in full headdress blowing in the wind. Until the 1930s, the Hollywood High School athletic teams were known as The Crimson (in emulation of Harvard). It was around this time that a newspaper journalist wrote an article about one of the school’s teams and nicknamed them The Sheiks after “the brave warrior-lover hero in the Rodolf [sic] Valentino film classic of the 1920s.” After the article was printed, the school adopted the name, and they have remained “the Sheiks of Hollywood High” ever since. To view the mural travel south on Orange Street from Hollywood Boulevard. The mural is just past Hawthorn Avenue and overlooks the school’s football field.

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 3. De Longpre Park, south side of De Longpre Avenue between Cherokee Avenue and June Street.

Developed in 1924 for $66,000, De Longpre Park is named after painter Paul De Longpre, whose celebrated home at Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Avenue was the first tourist attraction in Hollywood. On May 5, 1930 (Valentino’s 35th birthday), at twelve o’clock in De Longpre Park, actress Dolores del Rio drew back a velvet curtain to reveal the bronze figure of a man with face uplifted. The statue, entitled “Aspiration,” was designed by sculptor Roger Noble Burham and was paid for with contributions from fans and admirers. The inscription reads: “Erected in the Memory of Rudolph Valentino 1895 - 1926. Presented by his friends and admirers from every walk of life — in all parts of the world, in appreciation of the happiness brought to them by his cinema portrayals.”

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 4. Lasky-De Mille Barn, 2100 Highland Avenue (across from the Hollywood Bowl).

The Lasky-De Mille Barn is presently home to the Hollywood Heritage Museum. At one time this simple wood-frame structure was part of Famous Players-Lasky’s studio, and stood on the southeast corner of Vine Street and Selma Avenue. Built in 1895, the barn was where The Squaw Man (1914), the first full-length motion picture filmed in Hollywood by Cecil B. De Mille, was shot. Valentino would certainly have used this building at different times during his tenure at the studio. There are also Valentino artifacts on display in the museum courtesy of Valentino collectors, Tracy Ryan Terhune and Stella Grace. For information on visiting the barn and museum, call (323) 874-2276 or (323) 874-4005.

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5. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, south side between Gower Street and Van Ness Avenue.

Founded in 1899, the former Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery is the final resting place of Rudolph Valentino. It is also the site of the annual Rudolph Valentino Memorial Service held each year on August 23 at 12:10 P.M., the time of his death in New York. Valentino’s crypt, borrowed from his friend June Mathis who is lying in the crypt next to his, is located in the Cathedral Mausoleum, Crypt 1205. As you enter the mausoleum, walk to the back and take the last corridor to the left. Follow that to the end and make a right and walk toward the stained glass window. Valentino’s crypt is the last one on the left at eye level.