<Archive Obituary> Rudolph Valentino (August 23rd 1926)
Bill Schenley
THRONGS IN STREET;
Three Doctors and Two Nurses See "Film's Greatest Lover" Die After Long
Coma.
MANAGER WEEPS IN HALL
Crowds Blocking Traffic, Held Back by Police Reserves,
Rush to Funeral Church.
ASSOCIATES PAY TRIBUTES
Actor Dead at 31 Left Little of Huge Earnings
Arrangements for Funeral Yet Unmade
Photo:
http://www.silentsaregolden.com/photos2/rudolphvalentino7x9.jpg
FROM: The New York Times (August 24th 1926) ~
Special to The Times
Rudolph Valentino, motion picture actor, died at 12:10,
yesterday afternoon, at the Polyclinic Hospital where
he had undergone a double operation for acute
appendicitis and gastric ulcers on Aug. 15. He was
thirty-one. His youthfulness and rugged constitution aided
him in making a valiant fight even after his five doctors had
given up hope. Peritonitis and septic endocarditis, an
affection of the heart tissues, were the immediate causes
of death.
When the end came, the street in front of the Polyclinic
Hospital was blocked by thousands of the actor's
admirers and the curious, awaiting the latest bulletins
from his bedside. The hospital switchboard was
swamped by endless calls from persons anxious for the
latest news.
Last Words Gave Cheer
The actor closed his thoughts against death, almost to the
end. his last rational words were spoken to Joseph M.
Schenck, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the
United Artists Corporation, who was at his bedside at
6 A.M.
"Don't worry, Chief," said Valentino, "I will be all right."
Dr. Harold G. Meeker, who operated upon Valentino,
said that the actor never gave up his thoughts of a vacation,
so sure was he that he would conquer the complications
which followed the operation.
"He passed peacefully," said Dr. Meeker. "He didn't know
he was going. At 3:30 this morning, he turned to me and
said cheerily:
"'Doctor, do you know the greatest thing I'm looking
forward to?'
"'What is it? I asked.
"Valentino smiled and said: "I am looking forward to
going fishing with you next month. I hope you have
plenty of fishing rods. Mine are in California."
Valentino left no fortune from his very large earnings.
Mr. Schenck said the actor had spent practically all of
his last year's income, which totaled close to
$1,000,000. It is not yet known whether he left a will.
His life insurance, totaling $200,000, goes to the United
Artists Corporation as beneficiary. Reports that
Valentino's insurance amounted to $1,000,000 were
erroneous.
No Relatives at His Side
Despite the fact that Valentino had been cited as an
illustration of the fact that "all the world loves a lover,"
he died alone save for his three doctors and two nurses.
His brother and sister are in Europe. His first wife, Jean
Acker, remained in New York in order to be in constant
communication with the sick bed, but was not at the
hospital when Valentino died. His second wife, the
former Winifred Hudnut, known on the stage as Natcha
Rambova, is in Europe.
Pola Negri, who recently had been reported engaged
to Valentino, is in California. By long distance telephone
she had made many inquiries concerning his condition.
Her last call to the Polyclinic Hospital was at 4:25 A.M.
yesterday. She tried to get the actor's manager,
S. George Ulmann, and failing in that, tried to
communicate with others near Valentino for the latest
information concerning him.
Unnerved by his long and patient vigil, Mr. Ulmann
was unable to remain in the sickroom before the end
came. He had not slept for four nights and four days.
He stood just outside the door as to be near Valentino
while the actor's life ebbed away. Mr. Ulmann broke
down when he was informed that Valentino was dead.
Doctors ordered him to bed. Before withdrawing,
he expressed appreciation of the solicitude shown for
Valentino. He said:
"Mr. Valentino was greatly cheered during his last
days by the thousands of messages sent him by his
friends and motion picture admirers, and while he was
too weak to read all of them, it was a great comfort to
him to know so many friends were interested and
sympathetic. I know he would want me to express the
gratitude he felt. Personally I want to thank the
physicians and nurses and the hospital attaches who
worked so hard and conscientiously to save his life.
Everything humanly possible was done for him."
Throughout the night a watch at the bedside of the
patient was maintained by Dr. Meeker and
Dr. William Bryant Rawls, house physician of the
Polyclinic Hospital, and two nurses, Pearl Franks,
who had been in attendance upon Valentino from the
second day that he was in the hospital, and
Jean Littlefield, who was called in on the case Sunday,
after Valentino had taken a second turn for the worse.
At 3:30 A.M. the doctors gave the patient a
hypodermic to induce sleep. Valentino slept until
about 6 o'clock. Soon afterward Mr. Schenck and
Mr. Ulmann entered the sick room. When
Mr. Ulmann started to lower the window shade,
Valentino objected, saying:
"Don't pull down the shade. I am feeling fine."
Valentino's condition remained virtually as it was on
Sunday, but at 9 A.M. there was a slight rise in
temperature to 104.5, according to Mr. Ulmann.
At that time his pulse was 105 and his respiration 30.
The last rites of the Catholic Church were
administered to the dying actor at 10 o'clock by
Father Joseph M. Cangedo of the Church of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary. Father Cangedo
came to America from the little town in Italy where
Valentino was born. He had known Valentino since
the actor's boyhood. Father Cangedo had heard
Valentino's confession and granted him absolution on
Sunday, after the screen star's condition had taken a
sharp turn for the worse.
Two Priests Summoned
When the surgeons saw that Valentino was sinking
rapidly they called, in addition to Father Cangedo,
Father Edward F. Leonard of St. Malachi's Roman
Catholic Church. After the last rites had been
administered, Father Leonard and Father Cangedo
left, thinking that the actor's death might be delayed.
When father Leonard was called a second time, he
arrived just after Valentino had passed away.
According to Dr. Meeker, Valentino did not speak
a word in English after 6:30 o'clock. At intervals he
cried out in Italian which no one at his bedside
understood. At 8 o'clock he went into a coma.
Death, according to Dr. Meeker, was directly due to
peritonitis and septic endocarditis. Peritonitis was
caused by ulcers of the stomach and endocarditis
followed the development of pleurisy in the left chest
on Saturday.
Dr. Meeker said when Valentino suffered an attack
of stomach trouble six weeks ago, he had not
considered the trouble as serious. The gastric ulcers
which brought on the operation and resulted in death
were probably manifesting themselves at the time of
that attack, the doctor said.
Mr. Schenck said he believed that Valentino's
appeal to women motion picture fans was to be
explained by a personality which typified most
woman's ideal of romance.
Mr. Schenck said that Valentino had left no fortune
out of the large amounts of money he had made in
motion pictures. He said that Valentino was a mere
boy in money matters, and spent as fast as he earned.
In explaining how Valentino's earnings in 1925 totaled
about $1,000,000, he said they included $200,000 a
picture and 50 per cent. of the profits on three pictures
he made for United Artists, and $200,000 which he
was paid by J.D. Williams for "Cobra."
Valentino's 1926 contract with United Artists
Corporation provided for a payment of $200,000 a
picture and 25 per cent. of the profits.
Mr. Schenck said that Valentino spent a large amount
of money when he visited Europe last year. He
toured the shops of art and antique collectors and
bought a large collection for his home in Beverly Hills,
Los Angeles.
Mr. Ulmann, Mr. Schenck, and Father Leonard
departed from the hospital soon after Valentino died.
The two nurses left the death bed, and preparations
were made to take the body to the Campbell Funeral
Parlors, Broadway and Sixty-sixth Street.
Crowds Block Traffic
News of Valentino's death spread through the
hospital and to the streets with amazing rapidity.
The crowds outside the hospital building continued to
grow until it blocked traffic. the hospital authorities
called up the West Forty-seventh Street Police Station,
and requested the police to take charge of the situation.
Not until the police arrived was traffic resumed through
West Fiftieth Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.
Many of the curious adopted all kinds of ruses to get
into the hospital, but they were turned out as fast as
they got through the entrance.
The body of Valentino was placed in a plain wicker
basket, covered with cloth of gold, and taken to
Campbell parlors. The crowds remained in front of the
hospital, hoping in vain to see the removal of the body,
which was taken from the building through a private
entrance on West Fifty-first Street.
After the body was taken to the undertaking
establishment, the crowds began to collect there in such
numbers that a guard had to be posted by the police.
No plans for the funeral have been made. Friends of
Valentino are awaiting instructions from his brother,
Alberto Guglielmi.
Mr. Schenck cabled Mr. Guglielmi in Paris on
Sunday that Valentino was dying, and received a
cablegram that the actor's brother would sail for
New York on the first ship. Mr. Schenck said last
evening that he had heard nothing further from him.
Valentino's sister, who was in Turbin, also was advised
by cable of the star's approaching end.
No word had been received from her.
The Valentino death certificate was filed with the
Board of Health at 3:50 in the afternoon. It gave
"ruptured gastric ulcer and general peritonitis" as the
cause of death, and specified "septic pneumonia and
septic endocarditis" as contributing causes. Valentino's
name, "Rudolfo Guglielmi" was entered upon the death
certificate, and his age was given as 31. A slight delay
in filing the certificate was occasioned by difficulty in
getting data as to his age.
One of the first persons who tried to view
Valentino's body at the undertaking rooms gave his
name as Camillo Santomero, 201 Stanton Street, and
described himself as a traveling salesman and a cousin
of the dead actor. He had failed in repeated attempts
to get into the Polyclinic Hospital, and pleaded to get
into the undertaker's by saying he had not seen
Valentino for five years. He asserted that his mother
was a sister. He was accompanied by Guido Valenti,
who claimed to have been a boyhood friend of
Valentino.
Body May Lie in State
In response to constant inquiries, employees of the
establishment announced that no definite information
as to whether the body would be permitted to lie in
state could be given. They said that the Gold Room
was being held in readiness for such purpose if
instructions were received. They were sure that no
one would be permitted to view the body before
2 o'clock this afternoon, if at all. After that time they
expressed the belief that close friends of the actor
would be permitted to view the body.
Early in the evening a woman, who said she was
Valeria Samel, a niece of Victor Neeler, antique
dealer, 9 East Fifty-fifth Street, went to the
undertaker's with a 14-inch nickel crucifix, inlaid
with a mosaic of forget-me-nots. She said that her
uncle was a long and close friend of Valentino and
desired the crucifix to be placed on the chest of the
dead actor. the crucifix was received, but the
employees could not tell what disposition would be
made of it.
The first floral offering, a modest spray of gladioll,
tied with lavender ribbon, was received with a
card signed "Rose Fellman." Women in the crowd
at the funeral parlors greatly outnumbered the men
and boys. Some of them pleaded several times to
be permitted to see the body.
Crowds waiting before the doors of the Campbell
establishment last night in an effort to view the
body of Valentino were dispersed by five policemen
detailed from the West Sixty-eighth Street Station,
who ordered them to move on.
---
Photos:
http://www.bibi.org/box/2005/abril/Golden_Silents.jpg
(w/Nita Naldi)
http://www.sunrisesilents.com/Images_blogs/blog1_valentino.jpg
(w/Vilma Banky)
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-ghosts/RudolphValentino.jpg
http://www.staleywise.com/collection/beauty_is/med_img/abbe_valentino.jpg
(w/Natasha Rambova)
http://p.vtourist.com/800604-Rudolph_Valentino_as_Julio_Desnoyers-Buenos_Aires.jpg
The Sheik (1921)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E97ytcgrTvs
Son of the Sheik (1926)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OAlbfZRCvY
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Bill Schenley <stra...@ma.rr.com> wrote:
> VALENTINO PASSES WITH NO KIN AT SIDE;
> THRONGS IN STREET;
I learned in middle school that there was a rash of young women
committing suicide that summer due to despondency over Valentino's
untimely death. There's not a lot of information about this on the
web that I can find, but what there is seems to contradict it. Is
there any real substance to the claim?
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
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