DEBORAH CROMBIE: Need a break from current events this week? We may think we've cornered the market on celebrity fame and fandom in our time, but author Donis Casey is here to disabuse us of that notion with a fascinating look at the life of Rudolf Valentino. Rudy's life would have made a great (and tragic) novel in itself, but in VALENTINO WILL DIE, Donis has given us icing on the cake, as you will see!
His name was Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla, but the world knew him as Rudolph Valentino, screen legend, superstar, and the original “sexiest man alive”. He blazed across the silver screen like a comet and burned out as quickly and just as spectacularly, dying at the tender age of 31, thus ensuring his status as a tragic romantic icon for all time.
She was born Blanche Tucker, but the world knew her as Bianca LaBelle, star of the wildly popular silent movie serial The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse. When I first wrote about Blanche in the Alafair Tucker Mysteries, she was a six year old girl living with her very large family on a farm in Oklahoma in the 1910s. I watched through ten novels as she grew up to be a smart, beautiful, but headstrong teen, bored with life on the farm. I decided it would be fun to fling Blanche into the world and see what happened. I didn't know myself she was going to end up a movie star - until she did.
Blanche/Bianca is a fictional character. But Rudolph Valentino was decidedly real.
I used Rudy as a side character in my first Bianca Dangereuse novel, The Wrong Girl, as one of Bianca’s many famous friends. I knew Rudy was the first great screen lover and an international heartthrob whose early death caused a frenzy of grief. But when I dug into the research on Rudy’s life, I ended up down the rabbit hole. He was a fascinating guy. An Italian immigrant with a French mother, he loved art and music and spoke five languages. He was hot tempered but quick to forgive, loved women but by his own admission didn't understand them, extremely athletic but equally sweet, boyish, and naive. He was also flummoxed by his unbelievable fame.
But what really intrigued me was that as soon as he died, rumors began to fly that he had been murdered. Rudolph Valentino emigrated to the United States in 1913 at the age of 18, eventually becoming a dance instructor in New York – a job he didn't particularly like, but he was good at it and it paid the bills. As it turned out, his skill as a dancer was his ticket to fame. He moved to California, and in 1921 the relative unknown was cast in the lead role in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's silent epic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and tangoed his way to immortality.
In 1921, just before Four Horseman came out, Rudy married his first wife, Jean Acker, On their wedding night she inconveniently discovered she was a lesbian and locked him out of the bridal suite. He became a big star almost immediately thereafter, which led Jean to decide she wanted a divorce and a lot of alimony rather than an annulment. After four years of fighting in court and mere weeks before the divorce from Jean was finalized, Rudy married director Natacha Rambova (whose real name, I’m thrilled to report, was Winifred Shaughnessy Hudnut) in Mexico. Jean pressed charges and Rudy was arrested for bigamy the minute he stepped foot back in the United States. After the dust settled, Rudy was happy for a while, but Natacha was a force of nature and refused to take a back seat to the superstar. Feeling hemmed in, she left him.
After Natacha, Rudy became infamous for his many affairs and was hounded by the paparazzi. He abused his body mercilessly with endless parties and dangerous stunts. He threw himself into the whirlwind national promotional tour for his final movie, Son of the Shiek, the sequel to his blockbuster movie of a few years earlier, The Shiek. After endless interviews during the day, he’d party all night - and ended up in a New York City hospital with a perforated ulcer. Terrified of being cut open, he didn't allow doctors to operate on him until it was too late. He died of a massive infection on August 23, 1926.
One hundred thousand mourners crammed the street in front of the chapel where Rudy’s body lay. The press of people shattered the plate glass window in front of funeral home. Traffic was snarled for blocks and cars overturned. Fifty thousand people filed by the body until Rudy’s agent called it off because so many were taking “souvenirs” from the viewing room. Rudy’s body was sent by train to Los Angeles for burial. Crowds lined the tracks all the way. Several women committed suicide.
The rumors started immediately that Rudy’s death was not natural. He had been shot by a jealous husband. He had been poisoned by Mussolini or the Black Hand or persons unknown. A jilted lover put ground glass in his food. He wasn't really dead. It was all just publicity stunt. Was Rudy murdered? Probably not. Not in the real world, anyway. But in my fictional world - now, that’s another story. Just ask his friend Bianca LaBelle.
DEBS: Here's more about VALENTINO WILL DIE:
Though Bianca LaBelle, star of the wildly popular silent movie serial The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse, and Rudolph Valentino, the greatest screen idol of all time, have been friends for years, in the summer of 1926 they are making their first picture together, a steamy romance called Grand Obsession One evening after dinner, a troubled Rudy confesses that he has received anonymous death threats. In a matter of weeks, Rudy falls deathly ill. Could it be poison? As Rudy lies dying, Bianca promises she will find out who is responsible. Was it one of his many lovers? A delusional fan? Or perhaps Rudy has run of afoul of a mobster whose name Bianca knows all too well. With time running out, Bianca calls on the one man she believes can help them before the charmed life of Rudolph Valentino comes to an end.
And look at these fab quotes--one from our very own Rhys Bowen!
"A delicious glimpse into Hollywood's Golden Age... Bianca might be a glamorous star, but she is also a likable, smart, and feisty heroine." Rhys Bowen
"Casey smoothly incorporates real events and people into a plot that’s more thriller than mystery. Lovers of old movies and Hollywood gossip will have fun." - Publishers Weekly review of Valentino Will Die
DEBS: Readers, do you think it's harder to be famous now than it was in Valentino's day? The idea of fifty thousand people coming to view Rudy's body is really staggering!
Donis Casey is the author of Valentino Will Die (Feb. 2021) the second episode (following The Wrong Girl, 2019) in a fresh new series, starring Bianca LaBelle, star of the silent screen action serial,The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse. In addition to this series about a beautiful headstrong, and wildly lucky girl in glamorous 1920s Hollywood, Donis is also the author of ten Alafair Tucker Mysteries, an award-winning series featuring the sleuthing mother of ten children, set in Oklahoma during the booming 1910s. Donis is a former teacher, academic librarian, and entrepreneur. She lives in Tempe, AZ. Read the first chapter of each of her books at her website, www.doniscasey.com
