It’s too bad there isn’t a photograph of Louise Brooks and Rudolph Valentino. What an iconic image that would be – Lulu and the Sheik, the flapper and the Latin Lover.
The two actors likely knew or knew of one another – if only in passing. Like many young women of the time, Brooks was a fan of Valentino and saw everyone of his films that she could, a fact she recorded in her diary. The 14 year old Brooks began a diary on January 1, 1921. And only four days later, she wrote that she saw Once to Every Woman, starring Dorothy Phillips and “Rodolph Valentino,” at a local theater in Wichita, Kansas.The film was heavily promoted in the local papers, and reportedly brought tears to the eyes of many patrons. Brooks critiqued the film in her diary. Later that year, in September, she saw The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, and wrote in her diary that she had “cried a barrel-full.” Two months later, in November, she saw Valentino in The Sheik and declared him her favorite, adding “What female don’t admire the con man stuff.”
We also know from later letters that Brooks encountered Valentino – or at least observed Valentino – from afar at one or two parties. She wrote as much in a letter to Jan Wahl, one of her long term correspondents in later life. Brooks told Wahl she observed Valentino at a party at Gloria Swanson’s house in Englewood, New Jersey. Swanson had thrown the party in Rudy’s honor, and had even imported a parquet floor for the night so Valentino could dance the tango. According to Brooks, Valentino had a sallow complexion and sat at the bottom of the stairs, unnoticed and neglected. As well, during one of her 1962 radio broadcasts, Brooks spoke of the last time she saw Valentino in person, emphasizing his charismatic presence. That was in 1926, likely just days before Valentino died at the tragically young age of 31.
Brooks was filming in New York City on the day Valentino died, August 23, 1926. The actor’s death made headlines around the world, and an estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of New York City to pay their respects at the Frank Campbell Funeral Home. Valentino’s funeral Mass also drew large crowds. It was held in New York at Saint Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church, which was often called “The Actor’s Chapel.” In the course of my research, I discovered that Louise Brooks was one of the actors invited to attend the funeral mass. Valentino’s death as well as his funeral received extensive coverage. On August 31, the New York Morning Telegraph, in an article entitled “Pola’s Sobs Heard Above Requiem Mass For Rudy As Thousands Pay Tribute,” wrote that “Louise Brooks cried unashamed”. (Footage of Valentino’s funeral can be found on YouTube.)
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| A mourner at the Frank Campbell Funeral Home. | The admission card to Valentino’s Funeral Mass. Courtesy of Donna Hill. |
There were other points of intersection in the lives of the two actors. Both started out as dancers before they got into acting, and both returned to dance when their acting careers stalled. For a time, they also shared a studio, Paramount (Famous Players-Lasky), and likely knew and worked with some of the same people, like director Malcolm St. Clair and screenwriter Monte Katterjohn. The latter wrote two of Valentino’s films, The Sheik (1921) and Moran of the Lady Letty (1922), as well as a few of Gloria Swanson’s films, another favorite actor of the young Louise Brooks. Katterjohn also wrote Brooks’ break-out film, A Social Celebrity (1926). After Valentino died, Paramount rushed his biggest hit, The Sheik, back into circulation. I have run across a number of instances when the Valentino film and a Brooks film, usually the August 1926 release The Show-Off, were paired as part of a double bill, or, the two films followed one another in theaters not only in the United States, but also elsewhere around the world.
Was Brooks Rudy’s type? Would he have noticed Brooks across a crowded room? Perhaps. Certainly, there is something of a resemblance between Brooks and Valentino’s estranged wife, actress Jean Acker. Both were pretty, and both sported a bob haircut.
As I’ve noted, Brooks continued to remember Rudy as the years passed. We know, for example, that on either April 6 or April 12, 1938 Brooks went to a revival screening of The Sheik at the Filmarte theatre on Vine Street in Los Angeles. When the audience laughed at Valentino’s acting and broad gestures, Brooks left the theater. She was still fond of the actor all those years later. Valentino was also among the personalities from her younger days who are recounted in the notebooks she began keeping later in life.
In 1962, Brooks was living a quiet life in Rochester, New York. She was considered something of a minor celebrity around town, having once been a “movie star.” A local radio station asked the one-time actress to talk about the personalities she had known in Hollywood. Recordings of those programs were long thought lost, if in fact, they were ever put on tape. Last year, however, I uncovered the audio tapes of Brooks’ unedited commentary, and I concluded my talk with two brief excerpts in which Brooks spoke of Valentino, including the last time she saw Rudy, just a couple of weeks before his death. Brooks thought the actor was the “most perfectly graceful man,” later adding, “There was no one quiet like Valentino.”
Here is an excerpt from my transcribed text of the second Brooks’ audio clip, where she speaks about the last time she saw Valentino, just two weeks before his death:
Louise Brooks: “I have a sweet story to tell you what happened just two weeks before he died…. he was there in New York for the opening of his greatest picture. It turned out to be the Son of the Sheik. And one night I was sitting in the Lido, the most fashionable night club in New York. He came in all alone in his beautiful black tails and his white tie, and his beautiful back hair and his dark skin.’
‘He came over to our table. I was sitting with Ben Ali Haggin and his girl, who was a great friend of Rudy’s – Rudy had many, many women friends. She was a beautiful red head in sea green [dress]…. He said “will you dance?” So she got up and they went to the dance floor and the band stopped the fox trot. They started to tango. And something happened that we’ve seen in movies that is always something unbelievable…. So they began to dance a tango and of course they were perfect. It was exquisite. This red head in green, floating drapery. Everyone sat down…. All the celebrities in New York went there. It was café society at the time. They couldn’t help it. They all sat down and watched. And finally the dance ended. And again the right thing happened. No one applauded. No one said a word. Rudy brought Irene back to our table. Said “thank you very much.” And bowed. Then he walked back to the stairs that led up under the exit sign and walked through the black velvet curtain and disappeared. And nobody said anything. An absolute stillness. They had seen something beautiful, beautiful. It really was an exit in a way.”
I have not been able to identify the red-headed Irene who was seated with Ben Ali Haggin and danced with Rudy. Might anyone know who she is? I would also be interested in more information on the Lido nightclub, the setting for this anecdote.
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Back on August 23, 2019, I gave the keynote address at the 92nd annual Valentino Memorial Service at the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Hollywood, California. The title of my talk was “Through the Black Velvet Curtain: Louise Brooks and Rudolph Valentino,” with its subject being the two iconic film stars. My talk asks . . . might these two Jazz Age personalities have known each other? Might they have met? Over the years, various documents have come to light which suggest answers to those questions. While we will likely never know what Valentino thought of Brooks, we do know what Brooks thought of Valentino.
When I gave my talk, technical challenges (notably the acoustics of the crowded room once we figured out how to play back the audio that played perfectly in rehearsal) made it difficult for the attendees to hear the rare audio (from 1962) of Brooks speaking about Valentino. I felt bad. Though a video recording of the memorial service exists and can be viewed online, I decided to convert my original power point presentation to video. I took the opportunity to refine my spoken text a bit, adding a little more narration as well as a few more images. I think fans of both actors will find this material and this refurbished presentation of interest. It can be viewed below. I also uploaded my refurbished presentation to the Louise Brooks Society YouTube channel, which I hope you will take time to explore. This was only the second YouTube video I have made, so I apologize if its production values seem a little crude – however, I wanted to stay true to the nature of my original slide show presentation.
If you would like to learn more about Rudolph Valentino, I would recommend a couple of books. One is a biography, Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino by Emily W. Leider. The other is a pictorial, Rudolph Valentino The Silent Idol: His Life in Photographs, by Donna Hill. Also, be sure and check out Donna Hill’s excellent website devoted to Valentino, Falcon’s Lair.