I am not sure who began to tell the
lie that Natacha Rambova was named specifically in her husband,
Rudolph Valentino's first contract with United Artists; banished by
name. When I was first researching Affairs Valentino I wanted to read
the contract and collector Bill Self said he had a copy. He told
me in every interview he would have it ready for me the next
time we got together but he never did; always saying he could not
find it. Well.... eventually I did find it.
The entire contract was included in the
appeals case filed by George Ullman which I discovered in 2003. So I
was able to read the contract and learn Natacha Rambova had zero mention. As I have stated many times, George Ullman wrote she
was prohibited from stepping foot on the United Artists' lot via a memo
he received from Joe Schenck.
And this has contributed to, and has become part of the tired old lie
that Rambova married Valentino for his name to advance her career. How ridiculous... if one
has the slightest knowledge of both of their career situations when
they met it is easy to see this is 100% false. Rambova had the greater career when they met and at her tender age
she was a sought-after set and costume designed working with Cecil B.
DeMille and Nazimova. Valentino was still making a name for himself.
And fact: Rambova's career would be
destroyed completely by her marriage to Valentino and she would leave
Hollywood in ruins professionally. So much blame has been heaped on
her and if one reads the rhetoric churned out over the decades it is nothing more than malicious misogyny.
In Astral Affairs Rambova, I included
an interview she gave to journalist Herb Howe in which she tells all
and is candid about what happened to her in Hollywood. It is sadly obvious that portraying Rambova as the enemy.. has become an important element in the
false narrative claiming Valentino was a hapless victim to everyone
in his life.
Her name was not mentioned in the
United Artists contract. I was the first person to share that one
change in the history and I posted the contract online @
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bh5Mc0vGGjItipY9uabh9sQ14MxAaQ7w/view
