As an addition to my previous post titled, “On the Subject of Fabrication“, I share the following:
In a letter Alberto Valentino wrote to Jeanne De Recqueville dated November 17, 1977, he writes,
“...my brother left a legacy of over a million dollars but we ( he and his sister) only got a few personal items of sentimental value.” (cite p. 147, Rudolph Valentino in English by Jeanne De Recqueville, translated by Renato Floris)
Stunning really at that point I think...that in the fifty-one years since Rudolph's death, Alberto is still making such a claim. He neglects to mention the money Ullman owed the Valentino estate was money Alberto and his sister had already spent plus decades of interest. He neglects to mention a lot actually which should have been shared at least once by this man over the years. I found this little article today (with a transcription below) and thought it an odd commentary on his “few sentimental items”. What a life style he enjoyed for years while he squandered his deceased brother's estate which was 100% bequeathed to Jean Valentino and not Alberto.
So after falling and breaking two small bones in his hand, Alberto faints from shock and is taken back to the luxury of his bungalow at the Ambassador which then cost $750.00 a month (by today's exchange this would be $9750.00) to be “attended to” by not one... but apparently several, “attending physicians” and Pola Negri. The problem with this is not that he found a way to live this extravagant lifestyle... but that when he'd spent all there was to spend, he lied so tremendously at Ullman's expense.
It was Ullman who, in good faith, advanced that life style, those attending physicians and the Ambassador bungalow to Alberto and we all know how that turned how for him.
Transcribed:
“Alberto Guglielmi Valentino, brother of the late screen star, was a victim of the rain yesterday. Stepping from his machine at the Ambassador garage, in the rear of the hotel, he slipped and fell to the pavement and sustained a fractured hand. He was taken to a hospital, where it was found two small bones had been broken.
The actor's brother, after fainting from shock was returned to his cottage at the Ambassador, where he is being cared for by private physicians and Pola Negri, screen actress and fiancee of the late Rudolph Valentino. His injuries are not serious, his attending physicians said.”
