In response to a comment just left on my post titled, “I Can Only Imagine”, I say the following. Someone lamented how it is a shame Bee Ullman did not leave a reminiscence about her life in the days with Valentino. Well the truth is she did.
Bill Self told me in an early interview in 2003, that he interviewed Bee Ullman and recorded everything she had to say. I asked him to let me hear her audio memoir and he said he had it on a couple of reel to reel tapes. I can not remember if it was one or two. I told him I would find a way to listen to them.
In each interview he promised he would have Bee's tapes for me the next time I visited. In a typical slight of hand, he told me he could not find the box they were in, that he had to get things down from some cabinet... blah blah blah total evasion and BS.
I knew Bee's story in regards to what happened between her and Bill Self and it was not a pretty one. Her two children told me the details.
After George Ullman died, Bee wanted to move into a retirement home in Los Angeles for people in the motion picture industry. This required her being sponsored. She befriended Bill Self knowing he could give the recommendation and sponsorship and ensure she could live the rest of her life in the exclusive facility.
During the time frame when she had high hopes Self would make this happen for her, she gave him everything she had remaining that had anything to do with Valentino. She appeared with Self at the Screen Actor's Guild showing of The Four Horsemen.
According to Bob and Bunny Ullman, when Self owned every last thing she had to give him, he told her he would not sponsor her. She was unable to move into the retirement home and was bitterly disappointed. She was furious at Self for playing her on the subject and so were her children. I can think of no other reason why Self would not sponsor her other than his loyalty to the Alberto/Jean Valentino family.
Bee Ullman then moved in with her daughter and lived with her the rest of her life. But Bee hated Alberto and Jean Valentino and Bunny and Bob Ullman said she would tell anyone the ugly story of what they did to George.
So you better believe those tapes Bee made talking about her affiliation with Valentino were spot on and pissed off. There was a reason Self never let me hear them and I have never seen a reference to them or a transcript of them.
I am sure if they do exist somewhere, they have been savaged and edited mercilessly. Who has Bee's tapes?
Are Bee's tapes in someone's garage on the dark side of the moon? What a total shame and what a great loss for the history of Valentino.
