I once asked Bunny Ullman if her father George was not upset watching Valentino drink heavily in the last months of his life. She answered without hesitation, “What? He would have been right there with him!”
I think that was one of the most interesting things I learned about Rudolph and George... they were the same age. Ullman was a year older. And Ullman was no stuff shirt as they say.
Another story Bunny told me which she requested I not include was the Sunday roast beef story.
George Ullman liked to cook Sunday dinner and one Sunday he had a bit too much to drink. He pulled the roast out of the oven to check it and it slid off the rack and flew across the kitchen floor. Bunny said she and her brothers were screaming with laughter but her father was “so angry.”
The brotherhood of Rudolph and George was genuine, imo. And included the imbibing of spirits, etc. etc. etc.
After one interview with Bob Ullman, he drove me back to the airport. That was the last time because he became too ill to do so after that. I thought it was a rather non-productive interview but then he told me how his Dad George, when he was upset would pour himself a “tall, green glass of bourbon” and go out to the den to play his violin or go out to the garage to go through his Valentino bins of papers. He said they all knew when he had the green glass of bourbon in hand he was not to be disturbed.
How valuable was that? ( below the "anti-banker" George Ullman)
