One thing in Italian culture I have an issue with is the word they use for “affair”... they call it a “story”. A man will say, “I had a story”... My problem with this is that it trivializes infidelity and makes it some sort of natural occurrence. They are not cheating or unfaithful but merely having a “story” with another woman. This is still the reality and I exclude my dear husband for god's sake.
But Valentino back in the day... was he just having many “stories” with these women? And Mae Murray comes to mind. This, if any of them, was a “story”. That passionate and lusty kiss she shared with Rudolph in the parking lot after the boxing matches. The kiss which left George Ullman standing alone in that parking lot wondering how he would get home. Mae, in my opinion, was a “story”.
Natacha wrote in that letter which is included in the Baltasar Cue book, “one woman or a hundred” and she lays it out as clear as day. Rudolph was having many “stories”.
I may be stepping on some toes here and if so I apologize.... men and women in Italy have their “stories” and move on. No big deal. In a land where, until very recently, divorce was nearly impossible... marriages were often for social acceptance and the sex life of the spouses was a different issue entirely.
I once stood in an elevator with a friend of Renato's who was a nurse in a pulmonary department in a hospital. Renato needed the xrays and she expedited it. She was the mistress of his friend and his sister-in-law. As an American this was outrageous but on we went. We can not judge Rudolph Valentino based on our cultural mores.
Mae Murray was a “story” and I will say Pola was also. Not serious contenders for the throne of #valentinosqueen but chapters in the grander narrative which would make Mr. Valentino known as “The Great Lover”.
In regards to my previous post about the date of Maria Guglielmi Strada's death:
I suggested someone pass the information along to the family that she died on July 25, 1969. As Donna Hill added she believed Maria “passed in 1961-1962” she might want to be informed also. According to Donna Hill, Maria had some form of lingering death which transpired over a two year period? Maybe she might want to read the work of Professor Aurelio Miccoli. Even if she bans our books, she might want to read the books... maybe on the sly.
