Sometime before I completed writing Affairs Valentino, Kevin Brownlow read the book and kindly contributed. He sent me photographs, editing commentary and this telegram (see below) from his own collection.
The telegram was sent by United Artists' producer John Considine to cinematographer Charles Rosher. According to the telegram it was sent on August 5, 1926 (European date written with day before month) to Rosher at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin. Rosher is an interesting figure in Hollywood history and more about him here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rosher
The movie was to be called, The Firebrand (based on the life of 16th century Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini) and production was well underway when Valentino died. After his death, the life insurance policy United Artists secured on Valentino in advance of production on this film was cashed in to pay for the expenses incurred to that date. Ullman would transact these reimbursements and when he discovered a surplus he demanded United Artists' return this to the Valentino estate as it was deemed a profit generated by Valentino.
His effort was successful but did not ingratiate him with the head of the studio Joe Schenck. But what a great costume venue for Rudolph and his dream of filming an historical Italian drama almost came true.
Thank you to Kevin Brownlow for sharing this intriguing artifact. And I guess we can file this subject under, "What would have been..."
