One of the more fascinating aspects of researching Norma Niblock was learning a great deal more about the business of Mineralava. It is astounding that Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova were paid what they were at 7000$ a week for those three months. By the current inflation calculator that would be 119,700$ a week today.
I found this little chart of the cost of living in 1924 which puts that into perspective.
I have been waiting to post this article (see below) for more than a year. I wanted to wait until Norma was out so readers could appreciate this interesting gentleman. In the last year of Norma's life, she was negotiating with John Griggs to work with him on a reissue of 88 American Beauties. Griggs had a copy and I think a first generation copy because he made stills for Norma and sent them to her. These are the images I included in the book. They are very good.
There are things to be distressed about in Norma's turbulent life story but this one is really hard to take. Imagine if she had lived long enough to do the voice over on that film? We would have had Norma speaking about her memories of the win.
But her children did not leave those memories untold. Thank you Sally and Roger!
I am sorry for Norma that she came within weeks of recording her narration of her great victory.
How many intriguing things are there in this article (below) about this man? I would have loved to have been a "Mosquito Muskateer" and watch silent films in his yard with children running about spraying the air for mosquitos. I enjoyed learning about Mr. Griggs and it is because of his interest in Norma that we have that full page piece about her published but a month or two before her death. Some correspondence from Mr. Griggs to Norma is included in the book.
It is interesting to me that the trolls most often accuse me of posing as someone else... which they routinely do. It is interesting to me that they claim I lie at all... which they routinely do.
For the record one more time.... if I comment here it will be under my name. And I have never had a reason to lie.
But they know I am not lying and never have. For that is the true reason they are so vexed. So mean and bitchy. They know I am telling the gospel truth.
I told the truth in Affairs Valentino and in every book since then and now in Norma.
I still can scarcely believe that Norma is being shared. It was hard to keep her story quiet it was at times so sensational. Those who spit their venom at her story to get at me... well I feel sorry for them in this case. She deserves all good things... dear woman my god.
Regarding the Naldi incident. Norma's son first told me that and said the “leading lady” of the movie assaulted his mother. Sally would identify “Leading woman” as Naldi. But between my phone calls with Roger and Sally, I had to think... Gertrude Olmstead or Nita Naldi? That was a no-brainer.
And I footnoted the articles I cited and sourced about Naldi and her pride in pummeling. It is all there.
I had to track down the Studio Club information for them, and found that all so fascinating. And yes Norma told her children that in the Studio Club, a pre-Joan Crawford was “pretty much a whore”.
I am happy the books are starting to arrive and that Norma's life story will be known. I did all I could to do it every justice.
My favorite moment? When Sally told me offhand the details of the fate of her mother's framed Rudolph Valentino portrait. I did not see that one coming.
There are lessons to be learned from Norma's life. She was a beautiful woman, inside and out. A goddess.
Norma Niblock returned home to Toronto in December of 1923, a few weeks after her win in Madison Square Garden. She arrived an international star, with managers and a sizable entourage. The change in her family dynamic would be drastic as I explain in the book.
She was then receiving thousands of fan letters from all over the world. Her father burned most of them, feeling she was not mature enough to receive so many marriage proposals. A few of the fan letters were salvaged and these appear in the book as images and translations.
Here, from her scrapbook, the local press reports on her homecoming. She was not sixteen at the time and actually about a month away from her sixteenth birthday.
The article below was published in The Chicago Tribune on June 10, 1923. The columnist (Kick Korner) appears to have previously published a letter from someone who signed their comment as "Just Me". This is some of the response received for "Just Me's" daring to criticize Rudolph Valentino. I found it a fun read myself.
Norma Niblock's children had a great deal to share in telling their mother's life story to me. I interviewed them both over a period of just over one year. Her daughter was around during the last couple of years of her Mom's life as her brother was in the military and stationed over seas primarily. This made her daughter more of a source for that time frame.
Their memories of childhood events were invaluable as a source of knowing the homes, the friends and family members, the various changes in the family's life and locations; sweet memories and detailed accounts. Norma told the story of her Mineralava win to them many times in glorious detail and I was and still am honored to be the one sharing her personal accounts.
Norma's children inspired my further research into many aspects of the story and this in some instances expanded the story into areas even they knew nothing about, especially concerning the details of her untimely death.
I think readers will appreciate the divine sources I had and agree with me that Norma had an exceptional archive to reference and two exceptional and generous children. It was as if she wished, or hoped, some day her story would be told.
Here is one treasure which Norma saved and the letter I read in the podcast:
One of my favorite new “Norma” scenarios from the Mineralava tour, was the press description of Valentino and Rambova dancing at the reception held for them after the Toronto pageant and performance.
They literally met the local contestants and their families, danced to their own orchestra who set up in a hotel ballroom and mingled until midnight. Imagine that kind of one-on-one interaction with celebrities today.
The pageant in Toronto was Norma's first taste of fame and it appears she reveled in the attention. She loved performing and wanted to be an actress. Mary Pickford, who also came from Toronto, was one of her idols.
A clipping from her precious scrapbook and the image which she glued in next to the comment about Valentino's voice:
Norma Niblock's scrapbook was a great source for me and I included images from it in the book. She meticulously cut and pasted articles making sure every line was included but seldom included the newspaper citation and date. Fortunately, I found most of the articles and most were from the local Toronto papers. Some of the articles were unique and insightful; especially those covering her interviews. In one more memorable moment she described Rudolph Valentino's voice which I still find mesmerizing.
“Norma and Mabel granted an interview at home for a reporter from The Toronto Star. Norma admitted she was never particularly interested in Rudolph Valentino until the previous night at the Arena. That was before she heard Rudolph Valentino speak.
'When I heard him I thought he was a poet', Norma said seriously. 'You know he had such a wonderful voice and he used such beautiful language'.”
This fascinating video (see below) becomes all the more magical for me in light of her comment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvlPDe3IVEk
Norma's archive includes many photos of the Mineralava pageant including this one where she is no doubt listening to the “poet” who is using such “beautiful language”:
Everyone who knew Norma throughout her life commented on her beauty and notable presence. Her daughter Sally recalls how even in her later years when her mother entered a room or a restaurant, people stopped and stared; she was noticed. (A comment was just made about her "luminosity" which is the perfect word) I think it is obvious she was proud of her title of Rudolph Valentino's beauty queen despite the many set backs she experienced.
She seemed to face every challenge with great strength and courage and aplomb. There was only one event from which she would not recover; the death of her beloved Holland.
She did receive notoriety for her Valentino connection over the years and as tempting as it is I will not spoil the story. Here, in this image she is with Holland, and her two babies who worked so very hard with me this past year to tell the true story.
The woman seated behind Norma is an unnamed friend. This photo was taken in 1931.
I will be temporarily disabling comments as I have no time at the moment to monitor them all. Renato and I are working on a few exciting projects which demand our time and focus.
The new book is days away from saying its hello and in advance of its arrival there is a great deal to do!
Stay tuned and I will announce the book first here of course!
I am not sure how I missed this book, (see cover below), but how is this possible? Seems to be a complete lift of Ms. Leider's Dark Lover, cover, title and all, only with Valentino an insatiable vampire.
As I have made it very clear, I am not a fan of fictionalizing the lives of actual people. It confuses things and Valentino is a perfect example of that. And this is vampire fiction, which worsens the offense for me. From the few pages posted on the book's Amazon page, we see that Rambova procures the victims for Valentino/the Vampire.
I am sorry Ed Russo but the writing is very bad/actually awful. And would Ms. Leider not be entitled to a quick and substantial reward for such ham-fisted plagiarism?
Grace Eline is another Rudolph Valentino side story lady and one with a connection to Mary Miles Minter. Grace Eline tells the story how the inspiration for her and her sister to go into movies was Mary M. Minter, who then lived in the same apartment house.
Grace Eline reports on her studio reference card (see below) that she danced with Rudolph Valentino, 1915-1916. There are some real discrepancies between her studio profile card and her extensive bio which you can find through the link below.
https://www.thanhouser.org/TCOCD/Biography_Files/8_c3c3.htm
Grace Eline's studio card:
On this Easter Sunday, I am feeling grateful and happy, recalling the year-long hunt I embarked on to find Valentino's probate court records. My satisfying memory was sparked by all the images of the tradition of the Easter egg hunt. How I could relate. I searched and searched for that treasure; not hunting colorful eggs but dusty old court records.
As anyone reading Affairs Valentino soon realizes, my joy in the find and the unfolding of that new Valentino information was obvious. I finally found the great colorful “egg” which changed the history in so many ways.
Today I am pleased to say... more soon!
Buona Pasqua my friends.
Happy Easter.
In response to the absurd allegation that Baltasar Cue was no where near Valentino, Alberto Valentino or Falcon Lair in the first months of 1926 and that we made it all up, I share the photograph below. There are others where Senor Cue appears front and center, but this proves something else I feel.
Cue was invited to the wedding and standing next to Alberto Valentino. I allege this is indicative of his stature with the Valentino brothers. If Cue was writing "fanzine drivel" as it was called this past week, he would not be in the wedding photos. It is a sign a great respect, I feel, that he is among the wedding party.
It is also a poignant photograph for me, knowing that at that time, Rudolph believed he had embarked on a collaboration with Cue, writing the true story of his remarkable life. The man standing third from right, Baltasar Cue was about to undo the puffery churned out by the studios.
I sense something resolved about this picture and the hard working Spanish journalist was there being he was a friend and someone both Alberto and Rudolph respected.
Third from the Right.
From our English translation of Cue's, The True Rudolph Valentino:
In the original publication of The True Rudolph Valentino, Cue includes some other wedding photos. Somewhere we have a good scan of the page which I will share, but this is how it appeared in the magazine.
I share the following screenshot to let “Ms. Cindy Martin” know I do not read her comments. I am sure she sends plenty of the hate comments as “Anonymous” which are fired my way but these will stand unopened. I will always defend myself, my dear husband Renato and our work and in light of all the abject lies “she” has posted online and does today and everyday, I will not allow her poison a second's time in our home. And to her loyal defender of her tremendous bullying of us online, "Dallas", I say do not waste your time accusing me of bullying her. My defending myself here against her lies and continued harassment is not bullying. Not at all.
There is a point where the evils committed against me by “Martin” far exceed any hope of reconciliation. I thought on a few occasions she might have realized the harm she does to us but the apologies she wrote to us privately were never shared publicly by her. She attempts to do even worse to us now.
I am not sure why this “person” feels such hatred for me personally. I have never met her and feel my doubts about her true identity are justified considering her claims she was instrumental in having our books removed from sale in 2011. I knew the cast of characters only too well back in that day there was no “Cindy Martin”.
I was almost fooled a few times but no more. If she has something helpful to say she can post it publicly on those two Facebook groups. For today, if she knocked on our front door with a million dollar check, I would still slam the door in her face. Enough is enough. Her comments remain unopened. Not reading it.
One of the more endearing anecdotes in Baltasar Cue's, The True Rudolph Valentino is the story of the collective wooing of actress Mary Miles Minter by Ralph Graves, Douglas Gerrard and Rudolph Valentino; an account shared by Douglas Gerrard himself and therefore a first-hand account.
Ms. Minter was at the height of her fame and glory when this took place and about to step into her Hollywood murder, mayhem and who-done-it immortality.
I think Rudolph Valentino seems so earnest here with his offering of Italian gold... pasta! I appreciate Cue went ahead and finished his book after Rudolph died and I appreciate Renato translating the book in English.
Mary Miles Minter (see below) in a photograph taken in 1917 around the time this wooing took place:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Miles_Minter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Desmond_Taylor
From The True Rudolph Valentino by B. Cue, pp. 58-61:
I sit here thinking what kind of people are these, these haters? Who talks to people like they talk to me in the depraved and mean comments they send in. They know I read a few lines before I realize who they are.
I used to say it is like shooting someone in the legs and then laughing how they cant dance. And then ten years later they are still mocking me for limping. Sick people.
I completely and 100% boycott Mad About the Boy and We Never Forget Facebook groups because they are run by those who mock me, demean us and demonstrate their no class selves over and over.
This is not a Facebook group, not a chat room, it is my personal blog. I was accused of having no “diversity” here because I do not approve their sick comments? Haters do not qualify as anything that could possibly create diversity.
The one thing that strikes me the most reading their vicious comments, is that they lack any pride. No one with an ounce of pride would spend time putting someone down like that and for so long.
We have an enormous pride and have fought hard to make that pride shine through in our work. I think it really does.
So diversity? If they mean hijack my blog to run their hateful false narrative about me, about Renato, about Valentino, Rambova, Ullman, Mennillo, et al, then they are wide, wide of the mark. It is never going to happen.
Their tragically brainwashed insults do not constitute diverse anything. This is my voice.
When I first published Affairs Valentino in the spring of 2011, it was shortly removed from Amazon with a notice I was to “work it out” with those making a claim of defamation against it. Of course I was defaming no one and telling the truth. I think those who pulled that off, have long since proven me 100% correct in accusing them. Ms. Martin even made a public claim to having Affairs Valentino removed from sale at that time. Even though she was then no where to be found. Again prompting the obvious question...who is she?
There was nothing untrue in the book and the case against it was fraudulent because “they” claimed the person publishing the book was the author and responsible for the content. She never was. They will howl and whine a wholly different version of events as they do with everything concerning Affairs Valentino. And in his panic to bury the book, Tracy Terhune even submitted a deposition to the court referring to the publisher as “self-publishing” my book. Impossible. It was and still is my work.
Now the publisher had other books in print and “they” did not go after them. The shameful and obvious attack on Affairs Valentino was a calculated scam to prevent people from ever reading the truth. The entire and documented story of this will be shared. But "they" have more than proven me correct over the years by sharing their malicious motivations and still do every day.
During the time frame that Affairs Valentino was available, a few thoughtful reviews were written and I share a few excerpts from one by Tony Bonn, who then had a newsworthy commentary blog called "The American Chronicle". His insight on Valentino is interesting.
For example, his saying Valentino wanted to "transcend his materialistic morass", and his dividing Valentino's legacy into three "distinct periods". I am not sure I would agree, I think the advent of the internet would begin the "third period". However it is thought provoking. I did not know Mr. Bonn personally and had one exchange with him to ask permission to cite his fine and very lengthy review on the back of Affairs Valentino. At some point I will put his entire review on a Google document and post the link. For today I post a few excerpts.
A comment @ 1:53 on the previous post mused whether a scene where Valentino and Claire Del Mar might have danced together could have been cut from the film.
I can't dismiss that possibility because scenes were cut from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. From The Coshocton Tribune, October22, 1926:
From The Gazette, (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) October 5, 1951:
The story of Claire Del Mar (sometimes written Claire Delmar) has been told, her murder written about by Hollywood crime sensationalists. The fact she was an “uncited” member of the cast of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and danced with Rudolph Valentino, bears in the least a nod here.
There are few photos of her online (one with Valentino on the Four Horsemen set) but she is best remembered for her marriage to well-known cameraman Hal Mohr. Mohr also worked on Four Horsemen as an assistant cameraman.
However, the intriguing connection between Claire Del Mar and Valentino for me was the mention she had a scrapbook which was found at her murder scene. In that scrapbook photos of her with Rudolph Valentino.
I wonder where that scrapbook is now? Where are those photos?
There is a great deal of press coverage about her particularly gruesome murder in 1959. But the moments of her Valentino connection fascinate I think; the dance in Four Horsemen, meeting her husband on the set and her Valentino scrapbook found at her murder scene.
I have always found it intriguing to learn how the peripheral characters in Valentino's story lives and destinies were affected by the affiliation.
Claire Del Mar's Murder:
About Claire:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0217552/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Her husband Hal Mohr:
https://www.cinematographers.nl/GreatDoPh/mohr.htm
Regarding comment 4:12 below... this image was submitted as the scene in question regarding Del Mar's appearance:
I thought I would share the other photos I have of the publicity stills Natacha Rambova had with her in Mallorca. The photo of a very proud and happy, Maria Salome was taken at the same time. We corresponded briefly, in Spanish, and she was thrilled to receive her copy of Beyond Valentino. The rest of the photographs and Ms. Salome's story can be found in the book.
The discovery of the Natacha Rambova Mallorcan cache of photos, relics, jewelry still boggles my mind. Michael Morris negotiated permission to use the photos of the collection in Beyond Valentino with the woman who owned it all, Maria Salome.
After Michael passed away I negotiated the contract with Ms. Salome in Mallorca and then things complicated. This because a Spanish film crew heard about her collection and came to her home for an interview. At one point someone in the crew pulled out a roll of cash, offering to buy it all right there and then.
Ms. Salome was so offended, she wanted nothing to do with the film crew. The problem was that before the incident with the insulting roll of cash, Ms. Salome allowed the film crew to take some of the Rambova artifacts for a night to film them.
The photos they filmed that night were fetish images; for example one of Natacha's passport placed over a man's genitals. I am not sure if Ms. Salome ever saw those but they were online. Despite this experience, she agreed to allow Michael to use her photos, but was hurt by the Spanish film crew's audacious roll of cash.
The collection consisted of things Natacha kept in her home on Mallorca and some things she had with her there stood out for me... especially her many publicity stills.
The image below is one I put together for my Instagram account but the photo in the frame is the photograph of Natacha's collection of publicity stills, found in her home she shared with Alvaro. Does it not seem interesting that she would have these with her?
The fate of the Mallorca collection remains a mystery . I tried to encourage Ms. Salome to bequeath it all to the Phoenix Art Museum where Natacha's costumes are housed. But Ms. Salome said she would leave it all to her children. Ms. Salome died soon after and I would venture to say that the Spanish film crew made her heirs a substantial offer.
Renato writes:
"Evelyn's naivety led her, in the beginning of this sad adventure, to share with excitement what she discovered and verified in chat rooms of the time. She then, subsequently, exposed the false origins and untruths of the much heralded "homosexuality" of Valentino.
Two characters immediately unleashed themselves publicly, who still today spit poison and defamation both at Evelyn and at me.
The characters in question, ça va sans dire, are Tracy Ryan Terhune and David Bret. They accuse us of their own behavior, of which there is very little more shameless than theirs.
We have no interest in and no use for lying, for hating, defaming, ridiculing anyone, opening hate blogs under their book's titles, and just want to be able to deliver to the true fans of Valentino what we have found and documented.
Evelyn is a person of great integrity and kindness and there is little else she can do but defend herself from the poisonous broadsides of those two, who would like her to be forever silenced and perhaps dead.
Tracy says we are not liked and calls us, "persona non grata", it would be more correct to say "personae non gratae" but I am aware of his cultural limitations.
I ask him, disliked by whom? How can people dislike us if they can not even mention our names in Terhune's subjugated Facebook groups, Mad About the Boy and We Never Forget? How can people dislike us if our long series of honest books is banned from a list compiled by Donna Hill, which she claims to be all-inclusive of everything ever published on Valentino?
Bret and Terhune have made me a particular target of their name-calling and personal insults. I want to say that I have always worked honestly, in many fields, and this for me has been my great reward.
I add that both Evelyn and I do not lie because we don't need to. Unlike like the professional liar, David Bret, who literally invents incredible characters.
I was curious about his latest claim that a French chansonnier Claude Rambeau was a gay lover of Valentino. I really searched and searched and now believe Rambeau never existed. Bret publishes, as a great scoop, a photo of this non-existent fellow.
I searched the photo and found it comes from a collection of vintage gay images, with no identification. I also add that the image will appear on a gay culture calendar in publication for 2023 and that it will be the iconic image for the month of August.
It seems all Bret needs as “proof” someone was a gay lover of Valentino, is a cropped head shot of the person and nothing more. Does he now just sit with a pair of scissors and decide who will be the next “lover” of Valentino? Snip. Snip. Is that his research?
Perhaps he could share more about this person Rambeau, some documentation, and more than a clumsily cut head shot from this publication. Here I share the original image, which is so poorly cropped by Bret, from the 'Nakayoshi gentleman photo series from the latter half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century collection.' "
From Tracy Terhune's pulpit of hatred, another sermon is delivered! Tracy Ryan Terhune pontificates again from the pulpit of his hate filled blog which he snatched from Evelyn Zumaya long ago. And this sermon of hate he presents as a fun hate game which is both banal and infantile.
He painstakingly constructed a pie chart wheel, which reminds me of the games we played as teenagers called spin the empty bottle. When it stopped in front of someone, whoever spun the bottle, had to kiss them.
Tracy in his signature, childish way and utilizing his years of personal experience hating, achieves something rather incredible with his little game. He manages to identify, himself, the very people who force us to defend ourselves from their abuse. There they are on the sections of his pie, his Valentino Studies Community, his “team”, his obedient following; our well known detractors.
Now they call themselves collectively the “Valentino Studies Community” and according to Terhune... they now constitute a “Wheel of Hate”. The people he names publicly are those from whom we must continually and energetically defend ourselves. But we do not hate and in defending ourselves we are in fact responding to an enormous body of hate from Terhune and his pie chart slices.
The palmares of hatred of course must go to Tracy Ryan Terhune. This for his years of rancorous hatred of all things Zumaya, Floris and Affairs Valentino which is supported by years of screenshots of the blog he runs so very determined in his hatred.
According to his little wheel of hatred, Evelyn and I hate an unspecified Valentino Facebook group. Nothing could be more incorrect. This because most of the groups he has subjugated, know little about us because our books are on the list of prohibited books and woe to anyone just mentioning them. This could bring about Terhune's hateful deletion of a member. We do not hate the group or any group, we respond to his hateful behavior.
Then, in Tracy's wheel, we see he has identified the name of Donna Hill, the secret priestess of hatred towards us. I say secret because she carefully remains in the shadows of Terhune's efforts. She is the lady with kind and refined ways who, instead of responding to my sincere message to her, threw it over to Tracy Terhune who added his insults to his already heavy insults against us. I can confirm we don't hate Donna Hill as we don't hate any of the other characters or groups of characters on Tracy Terhune's little spinning wheel.
We have never hated Alberto Guglielmi as we have never had cause for hatred. We reported the documentation and history as we discovered it. Our defending ourselves and our work from the barbaric actions of these people over so many years is just that. Defending ourselves is not hatred.
Posting hateful messages and images on a blog under the name of Evelyn's book is hatred. Maybe Terhune can notice that this blog is proudly managed under her own name and not the title of his book. Anything he posts on that blog is hatred by its history and obvious intent.
Tracy, with his wheel of hate, has really revealed the names of the participants of his "hate team", the ones who for too many years have besieged us with real broadsides of gall from which we can and must only defend ourselves.
We never hate these people, because hate is an emotion and they only deserve our indifference and necessary rebuke.
This little moment in Valentino history (see below) involves some interesting people. Bev Barnett was a long-time and well known press agent representing John Wayne, Jack Benny, Gene Autry, Dick Powell, Johnny Cash, and Johnny Weissmuller; among others. The man scarcely needed publicity at this point in his career.
Rochelle Hudson claims she found the ring near Falcon Lair and I think her credibility was solid at the time too. More about this lovely young lady here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_1ac1ze7QI
The unfortunate character in this little saga was robber Gordon Phillips who was shot and killed in the burglary. From The Times Herald, Port Huron, Michigan, November 24, 1940, a bit of Valentino trivia.
Natacha Rambova enjoyed the friendship of many great scholars and artists during her years of affiliation with the Bollingen Foundation. I have written about the Bollingen Foundation before and was grateful I learned so much about this remarkable organization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollingen_Foundation
Natacha's expeditions into the Valley of the Kings were funded by Bollingen grants and this was how she came to know so many other scholars, especially women who were thoroughly involved in ground-breaking research. One of Natacha's friends whose work was also funded by Bollingen grants was the artist and author, Buffie Johnson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffie_Johnson
http://buffiejohnson.com/www.buffiejohnson.com/home.html
I mention this woman because I think today the women of Bollingen, who conducted such important research, have faded into the past. This said I feel they still deserve acclaim and recognition. I have yet to read Buffie Johnson's life's work Lady of the Beasts: Ancient Images of the Goddess & Her Sacred Animals (see link below) but have decided I will buy a copy and see what her field study was about.
https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Beasts-Goddess-Sacred-Animals/dp/089281523X
Her affinity with Natacha's life work is obvious and it is easy to appreciate their friendship. Both women were so passionate about their deep study of iconography, symbolism, religion and searching for a commonality in the world's cultures through belief systems and spiritual art and ritual.
Michael Morris contacted Ms. Johnson hoping he could interview her about her friendship with Rambova for Madam Valentino. This is the letter he received as a reply. I know he would want it shared because his goal was to have his entire archive shared. This was his purpose in publishing Beyond Valentino...he wanted to publish as much as he could from his archive. I will ensure it is all public as he wished, as this is the sacred work which has been tasked to me.
Buffie Johnson passed away in 2006 but her letter to Michael presents another first-hand and valuable insight into Natacha Rambova's true personality.
I still receive vicious comments to be posted here. I read just enough to recognize them and then toss them. After all these years, I recognize who is writing; for example Terhune loves the words, “Crackpot” and “deranged” and will not miss an opportunity to call Renato a few names. I would say there are not more than 3 terrible people submitting their hatred. Sad folks really, who are so determined to harm us and obviously motivated by jealousy. What miserable days they must spend.
Can I just say that I have never been so jealous that it became a destructive force prompting me to set out to ruin someone I was jealous of and their livelihood? What a colossal low life someone would have to be to be capable of something like that. I can not comprehend how someone could be so full of self-loathing that their envy of other people was so great, they act out on it in cruel and spiteful ways. I can not fathom a state of mind like that for one second. And by “low-life” I do not mean poor or needy, I mean cruel, “deranged, crackpot” level disturbed.
Because in order for them to feel good about themselves, they must make anyone perceived as competition a source of ridicule and shame. They, Terhune, Hill and such... are no different that the little jealous children who stick a piece of paper on another child's back, so they, unaware become a joke. Decent people do not laugh at such things. And in this case it is no different.
Tracy Terhune, Donna Hill, “Cindy Martin”, Eleanor Gribbin, Constable et al.... must know by now we are no joke. And that no matter what they write or say about us, they can never change who we are and never diminish the true value of a thing we do. Dream on haters, we are not the crackpots.
I found the list below the other day and thought I would share it so the Valentino Liars Community can know more about what they deny and why they persecute. They deny all of this and much more. They deny and banish the mention of every single point on this list. It is such a shame they do not share all this new information about Rudolph Valentino and more....and shameful they can not do so in a positive and truthful way.
