I wrote about the 1938 revival of Rudolph Valentino's films in Affairs Valentino – Special Edition, pp. 227-228. I referenced this in the book to point out that Jean Valentino, then having inherited the estate, reaped substantial reward from Rudolph's films. ($10,000 a week box office returns by today's exchange rate would be $193,600.00 a week) The most popular and highest grossing of Rudy's revival films was The Son of the Sheik and I share this article (below) from the day.
By 1938, there was a new generation of movie goers and its an intriguing aspect of Valentino's life and afterlife to contemplate his effect of that first generation. Were the audiences filling the theaters in 1938 to see The Son of the Sheik young people or their parents?
I own a copy of the 1938 Life magazine (shown in the image below) which I will find here and also share. I paid $50.00 for it many years ago and probably got ripped off. But I had to have it and it was a rainy San Francisco day, in a comic book shop and there it was...I would have paid a lot more actually. I know copies of that issue are not rare at all but hey... I have mine.
My original interest in the revival of Rudy's films was in pursuit of the documentation and truth about the settlement of the estate and subsequent income issues. It was then I came across the profits for the Valentino estate/Jean from the revival in 1938. Obviously those distributing the films in 1938 would have taken their percentages, but as desperate as Alberto tried to make it all look financially.. they were not counting pennies in 1938.
*podcast is recorded, and solutions being set up to ensure a safe place for the fascinating comments you send in to this blog. I do not share the residue of the hater's bombardments here because it is never wise to acknowledge a child throwing a tantrum. At least in my experience.
