17
IT and US: Valentino, the Italian immigrant who created a dazzling, enduring legend
Born in Castellaneta, Italy, in 1895, he waschristened Rudolph Alfonzo Raffaelo Pierre Filbert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla. The handsome Italian would later reinvent himself as Rudolf Valentino to become the silent screen's biggest star.
It was Valentino's dancing career that eventually led him to Hollywood, where his dark good looks and seductive glances appealed both to American-born youth and immigrants who had passed through New York's Ellis Island earlier in the decade.
Immigrants felt a special kinship with the Italian-born star, especially young Italian woman of the 1920s who so adored Valentino that they christened their sons "Valentino" Or "Rudolfo" in his honor.
It's been many years since I sat upon Grandma's knee listening to her reminiscence of the great Valentino.
Grandma, like most of her generation, first saw Valentino on the silent screen in 1921 starring in The Four horseman of the Apocalypse. After that film, Grandma and every female over the age of 18 fell for his charms.
Valentino's personal life became a strange montage of hasty marriages, messy divorces and scandalous romances-- par for the course during any Hollywood era. Valentino's flashy appearance and arrogant style earned him disfavor with the American press, who deemed him a corruptive influence on the younger generation.
ON A PERSONAL LEVEL, IT WAS around this time that my own Italian nonna, like most of the Italian immigrant women, discovered this romantic leading man. Valentino's most memorable film, THE SHEIK, debuted at my nonna's local Hippodrome theater. Filled with the excitement of seeing her favorite actor, nonna insisted that Papa take her to every performance. Grandma would stand impatiently by the front door, anxiously waiting while calling to her husband: "Vene, vene, Papa", Come, come, Papa it’s time to see Rudolfo. Grandpa would grudgingly oblige.
In an era of fast cars, flappers and bathtub gin, a restless and liberated generation searched for a hero. They found him in silent screen star Rudolph Valentino who, a decade earlier, was among the influx of poor Europeans who came to America.Like most Italian immigrants arriving in New York City, Valentino found work at a number of unskilled jobs procured by his fellow countrymen -- jobs that included dishwasher, waiter and New York taxi driver.