Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

AUGUST 1924 Pictures and Pict\jre$<oer 15 O^TnpAbrocc RUDOLPH VALENTINO Rudy has the impressionable, poetic temperament of the true Italian. Witness his vivid word pictures of his Atlantic voyage and of London. do something. We both refused. I gave what money I could spare to the cause, but told them that for me to dance was out of the question. A woman on board who was very active in the affair, made the remark that she thought it outrageous of me. . . I owed the Public so much, she said, that the least I could do was to comply with a request of that nature. . . She said the same about Mr. Arliss. . . who aho refused, but with a like donation of money. Why can't some people understand how tired we get? How much we need, now and then, to be alone, to think, to store up energy? It isn't that I, personally, am not willing to do all that I can to please the people who have been so nice to me, but it is that there comes a time when it isn't a question of volition. . . I cannot do more. I felt very much to-day, as I did that last day in New York. Part of the trip was drawing to a close. Soon. . . soon now I should see England. . . London ... the storied site of history. I should see the seats of royalty . . . the Tower of London . . . Buckingham . . . Hampton Court . . . Ascot . . . Leicester Square and Piccadilly . . . the Strand ... I had veritable shivers of anticipation. . . " I am glad," I told Natacha, " that I instructed Rudolph Valentino, whose intimate account of his European experiences appears below. On board S/s Aquitania. told Natacha tnat when I had been coming over that first time, ten years ago, the immensity of the whole thing made me feel shrivelled up, and small and frightened, but that now, with her beside me, with the fruitful experiences of the past ten years as a sort of background of courage, I felt larger than Time and Space. We decided that one must feel larger than Time and Space in order to get along. There are so many things to beat in the world ... so many fields of battle to triumph over . . We stood toward the back of the ship. . . Now and then we made some slight, fragmentary remark . . . for the rest, we were silent. . . It is one of the most perfect charms of life to me to talk to a woman like that ... I mean . . . without effort, detachedly . . . here and there ... in the moonlight (y and stillness . . . voicing the random thoughts as they come to me . . . wrapped and drowned in beauty. . . Last Day Out. l_Iours piled upon hours of sheer beauty and rest. . . Now and then some little thing of irritation to prove to me that I am not apart from the world of material troubles. . . Just as Rudy leans out \^t of the windozv of the train to give two British fans an autograph. ^ff^ Natacha to give her the credit, I was severely criticised for keeping to myself. . . Some sort of a benefit was got up on shipboard and I was asked to dance. Mr. Arliss was also asked to we prophesied, or as prophesied, my secretary, who went ahead of me, not to announce the time of my arrival. I feel like I did when I first made a public appearance . . . it is a sort of stage-fright ..." I was really a little bit afraid of the English people . . . how they would receive me ... I wouldn't admit this publicly, but in the pages of my diary I dare to say that I am still a victim of that ancient theatrical malady . . . stage fright.