Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

17 of Valentino Tomb ! of millions the body for some one else. Wooldridge the following in a Los Angeles newspaper : Architects, designers and all others engaged in similar work, are requested to send in their plans or ideas for a mausoleum for Rudolph Valentino. Members of the family will make a selection, the best of which will be adopted and used. According to S. George Ullman, executor of the estate, a simple, unostentatious style is preferred. It is to be of ordinary dimensions with scant ornamentation. That is the notice which went out. What happened ? A check for $500 came from a woman member of the English nobility. Another for $100 came from Ernest Torrence, and a second, for a similar amount, from William S. Hart. From the one thousand letters sent to members of the motion-picture industry, fewer than a half dozen replies were received. The magazine which asked for contributions to the fund collected a bare $200, and the editor, in disgust, eventually returned the money to the donors. The committee delegated to handle the fund got a few contributions, none of which would nick a healthy bank account perceptibly. The committee sat with waiting hands. It still is waiting. As a residt of all the appeals made, in virtually every civilised country, a total of approximately $2,500 was contributed, half of _ which came from America. The major part of the balance was from England, Germany, Italy, India, and South America. In the meantime, June Mathis, one of Valentino's closest friends, died July 26, 1927, while visiting in New York. She had said, when the actor's body was Strong, clear-eyed and athletic, Rudy was an idol wherever motion pictures are known. Where Rudy's remains lie, through the generosity of the late June Mathis. placed in her mausoleum crypt, "You may sleep here, Rudy, until I die." That time had come. The body of Rudy must be removed. It was placed in the adjoining crypt, which had been reserved for Miss Mathis' husband, Sylvano Balboni. There it rests today, and there it will stay until its owner has need for the tomb, or until some provision is made for the burial of Valentino in a crypt or a grave of his own. Where are all the women with aching hearts, who professed devotion to the screen's great lover ? From many countries letters have come, principally from individuals able to contribute little more than a widow's mite. Sums from persons of wealth were strangely missing. The wonderful Valentino, whose "fan" mail ran as high as five thousand letters a week scarcely more than twentyfour months ago, appears to be almost forgotten ! Sometimes a slip of a girl creeps into the mausoleum and lays a blossom before his sepulcher. No one knows who she is. Thfice each week a lone Italian woman supplies fresh flowers. Occasionally Rudy's brother comes and lingers in meditation. Sometimes strangers appear to bow their heads in prayer. A few weeks ago a sculptor filed a suit against the estate, to recover $950 which he asserted he had expended in preparing sketches for a memorial, and in traveling to Barcelona and to Italy in search of marbles suitable for a Valentino tomb. His claim is to be contested, on the ground that his activities were not authorized. Not long ago a marble pedestal before the crypt was overturned and broken to bits. Some of the pieces were carried away by souvenir hunters. Tourists come, gaze at the sarcophagus, then break flowers from the baskets and hide them in their clothing, as keepsakes. In London, last May, a roof garden at the Italian Hospital was opened and Continued on page 117