RUDOLPH VALENTINO’S SMOLDERING eyes and graceful moves made him Hollywood’s FIRST SUPERSTAR SEX SYMBOL before his Aug. 24, 1926, death from peritonitis at age 31 sealed his immortality. But the Italian native’s European, slightly androgynous appeal was lost on the Tribune, which spared no opportunity to poke fun at him. A few weeks before his death, a snarky editorial titled “PINK POWDER PUFFS” ranted against the effect that the star’s “masculine cosmetics, sheiks, floppy pants, and slave bracelets” were having on once-manly men and their women. The attack on his masculinity enraged Valentino, who publicly challenged the unnamed Tribune writer to a boxing match. But before the story could play out, he was rushed into emergency surgery, from which he never recovered. His first words after the operation: “Did I behave like a pink powder puff or like a man?”
Heavyweight friend who was helping Valentino prepare to fight the Tribune writer: JACK DEMPSEY.
Estimated crowd at Valentino’s New York funeral: 100,000.
Rank of Valentino in Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 100 greatest movie stars of all time: 32.
Number of Valentino movies with “virgin” in the title: 2.
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“I am merely the canvas upon which the women paint their dreams.”
–RUDOLPH VALENTINO
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Sources: Tribune archives, Internet Movie Database, “Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino,” by Emily W. Leider.
nwatkins@tribune.com
