L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS Continued from page 4 s t r e s s i n P a r i s f o r P a u l Poiret. (By the way, Poiret w a s t h e f a v o r i t e c l o t h i n g designer of Natacha Rambo- va, a famed costume design- er and Egyptologist who was Rudy's second wife.) Then M a r i a m o v e d t o T u r i n , where she died in 1969. At age 4, little Rodolfo moved with his family to a neoclassical building at Via Regina Margherita 28, in front of a large garden that p r e v i o u s l y b e l o n g e d t o Prince De Mari, the last lord of Castellaneta. In 1905 the family moved to the city of the two seas: Taranto, in a lovely apart- ment at Via Massari 12. The building overlooked the Mar Grande basin. " A f t e r c o m p l e t i n g e l e - m e n t a r y s c h o o l , b e t w e e n 1 9 0 5 a n d 1 9 0 6 , R o d o l f o attended the first year of w h a t t h e n w a s c a l l e d t h e c o m m e r c i a l s e c o n d a r y s c h o o l . B u t h e h a d p o o r results," says Ludovico. "He had a keen intelligence, but he was a little brat." With his friends, he would per- form acrobatic, dangerous jumps, especially over the b a c k o f d o n k e y s a n d t h e peasants' horses. "There are several anecdotes about the p r a n k s o f l i t t l e R o d o l f o ; some were invented from scratch, but all highlight his m a r k e d v i v a c i t y a n d h i s intolerance of rules." Rodolfo was 11 when his father died at 53 from the after-effects of malaria con- tracted during his virology research. For years he has been carrying out experi- ments. In 1901 he published a s t u d y t i t l e d M a l a r i a Among Cattle in the Taranto Countryside, and in 1904 published Another Case of Equine Malaria. H i s d a d ' s p a s s i n g p r o - foundly influenced the wild kid who adored his parents. He thought of their mutual l o v e a s " s o m e t h i n g v e r y sweet and deep," as he later wrote. They were a living example of the eternal love he met in childhood. At that point, his mother enrolled Rodolfo in a board- ing school for orphans of the medical professionals. "It was located in Perugia," says Ludovico. "Although not a military school, it bor- rowed formalities, uniforms and pedagogy from the mili- tary world. The discipline was strict and punishments har sh: " I often br oke the rules and they locked me in p r i s o n a n d g a v e m e o n l y b r e a d a n d w a t e r , " w r o t e Valentino. In Perugia, he tried cigarettes for the first t i m e , s o o n b e c o m i n g a heavy smoker. Rodolfo did not do well at the Perugia school known as Collegio della Sapienza. He felt isolated and showed his " q u a r r e l s o m e n a t u r e . " T h e r e , s o m e o f h i s p e e r s bullied him for his pointy ears. They would call him "the bat." "After three stormy years, Rodolfo was expelled from the Collegio for indiscipline, p r e s u m a b l y f o r h a v i n g s t a b b e d a c o m r a d e w h o mocked him," says Ludovi- co. Rodolfo's mother was in s h o c k . B u t s h e f o u n d t h e courage to ask the school principal for a favor. Her son needed to still wear col- legiate clothing to take the competition exam to enter a n a v a l m i l i t a r y s c h o o l i n Venice as Rudy has a fond- n e s s f o r s h i p s a n d machines. Despite his impatience with military discipline, "the teenager Rodolfo Guglielmi dreamed of glory and mili- t a r y h o n o r . " H e s p e n t a s h o r t p e r i o d i n V e n i c e , w h e r e h e w o u l d p a s s t h e written admission test. But he paradoxically failed the physical test since his chest circumference was two cen- timeters narrower than was necessary. "For Rodolfo, it w a s a d e v a s t a t i n g b l o w , " says Ludovico. "I was fifteen a n d a c o m p l e t e f a i l u r e , " Rudy wrote in his book My Private Diary, published in 1929. He wanted to die because he felt humiliated. "I came to the tragic conclusion that there was no place in the world for someone like me. I had abandoned the uni- verse of dreams only to dis- c o v e r t h a t r e a l i t y d i d n ' t want to know about me." On October 20, 1910, he was next sent to the Royal Practical School of Agricul- ture "Bernardo Marsano" in Sant'Ilario in Nervi, near Genoa. In enrolling Rodolfo in the new school, his moth- er recommended that the d i r e c t o r o f t h e i n s t i t u t e employ the utmost severity toward her son, hoping he would change. T h e s c h o o l i n G e n o v a worked a kind of miracle. It boasted a curriculum that was more suited to his tem- perament. Rodolfo became one of the best students. He had the best grades in all primary subjects, including A g r i c u l t u r e , A g r i c u l t u r a l E c o n o m i c s , M i n e r a l o g y , Chemistry, Italian, English a n d S p a n i s h . T h e o n l y d r a w b a c k w a s t h e u s u a l c o n d o t t a o r b e h a v i o r a t school. Rudolph Valentino poses with his dog (Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons agreement. Wikicommons. Public Domain) At age 18, on December 8, 1913, Rodolfo boarded the S.S. Cleveland and sailed to New York City. He had 4,000 dollars with him. "One day, they would be proud of me…" Valentino and Vilma Banky in "The Son of the Sheik" (Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons agree- ment. J.Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs. Public Domain) Continued to page 8

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