L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 4 F or the world, he w a s R u d o l p h Valentino, the Italian-born star who became the first great male idol of Hol- l y w o o d ' s s i l e n t e r a , t h e "Great Lover". But within his family, across the gener- a t i o n s a n d l o n g a f t e r h i s death, he was simply Uncle Rudy. One hundred years after his death, perhaps one of the m o r e i n t e r e s t i n g w a y s t o return to Valentino is simply to watch his films again. Not the still photographs, not the publicity portraits that turned his face into one of the most recognizable of the 1920s, but the films them- selves. They reveal a per- former considerably harder t o c l a s s i f y t h a n t h e n i c k - names attached to him. Take The Eagle, released i n 1 9 2 5 . V a l e n t i n o p l a y s Vladimir Dubrovsky, a Russ- ian officer who becomes an outlaw and then enters the household of his enemy in disguise. The plot gives him plenty of opportunities for romance and adventure, but a l s o f o r s o m e t h i n g l e s s commonly associated with h i m : c o m e d y . H e s h i f t s between swagger, embar- rassment, deception, and flirtation, sometimes within the same scene. Clarence Brown's direction gives him room to react rather than simply pose, and the result is a lighter, more playful Valentino than the one pre- s e r v e d i n m o s t p o p u l a r memory. His final film, The Son of the Sheik, went even fur- t h e r : i t w a s V a l e n t i n o t o s u g g e s t p l a y i n g b o t h t h e young Ahmed and Ahmed's aging father, returning to the character he had first p l a y e d f i v e y e a r s e a r l i e r . T h e d o u b l e p e r f o r m a n c e was also a technical exercise in early filmmaking: father a n d s o n c o u l d a p p e a r t o g e t h e r t h r o u g h s p l i t - screen photography, long before digital effects made such scenes routine. But the more interesting trick is in the acting: Valentino has to make the two men immedi- ately distinguishable, alter- ing posture, pace, expres- s i o n a n d p h y s i c a l e n e r g y rather than relying only on costume and makeup. The film moves rapidly between romance, action and humor and, despite being remem- bered above all as Valenti- no's last picture, it remains one of the clearest examples of what he could do when a r o l e a l l o w e d h i m s e v e r a l registers at once. In 2003, The Son of the Sheik was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry as a work of cultural, historical and aesthetic importance, which says a lot about its artistic value and, of course, that of his main actor. A century after Rudolph Valentino's death on August 23, 1926, at just 31 years o l d , t h e f a s c i n a t i o n w i t h him has hardly faded. Every s u m m e r , h i s a d m i r e r s return to Hollywood Forev- e r C e m e t e r y ' s C a t h e d r a l M a u s o l e u m , w h e r e h e i s buried, to remember him. For more than two decades, Tracy Ryan Terhune, Karie Bible, and other "Ladies in Black," Valentino devotees w h o a t t e n d t h e a n n u a l m e m o r i a l i n p e r i o d - inspired black attire, have helped keep that tradition alive, organizing Valentino's a n n u a l m e m o r i a l s i n c e 2 0 0 2 . T h i s y e a r , a s t h e world marks a century since his passing, LILAA presi- dent Anna Manunza also joined the commemoration, celebrating Valentino not only as a Hollywood icon but as an important figure in Italian-American history. "Rudolph Valentino is more than a Hollywood icon; he is an important part of our I t a l i a n - A m e r i c a n h i s t o r y and legacy. It is our respon- sibility to keep his memory alive and ensure that future generations understand the e x t r a o r d i n a r y i m p a c t h e had on cinema, Italian her- itage, and the country that a d o p t e d h i m a n d t h a t h e proudly called home." For Sylvia Valentino, however, that legendary fig- ure was never a distant Hol- lywood myth. "Uncle Rudy was part of my childhood. I a l w a y s h e a r d m y f a t h e r t a l k i n g a b o u t h i m , a n d I knew that he was a movie s t a r , " s h e r e c a l l s a s w e speak on the occasion of the 1 0 0 t h a n n i v e r s a r y o f h i s passing. Sylvia is Valenti- no's great-niece. Her grand- father, Alberto Valentino, was Rodolfo's older brother, w h i l e h e r f a t h e r , J e a n Valentino, was the only son of Alberto. When did you realize that your uncle was not simply a person in your family, but also a movie star? All my life. He was talked about all the time. We had pictures of him in our tele- vision den and on the wall, R e m e m b e r i n g R u d o l p h V a l e n t i n o : S y l v i a Valentino on the man she knew as "Uncle Rudy" SILVIA NITTOLI NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS CONTINUED TO PAGE 6 Rudolph Valentino, the Italian-born silent-film star whose charisma, style and screen persona turned him into one of Hollywood's first global icons (Original image created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI)

• Cover