When it rains, it pours!
And I'm not talking about Morton's salt, nor am I referring to anything ominous. I am instead referring to how suddenly effortless it is becoming to write this new book (see many of the previous posts below).
I have been trying to obtain a copy of Abel Gance's 1919 version of the film J'Accuse! for about 8 years already. It was a film that brought Gance worldwide acclaim, but it also had a profound effect on Rudolph Valentino specifically, in terms of making him want to create/produce/star in his own films, rather than be solely an actor. (However, even though by the end of his brief career, Valentino was one of the higher paid movie stars in the world, he was also a notorious spendthrift and had accumulated mountainous debts that are beyond our ability to comprehend and so it was only financially feasible for him to star in films.)
Now, suddenly, my favorite TV station of all time, Turner Classic Movies, announces that on Sunday, April 27th, they're showing a re-stored version of the 1919 classic, J'Accuse! I cannot wait.
Also, after several years of trying to find a long out-of-print biography on Valentino, written in the early 1970s (I had initially taken it out of the library back in Tiny Town, PA and then never saw it again), I suddenly found a copy of it at Alibris yesterday for $1.99. Awesome, right? It's a great book, too. It is one of the only books that "seems" to give a balanced and rather open account of Valentino's much-debated sexual orientation. Obviously, with everyone from that era now dead, it's impossible to ever know the truth. Still, if you read the 41 (!!) books I've read, watched all the movies that have been salvaged from his career, and read as many of the archived newspaper stories that you can, a picture begins to emerge where you can make a "reasonable" assumption as to what was going on back then (everything!).
The best book by far on Valentino is the one that comes with the most doubts as to its authenticity since it's based on Valentino's "personal diaries" but no one besides the author can verify that the diaries ever existed. Still, it's a super-duper terrific and scandalous read! And Carroll & Graf re-issued it here in the States before folding last year: Valentino: A Dream of Desire by David Bret.
It is so scandalous and so gay that it makes for a really delicious read. However, with everything else that belonged to Valentino having been un-earthed years ago, why is it that the diaries have never come out into the light of day? They are allegedly owned by a man in Holland or Belgium or somewhere like that. Regardless. It is not only fun to imagine, it also paints a picture of Valentino that is not at all hard to believe. He definitely lived by his own rules and escaped notorious scandals and legal troubles, over and over and over again, by the skin of his teeth. And then was dead at age 31.
Okay. So I gotta get moving here, gang! What a glorious day it is out there today, though. Sunshine like you wouldn't believe. Hope it's just as beautiful where you're at. Thanks for visiting!
I have been trying to obtain a copy of Abel Gance's 1919 version of the film J'Accuse! for about 8 years already. It was a film that brought Gance worldwide acclaim, but it also had a profound effect on Rudolph Valentino specifically, in terms of making him want to create/produce/star in his own films, rather than be solely an actor. (However, even though by the end of his brief career, Valentino was one of the higher paid movie stars in the world, he was also a notorious spendthrift and had accumulated mountainous debts that are beyond our ability to comprehend and so it was only financially feasible for him to star in films.)
Now, suddenly, my favorite TV station of all time, Turner Classic Movies, announces that on Sunday, April 27th, they're showing a re-stored version of the 1919 classic, J'Accuse! I cannot wait.
Also, after several years of trying to find a long out-of-print biography on Valentino, written in the early 1970s (I had initially taken it out of the library back in Tiny Town, PA and then never saw it again), I suddenly found a copy of it at Alibris yesterday for $1.99. Awesome, right? It's a great book, too. It is one of the only books that "seems" to give a balanced and rather open account of Valentino's much-debated sexual orientation. Obviously, with everyone from that era now dead, it's impossible to ever know the truth. Still, if you read the 41 (!!) books I've read, watched all the movies that have been salvaged from his career, and read as many of the archived newspaper stories that you can, a picture begins to emerge where you can make a "reasonable" assumption as to what was going on back then (everything!).
The best book by far on Valentino is the one that comes with the most doubts as to its authenticity since it's based on Valentino's "personal diaries" but no one besides the author can verify that the diaries ever existed. Still, it's a super-duper terrific and scandalous read! And Carroll & Graf re-issued it here in the States before folding last year: Valentino: A Dream of Desire by David Bret.
It is so scandalous and so gay that it makes for a really delicious read. However, with everything else that belonged to Valentino having been un-earthed years ago, why is it that the diaries have never come out into the light of day? They are allegedly owned by a man in Holland or Belgium or somewhere like that. Regardless. It is not only fun to imagine, it also paints a picture of Valentino that is not at all hard to believe. He definitely lived by his own rules and escaped notorious scandals and legal troubles, over and over and over again, by the skin of his teeth. And then was dead at age 31.
Okay. So I gotta get moving here, gang! What a glorious day it is out there today, though. Sunshine like you wouldn't believe. Hope it's just as beautiful where you're at. Thanks for visiting!
Comments