Rudolph Valentino Case Files: Review #2 Evelyn Zumaya Mis-Identifies Valentino Memorial Guild President as Famed 'Hustler' Porn Publisher

Leslie Flint was the beloved President of the London based Valentino Memorial Guild that was the longest running Valentino Guild in history.  The Valentino world has long lauded Leslie Flint for his activist work in preserving Valentino films.  His biggest legacy was to acquire and preserve the surviving footage of The Young Rajah.  He was also a well known spiritualist and author.  He was a champion of, and attended many times, the Valentino Memorial Service.

Several years ago I was able to acquire the Valentino Memorial Guild's vast files and correspondence.  One entire binder contained the decades of correspondence from Los Angeles Valentino fan Tony Altamirano.

Naturally when I saw Evelyn Zumaya had a chapter called "The Tony Altamirano Contributions"  my interest was piqued.  This is where she mentioned a hear-say conversation between Altamirano and Leslie Flint.  Then, there in the Footnote #11 she mistakenly lists his name as Larry Flint the Porn Mogul!  How in the world could a legit book called The Rudolph Valentino Case Files mistake the identity of the President of the Valentino Memorial Guild as the Pornography King? 

It wasn't a typo because she repeats the same error on the very next page, and Footnote #13 again refers to Leslie Flint as Porn King Larry Flint.   It doesn't end there.   Evelyn Zumaya even lists the famed "Filth Peddler" in the books index.  

This is yet another example of the absence of research and, needless to say, proof-reading for this book.  

Leslie Flint, the beloved Valentino Memorial Guild President deserves better.

Larry Flint - Headlines when he died called him "Pervert Who Changed America"

 

Leslie Flint - Valentino Memorial Guild President

Porn Mogul Larry Flint is mis-identified in place of Leslie Flint  Source: Footnote #11 Page 135

Porn Mogul Larry Flint is mis-identified a second time.  Source: Footnote #13 Page 136

The Rudolph Valentino Case Files 'Index" Lists Porn Mogul Larry Flint

Masthead of Valentino Memorial Guild stationary listing Leslie Flint as President

Book Review: Rudolph Valentino Case Files (Part 1)

 I just finished this book The Rudolph Valentino Case Files last night.  It gives me no pleasure to say that I give this book a 'Thumbs Down'  book review.  I waited to purchase it until Amazon had a steep price reduction and bought it for a fraction of it's original asking price.  After reading, I know why it's on clearance.

I plan to review this book in seperate parts  because unlike the other Valentino books, this is a hodge-podge of essays, newspaper reprints, translations, guesswork theories passed off as research, some appear to be amateur blog posts disguised as additional chapters.  It's finished out with colorized B&W images, ironically many of them have no connection whatsoever to Rudolph Valentino.  

Part 1 of my book review  

There is a Valentino Book Bibliography List which starts on page 317.  The books are listed alphabetically under the respective author's last name rather than the actual title of the Valentino book.  When I looked for Valentino Dream Of Desire under the name of it's author, David Bret, it was nowhere to be found.  Odd, I thought since Zumaya spent 8 entire pages discussing Valentino Dream Of Desire and even mentioned it's actual title on four occasions within those eight pages.  

It's common knowledge Evelyn Zumaya has long attacked his book, but I felt surely she wouldn't censor a title from  the Valentino book bibliography list simply because of that. After all, she equally rallied against the book by Brad Steiger and Chaw Mank in the same chapter she rails on Bret.  She even included additional chapters for them, the authors of Valentino An Intimate And Shocking Expose, called "Mr Mank" and "The Brad Steiger Interview"  Yet, their book Valentino An Intimate And Shocking Expose was indeed included in their Valentino Bibliography yet Bret's appears to be deliberately banished.

For the record; Evelyn Zumaya and Renalto Floris have never been shy about venting their outrage of having their own Valentino books eliminated from a prominent Valentino website's book list. 

 Yet, they are A-OK with doing it to the books they don't approve of?  This is hypocrisy and they frankly should be called out on doing the very thing they complain about being done to them. 

Renato Floris expresses his "utmost disgust" that "none of our books were included"

                                                                Quote dated  6/23/21

Renato Floris says it is "intellectually dishonest" that she "does not include
books which are not to her liking"  Quote dated 10/11/21

So, I ask you - are Evelyn Zumaya and Renato Floris "intellectually dishonest"?  After all, it is he, himself who said a person not including Valentino books not to their liking on their bibliography list  makes them intellectually dishonest.  Yet that is what they have done in The Rudolph Valentino Case Files.  I'll let you decide for yourself.

This is a good example of why, in my opinion, that neither they themselves nor the multiple Valentino books put out by Evelyn Zumaya and Renato Floris will ever be taken seriously nor found in any scholarly book depository. 

This is end of my book review Part 1. The discussion of The Rudolph Valentino Case Files will continue in Part 2