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  

Homophobia? What Evelyn Zumaya Doesnt Want You To Know She Did With The Ullman Memoir

***BOMBSHELL ALERT ***

Did Rudolph Valentino think Natacha Rambova was a lesbian?   Yes.  In the S. George Ullman manuscript Ullman wrote of a quick exchange with Rudy telling him Nita Naldi had been seen around New York with Natacha Rambova.   Rudy turns to Ullman and (referring to Naldi) says "Dont tell me she's a lesbian too!"  That means he already thought Rambova was a lesbian.

Sadly, you wont get to read that passage in the book marketed by Viale Industria Publications called "The S. George Ullman Memoir"  Evelyn Zumaya, who wrote the foreward to the book is a fierce opponent to anyone who dares to question Valentino's sexuality. Certainly Rudy calling Rambova a lesbian threw Zumaya a curve ball. In 2009 Zumaya gave a public lecture on Valentino's sexuality and ripped apart two Valentino authors who's viewpoints on his sexuality differed from hers. At the time she received the Ullman manuscript she mistakenly thought she held the only copy, therefore she probably thought that she could quietly censor the lesbian paragraph out and no one would be the wiser.  To me that stands as a true example of homophobia.

To think that Evelyn Zumaya who on her podcasts wailed about censorship of her book and even brought up book burning would, at the same time quietly snip the lesbian paragraph out and thus deliberately extracting a part of George Ullman's Valentino history.  Would S. George Ullman approve of her deed? I would think not. I fully believe he would denounce both Evelyn Zumaya and her self-publisher "husband" Renato Floris.

Affairs Valentino Critique - False Quote

In the 2011 edition of Affairs Valentino the author Evelyn Zumaya tells of S. George Ullman standing on the deck with Rudolph Valentino in New York as they waved good bye to his brother Alberto, who had just boarded the ship to return to Italy.  Then Valentino turns to Ullman and says the below quote.  The author Evelyn Zumaya claimed this direct quote came from the (then) un-published 1975 Ullman manuscript.


                               

                                              Source: Photo of Affairs Valentino page 422


Fast forward three years.  In 2014 the same author, Evelyn Zumaya published the 1975 S. George Ullman memoir from which she had, in Affairs Valentino stated as her source for the above "quote"



                                   

   Source: Photo of S. George Ullman memoir page 70

Apparently the "quote" in Affairs Valentino was altered with damaging fake words being put by the author Evelyn Zumaya into the deceased Mr. Ullmans mouth. 

                        

"The Infancy Of The Myth" Book Critique - Affairs Valentino Publisher

   My copy of "Infancy of the Myth"

The Infancy of the Myth is the title of a book that covers Rudolph Valentino's time in Castellaneta from birth until the family moved to Taranto a span of about nine years.  Written by Castellaneta historian, Aurelio Miccoli, often called "the professor"

The book is paperback and clocks in at 255 pages although Amazon lists the book in error at 294 pages.  It has many color photographs of vintage structures in Castellaneta, including churches and street-ways and of course Valentino's noted birth home.  To me the photographs were the best part of the book.  

The book is being marketed as a straight forward biography of Rudolph Valentino's first nine years of life.  On Amazon the publisher has tried to sweeten the deal by describing it as a "scholarly study" and says it is a "stunning, accurate narrative".  No, sadly, it is not even close to that wishful description the publisher, Viale Industria Publication put on Amazon.

If the book had been marketed as "historical fiction"  I would award the author ***** five stars on Amazon.  However as a "scholarly study" it comes up with * star.  

Why?  Fictional dialogue.  A whopping 90% of the book is fictional dialogue. 

                                    

This is an example where the author completely invents dialogue, actions, glances, touching.

Here the author tells the reader what Alberto and Rodolfo were thinking, as well as what their fathers actions were.  All fabricated.

Here the author tells us what Rodolfo was thinking and felt; pain, humiliation and anger.  All fabricated.

Here the author fabricates an entire interaction with the local priest along with back and forth fictional dialogue.  All untrue.

                          

 The author has provided no citations as to where he is pulling the dialogue from, and therefore there is no way for him to know from 1895 to 1904 as to what Valentino's mother, father, brother, priest was thinking, or saying.  Yet he tells us page after page of what they were thinking, he quotes them in casual dialogue.  

The premise of the book is true;  Castellaneta is the real town where Valentino was born and yes his father, Giovanni, his mother Gabrielle, his brother Alberto all were real people. The author in his introduction said his aim of the book was to outline the real events.  This he accomplished, but just reader be wary -  everything outside of that framework has been created out of thin air.   It reads like historical fiction and if that is fine by you, then by all means add this book to your library.   Just know that it is not a "scholarly study" nor is it a "stunning, accurate narrative" as the publisher has described.