The Sheik Promotional Card / Postcard

This is one of the reasons I really enjoy working on the blog. I get to meet and correspond with many of you and sometimes many of you will send me photos of some of your Rudy treasures. Often, these treasures I have never seen or come across before now. Dee has sent me a very unique item, which I call random items, it is a handout for the 1921 film, The Sheik. It is a colorized postcard sized promotional card from Australia, from the Globe Theater. The card itself is scented with Indasia, which was some sort of fragrance. There is a lot of cross promotions going on here: Valentino, The Sheik, Indasia, and the Globe Theater, not bad, actually pretty smart. Anyway, who know how many of these were produced, I think it is a great item, it has a lot going for it, it is colorized and scented! It is definitely another one of those must have items for the collection. Great find and thanks for sharing Dee!

1970's Sainted Devil Wall Poster

This was sent to me from a reader named Dee. This is a great, over-sized poster of Valentino from The Sainted Devil. I have never seen this particular poster before. Dee says it is from the 70's. There were many Valentino items produced in the 70's. Many of the actors and actresses from the 20's, 30's, and 40's made a resurgence and various items were produced during this time. Dee, thank you for sending the photo in, I appreciate it, keep sending them in!

Rare Movie Poster from The Eagle

This is a rare variation of a movie poster, a 6 sheet from the 1925 film, The Eagle. A six sheet is like 6 movie posters that create one gigantic poster! This variation features unique art work not often seen from the film. this is from the original 1925 release. This would be a valuable and sought after poster. This would look great framed in my Valentino room, however, a 6 sheet would need to be hung on the side of my house or possible on my roof, that way it would show up on Google Earth!

700th Post Rare Mexican Needle Book

This is my 700th post! I am posting an item with a great story. This is a rare 1920's or 1930's Mexican needle book. Valentino is one in a series of other stars. I am unsure how many different stars were in this series; however, I know of at least 4 others that included Chaplin, Lloyd, Navarro, and Talmadge. The front of the book reads: Obsequio de la reinera, which translates to Gift of Reinera. When I first started collecting back in the 90's my Mom found this for me and gave it to me as a gift. Back then, my biggest frame of reference for Valentino collectibles was black and white photos of Michael Back's collection from Jack Scagnetti's book, The Intimate Life of Rudolph Valentino. A few months later I was able to attend the 100th birthday celebration in Hollywood. I brought a few of my items, along with this needle book. There was a lunch for the members of the fan club back then. At the lunch was Michael Back! I was thrilled to meet him, I showed him the Mexican needle book. He was very interested in it and told me he did not have it in his collection and had not seen it before. He offered to buy it from me; but, I had no intention of selling it. I was elated that I owned something that Michael Back had not seen before. Since then this needle book has always been one of my favorite collectibles, and I do know that Michael owns one now. This is another example of another great, random collectible.

Error Photo from The Son of the Sheik

This is a fantastic photo! It is the famous scene from The Son of the Sheik where Valentino gets attacked while trying to cozy up to Yasmine. If you look at the photo closely, at the top you will see the tops of the backdrops! I am unsure why someone did not crop this photo; but, I think it's great! You do not see this too often from vintage movie stills. Although I will say, it does take a bit of the magic away for me, I wanted to believe this was out in the middle of the desert! Oh well, a great and unique photo!

Rudolph Valentino Newspaper from 1926

This is one of many newspapers with featured headlines of Valentino's death. This particular one is unique because it is the Evening Express from Los Angeles. Valentino died in New York, his body was transported back to Hollywood via train. This headline reads: "Crowds Meet Valentino Train in California Cities." There is a drawing of Valentino that seems to have him in the same formal clothing he wore to Mae Murray's Wedding a couple months earlier. There are thousands of newspaper headlines with Valentino's death as the lead story. They are fairly sought after, especially the ones with photos of Valentino. This one is unique because it is an article about the train arriving back in Hollywood with his body.