Posted on 03/24/2016 10:04:44 PM PDT by windcliff
ouch
Actually, contrary what so many people seem to assume, I really don’t believe Valentino was a homo. And I don’t think a studio (not back in 1920, when Valentino hadn’t even reached stardom, and wasn’t a high-value property for Zukor’s Paramount) had anything much to do with the Jean Acker marriage. Finally saw Acker in that Arbuckle western-comedy she made around that time in a supporting role, as well as the serial her lesbo lover, Grace Darmond, made “The Hope Diamond Mystery” (1921).
Anyway, it’s often been my theory that the endlessly distributed photo stills from Valentino’s ridiculously frilly and effeminate costuming (which his second-wife, a set designer, was most responsible for) from his last few movies around 1925-26, helped perpetuate the notion that he was a homo. Which, the usual seedy faggot ‘biographers’ have undoubtedly helped stoke, through the years. There was a whole cottage industry of these types who put out books and liked to state or imply EVERYONE was a damned fruitcake.
It’s not new in the Arts in general. Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Saint Saens...
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