The Rudolph Valentino Case Files: Sovereign Act Edition - Paperback

by Evelyn Zumaya Floris (Author), Renato Floris (Author)

For more than a century, Rudolph Valentino's life has been shaped by myth, marketing, and deliberate distortion. Even before his death, fictionalized versions of his story were circulated through studio publicity, obscuring the historical record.In the months preceding his death in 1926, Valentino sought to reclaim his own narrative through an authorized autobiography, undertaken with Spanish journalist Baltasar Cué. His death prevented the project from being completed-but the original documentation survived.Drawing on archival material uncovered through decades of research in the United States and Italy, Evelyn Zumaya Floris and Renato Floris assembled a body of evidence never previously accessed by Valentino biographers. From this material, a documented history emerged that fundamentally alters the popular understanding of Valentino's life.The Rudolph Valentino Case Files includes the complete 1956 Robert Florey serialized investigation "Unforgettable, Unforgotten: Rudolph Valentino Survives His Legend," a definitive analysis of the ghost-written My Private Diary, original essays detailing major archival discoveries, and newly translated Italian and French articles published here for the first time.With extensive visual material and an introduction by Renato Floris, this volume presents a rigorously documented portrait of Rudolph Valentino, grounded in primary sources rather than legend.