Good Morning, Valentino

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The original heartthrob Rudolph Valentino was born on this day 118 years ago, aka 1895, as Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguoll. I think he should have kept that name for his move to Hollywood - it woulda looked grand on the marquees! These shots are of him in his 1924 flick Monsieur Beaucaire. Here's a fun fact via IMDb:

"While touring to promote his last film, an editorial in the Chicago Tribune accused him of "effeminization of the American male". He defended his manhood by challenging the writer of the article to a boxing match (which never took place with the author but another writer for the paper did enter the ring on behalf of the author who would not be named and Rudy beat him)."

They also referred to him in that same article as "a pink powder puff." He had a couple of movies after Monsieur Beaucaire, so the article must have come out just a little bit after this movie... point being, I can't imagine where they got all that "pink powder puff" stuff from. (see more of him here)