Silent Film Star Rudolph Valentino's butt - WOW!

Doesn't look *that* great in the photo.

He can still get it!!

In his ASS for one whole summer I fucked Rudolph Valentina off the coast of the Pacific Ocean, in his ASS.

OP, I agree with you.

He had a hot ass, but he couldn’t live forever.

And a lead dildo, [R5]. He left it to somebody in his will.

I’d rather own a headshot.

He was gay, wasn't he?

Rudy Valentino was no fag, and I'M the dame that can prove it!

I want to see his uncut slab.

He looks athletic and tanned, which was rare for male stars back then. They mostly looked pale and doughy.

He was gorgeous.

He was hot

Not shilling for this company...but there is a book that documents the men in his life.

Check this out. Do it.

And there are actually much better copies of this image out there but this is the only one a quick google search turned up.

r13 & r15 - Damn!

And where his ass once was = worms in the ground

His diction was very poor.

r 17 - Actually, no worms in the ground. He's above ground.

You would not believe the Facebook groups that are dedicated to his "memory". The two biggest ones are populated by elderly fraus who are constantly posting pictures of his naked back and muscled legs and putting "heart" emojis after their text. One even has an nightly "Good Night Rudy" photo when it's time to sign off after a day of posting.

LOL .... There are also various authors who tackle the big question in their books of whether Rudy was straight, gay or something in-between. They have blogs touting their books and constantly are flaming the other side of the sexuality divide. It's great drama!

Fascinating, R20. The elderfraus of today—at least the ones capable of navigating Facebook—wouldn't have been born when he was alive. Even their mothers might have been too young to idolize him. Who exactly are they imprinting on?

r22 - Honestly, I don't quite get it how those old fraus have gravitated toward him...but they have. For that matter, there also lots of gay men who are drooling over him as well on those pages. The guys seem to be a bit younger.....maybe early middle age. In the beginning of his film career in the late teen and early twenties, he had an androgynous beauty which appealed 100 years ago and still does today to many women and some men.

****plus the big fact that he died young and beautiful at age 31.

He was a great designer. I don't know what he looked like but we've all seen some of his red dresses.

He has a nice tight body.

*had

Valentino is one of those guys that you are going to think are/were overrated in their hotness but nope...the pics don't do him justice though. In "Return of the Sheik" with that cigarette dangling from his mouth? Yum/

Sexy

Many years ago I knew an older guy who claimed he tricked in Hollywood in the 60s. Said he tricked for Navarro and said he was a sweetheart. A lovely man. Knew also the guys who killed him and got angry and said they were total scum. I asked him if the rumors about Navarro and Valentino were true and he was like oh yes.

He looked more Latino than Italian.

He aged pretty badly in his last year.He was obviously ill. He smoked four packs a day and drank like a fish. He was balding pretty fast. His first lez wife Jean Acker )who claimed he gave her the clap), got custody of his hair piece. Apparently for a short delicate little guy he was well hung.

It wasn't that clean back then. Hygienic practices from over a century ago were lacking

This bitch was gay, obviously. Fraus in 2022 are as delusional as they were 100 years ago. They found out about Valentino through the internet, of course - his image appeals to them exactly because he was delicate. They're too stupid to live (like they always have been).

Valentino, Novarro and Nijinsky were early gay icons. Beautiful young gay men who died tragically. Fraus of all decades denied their homosexuality. Some things never change.

he was ugly!

One of his suspected "boyfriends" George O'Brien. When Rudy croaked George moved on to fellow Mick closet case Spencer Tracey.

Some of your ardor might be dampened by his rendition of "Kashmiri Love Song" (though to be honest no one could make this song listenable).

What he died from is so easily treatable today.

My great-granduncle Reg's boyfriend's name was Hector, and Hector did body grooming and makeup for "Mr. Valentino" over several years.

It was a professional relationship but Valentino liked to be looked at and admired. He wasn't gay so much as naive and narcissistic. Actually, he had an average cock ("A little smallish most of the time and with a long prepuce looking like the tied end of a sausage."), uncut of course, and closely waxed and trimmed. HIs private team took care of his body care twice a week and he was shaved twice a day, but Hector had to do touchups on set, and Valentino would tell him, "Make it smooth for me." Meaning his ass. Not a whisker on it.

Hector said he was a lot paler than people think. Most of the oily-olive tone was his makeup (Hector only did body work.) because of wanting him to be a swarthy sex demon. This was all with Famous Players and the start of UA.

He was a typical olive skinned southern Italiano, check out his arm in contrast to his made up face.

My grandmother was in the huge crowd of people outside Campbell's Funeral Home in Manhattan, where Valentino's body was laid out. She said people were crying and hysterical in the streets, there were cops everywhere. 60 years later she could still remember it all vividly.

Colorized photo.

R40 Having you arse waxed in 1925 was as fruity as it gets.

r41 that's a shadow on his arm.

R45 Lasik is 1300.00 per eye.

His mother was French he spoke it fluently and he was always a Francophile.

r46 that was a shadow or something. Other photos don't show his arms like that.

He wasn't that closely waxed and trimmed because one of his tricks had his pubes in a holy reliquary. Obviously that old kween Hector was a fabulist.

Very sexy

I visited Valentino's tomb in the mausoleum at Hollywood Forever. The whole place is pretty creepy.

R48 Look at his hands in R46's picture fool.

Mama mia! Those are spicy meat balls!

There was an editorial in The Chicago Tribune that came when Valentino was making a personal appearance there. The editorial, entitled "PINK POWDER PUFFS" told of a new public ballroom in the city that featured powder vending machines...in the men's washroom. It stated that there was "on the wall a contraption of glass tubes and levers and a slot for the insertion of a coin. The glass tubes contain a fluffy pink solid, and beneath them one reads an amazing legend which runs something like this: "Insert coin. Hold personal puff beneath the tube. Then pull the lever." The editorial appeared to lay a lot of blame on Valentino for the spread of the degeneracy of homosexuality. But there was no real proof Valentino was gay. He seemed more like a milquetoast (he liked strong, dominant women) than gay. The slurs against his masculinity angered and embittered him. On his deathbed, fighting terrible pain, he was said to have asked "And now, do I act like a pink powder puff?"

Olive hands, pale arms. California sun will do that.

R42 - my grandma was there too! She lived on W47 just a few block south from Polyclinic Hospital where Valentino died.

Rudy popped my cherry.

He still hot! Even if body is cold.

The world of Valentino fandom in 2022 is still a crazy reality. There are several Valentino Facebook groups: MAD ABOUT THE BOY, WE NEVER FORGET, MY SILENT BOYFRIEND, etc. . All are populated by old Fraus & not so closeted aging Queens who claim they are doing "Valentino studies" but are actually usually just posting beefcake shots of him. Then replies start coming in with heart emojis and pledges of undying love.

The fans are very territorial about him. If someone has written an article or a vanity press book then they claim they are "experts" in the world of "Valentino studies" and have written the final word on him. There's an old 70 something Frau in Turin, Italy who has written what basically is Valentino fan fiction. She claims to be THE authoritative biographer of Rudy. Her husband (also in his 70's) is a former Italian T.V. child star who serves as her publisher. She claims in her books, her blog and on her YouTube channel that other Valentino authors persecute her and that her life is in danger because of their jealousy. She says she has had to go into hiding from Rudy's gay fans because of the "revelations" in her books about Valentino being strictly heterosexual. Her public blog AFFAIRS VALENTINO is one long thread of paranoid delusions and venom toward other Valentino writers. Rudy's gay fans refer to her as "The Madwoman of Turin".

The guy's been dead for 95 years. You can't make this stuff up!

Aren't quite a few of Valentino's films now lost?

Several of them, yes. I've heard the figure that 80% of films from the silent era are lost.

Chic ass!

Gloria Swanson adored Valentino and always spoke highly of him. She was one of the last surviving people who really knew him well.

I just looked at a few of those blog posts and the responses. Sounds like a lot of bitchy drama between Evelyn the Valentino goddess and everyone else in Valentino fandom. Let's make her an honorary DL member!

For the record, Valentino never gifted Ramon Navarro with a "black lead Art Deco dildo embellished with Valentino's signature" that was later found shoved down Navarro's throat after he was beaten to death by a couple of young hustlers who had been sent to Navarro's for an evening of entertainment. That dildo story was created by Kenneth Anger. I have no idea how he came up with that tawdry tale.

His silent movies are barely shown on TCM. I think I've only seen one of his movies.

[quote] MY SILENT BOYFRIEND

Holy shit.

R59 People will fetishize anything.

Valentino was born in Italy.

Pensive.

Keeping fit.

"Valentino was far more talented as a dancer than as an actor, but even the best of his screen performances can’t compete with the legend. He will be remembered as much for what was said about him as what he did."

From the comments that some of those old ladies make on Facebook, it seems that what attracted them later in life to Valentino were photos of him they found online. It was only then that they began to seek out his movies. r68 is right. People will fetishize anything.

The administrator of a Valentino Facebook site with almost 2000 members made a public post sharing a dream she had had several years ago of being pregnant with Valentino's child. She told her Valentino Facebook family that, in her dream, she had already borne two of his children and was now carrying his third. She's a senior citizen. That sent all of the other elderly women on the site to respond to her post with shivers and awe.

I wish an image would resurface of him sucking or taking in a big black dick or something. That would destroy the old frau's delusions. Marlon Brando has photo of himself performing fellatio which kept him safe after death from frau obsession.

The woman who runs the blog AFFAIRS VALENTINO is very homophobic and is constantly lashing at other fans. She did have a line that was funny though. She revealed one of the gay Facebook Valentino fans had been dreaming for decades that Rudy would rise from the crypt he's been in for nearly a century in Hollywood Forever cemetery and then land buck naked in the guy's bed.

I thought it was common knowledge that Valentino was gay.

R73 She's a lying doxy. I'm not the father . Always used...

He wasn't half bad without the vaselined hair.

Recall going to the old Orpheum Theater in downtown LA for a screening of a restored "Son Of The Sheik" his last film. Hugh Hefner was seated directly behind us with the two blonde bimbos he was supposedly "dating". Hef was obviously quite deaf and blind at that time as he kept asking his "brides" loudly. "What? What did they say?" Since this was a silent film.. you get the idea. Remember one of the Playmates said when Valentino came on screen ' He looks like Keanu".

Nice package at r15

Why be obsessed with old dick when new dick is literally being born every day.

Has anyone seen this? It's by Edourdo Ballerini who played a junkie in the later seasons of the sopranos.

I’m, OP’s shows him in shorts. WTF? That’s not ass.

R78...He looked so much better without the slicked back hair. He looks more contemporary in that photo, which is about 100 years old.

Basically everybody looks better without the hairdo current in their own time. Paradox, I know.

That creepy woman Evelyn who runs the AFFAIRS VALENTINO blog claims that Rudy impregnated his own brother's wife in Italy as a young man and that's why he fled to the United States. Rudy's brother and sister-in-law had one child named Jean Valentino who Evelyn claims is Rudy and the sister-in-law's "love child". This 'revelation' by Evelyn and her former child star husband has not sat well with other elder fraus and gays in the Valentino community.

I love his prominent chin and lips and swarthy, hooded eyes. Very sensual face. I can see why everyone went gaga.

I think Valentino is one of those things that is a product of his time. He is hot by early 20th Century standards, but I don’t think he is all that attractive to look at in 2022. Not ugly, just not as stunning as he is made out to be.

"Love Child" research link by the two nuts in Italy. It's hilarious how seriously they take themselves.

Hooded eyes are a very attractive trait on men. Josh Hartnett, Tyson Beckford and Daniel Dae-Kim look hotter with their eyes the way they are. Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Phillippe looked so much better when they had hooded eyes.

Ryan Phillippe never had hooded eyes.

Renato and Evelyn of the "love child" discovery fame are a husband/wife duo that come up with crazy Valentino conspiracy theories. Their print on demand books sell for $50 a pop and they claim that long dead Valentino scholars are their coauthors. Their sole purpose is to prove that Valentino never had a hint of attraction to other men nor were his two wives lesbians. All of this is fact. Valentino was a gay as a goose and the two wives were as well. The first one locked him out of their wedding chamber the first night of their honeymoon because she realized she had made a mistake and wanted to go back to her girlfriend. The second wife, Natascha Rambova, was an icy bitch who left Valentino flat broke just a couple of months before he died after going through all of his money with furs, travels throughout Europe, mansions, etc etc.

Patrick Swayze, another stud with hooded eyes.

r88 We beg to differ with you. Rudy is the source and summit of our phallic fantasies!

Valentino has a nice face and a perfect body. Given him a contemporary hairstyle and set of clothing and I think he'd still be seen as hot. Probably be more of a social media influencer than a Hollywood actor. Hollywood doesn't cast his type anymore, they want relatable not godlike or aspirational.

Rudy.

Love the costume, especially the boots.

Young Cesar Romero resembled Rudy.

Pearls are always appropriate.

Gloria Swanson rented Falcon Lair while making Sunset Boulevard. Doris Duke visited Swanson then later bought the place. Can't believe it was torn down. Anyone have any information on Falcon Lair, or visited it. Duke died/was murdered there.

Pre-Code Hollywood is so much more fascinating and surprisingly way more diverse. It's interesting to see what would have happened had that stupid Hays Code not have been enforced and also the abomination that was McCarthyism

The Hays Code was such a travesty.

I went to a cast party thrown at Falcon's Lair for the film The Trip which was filmed there .One of the producers was a queen who bought the place. He tried to "restore" it but ran out of $$ and sold it as a tear down. I recall many guys making out in the garden. Someone gave me a tour of the house which was surprisingly small. I was shown the garage which is the only structure now still standing. They told me this is where Valentino use to get plowed by his chauffer. I met Jill St John who was very nice and quite lovely.

My favorite comment on the MAD ABOUT THE BOY Facebook group came from a little old lady who was reacting to an image of another hot actor who portrayed Valentino in a biopic. . She said no one could look like him in a film because: "God only made perfection once".

Mister & Missus

^ Which is which?

[quote] I thought it was common knowledge that Valentino was gay.

Not gay. But the makeup and costumes and jewelry he worse onscreen didn't exactly make him seem very masculine. But as far as anyone knows he was not into sex with men.

The Missus was a total nightmare in his life. She used him to advance her own career in the film industry as a designer. She steered him toward overwrought historical costume dramas just so that she would have a job designing for them. She did not care about him or his career and ended up leaving him when the studio clamped down and said she was not to have a part anymore in the production of his films. She was also more interested in the girls who threw themselves at Rudy's feet.

Well at least Ramon Novarro played for our team.

R69 is a portrait of Italian actor Gabriel Garko playing Valentino in "Valentino - La Leggenda" a twp part miniseries on Italian television. BTW: Garko recently came out as gay and said he has had a male partner for years.

He had a hot ass but he couldn’t live forever.

Substandard in modern times!

Despite the machismo culture, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Latin American men are not averse to dressing and talk flamboyantly and being physically affectionate to other men. In North American (puritan) culture it is read as being "gay"

Roman Novarro is very contemporary looking and would be considered hot by today.

^ Meant to post this

We are lucky to live the age of antibiotics. Valentino would easily have survived his gastric ulcer surgery today. It was the post operative infection and resulting sepsis that killed him. Pre WWII the survival rate for any operation was only 50% due to post operative infections.

Nureyev was a decade too old to play Valentino. A entertaining film none the less.

True r116. Very easily treatable today.

R89 Jean non era mio figlio!

He does look a bit Keanuesque.

R119 - Billie Jean non era mio figlio!

He was definitely racially ambiguous for the time. The slanted eyes and olive skin and it helped him get cast in many type of orientalist roles. His features are Southern Mediterranean though. Ricky Martin, Chiara Caselli and Antonio Banderas have similar eyes.

Like most silent actors and dancers (Fred Astaire) he was très petit.

He had a very fit and toned body for a man of his time. This was unusual.

The Guardian article at R72 is part of a whole series they did on Silent Hollywood - Silent But Deadly. Great stuff - even the comments are interesting Thanks for posting it R72.

The nephew/son did look more like Valentino then his brother.

FYI Valentino was only half Italian. His mother was French.

FYI R47 to R127

The nephew/ love child Jean Valentino in his 30's with his dad (the brother) Alberto in his 60's. Obviously father and son have the same naso. The nephew lost his looks rather quickly.The brother actually tried to be an actor and had a nose job to get a more Rudy like profile. The nephew wound up working behind the camera as a sound engineer. Both died in their 80's.

Valentino was also losing his hair and looks quickly. With sound coming in, death was a his best career move.

^ His eyes are already dead.

r128 it had to be said twice

A great deal of Valentino's photogenic appeal on screen was his very expressive eyes. His jet black pupils and very white irises registered very well with the type of film used in silents. Light colored especially blue eyes tended to make the actors look like zombies. BTW he was very near sighted but refused to wear glasses. His leading lady quipped that his penetrating eyes were not trying to seduce her he was just trying to see where she was.

Where the fuck are you Vilma?

With Chaplin poolside at Marion Davies house. I believe the house is still standing on Lexington Rd. behind the Beverly Hills hotel.

^ Valentino looks macho. Chaplin looks gay as fuck.

[quote] I visited Valentino's tomb in the mausoleum at Hollywood Forever. The whole place is pretty creepy.

The elaborate tombs of the early screen stars usually are "creepy." They just have that vibe. But then any grave of a Hollywood star is kind of eerie to behold. But some people make pilgrimages to visit the final resting place of their favorite stars. Some devoted fans are truly crazy. The marble front of Marilyn Monroe's crypt has had to be replaced several times because wackos were KISSING it and leaving lipstick prints on it. Gag.

[quote] Obviously father and son have the same naso .... The brother ... had a nose job to get a more Rudy like profile.

In that case, in this photo the son has a nose more like Rudy's than like his putative father's.

In a lot of these pics, he looks like a white Jussie Smollett…

R139 in a lot of your pics you look like a racist...

r140 what does your dad have to do with this thread?

R138 What part of "he had a nose job" did you not get? Is English your second language or are you just a pendantic old queen?

Several years ago a friend gave me a copy of the book AFFAIRS VALENTINO that was referenced above authored by Mrs. Zumaya. I was appalled from the beginning of the book. There is a "Forewarning" in the first edition written by Zumaya which was apparently meant to serve as a kind of bomb thrown into the Valentino fan community to destroy the author's perceived "enemies". It basically targeted more serious silent film scholars and Valentino enthusiasts in an attempt to bolster sales of her book through the creation of drama. This "Forewarning" was removed from the second edition but the damage had been done. It only served to alienate the author from the more serious Valentino authors who were attacked in the "Forewarning" as well as Valentino's general fanbase.

Here's a good summation of the "cult" of Valentino and a photo of his simple crypt at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Agreed about the awful tone of that "Forewarning" in the Affairs Valentino book. If there's any doubt about how deeply disturbed this author's message is, give a listen to this episode of her podcast in which she attacks a major Valentino fan. It's chilling.

Sorry....Here's the link to the podcast episode by the Affairs Valentino author in her own words where there so much hatred shown to other Valentino scholars. Very scary that the husband allows this to be broadcast for all to hear.

Yeah, R142, your mastery of logic is a little loose. If (as you say) Jean's nose looks like Alberto's in that picture, and Alberto had had a nose job to make his look more like Rudolphs, then Jean's nose looks more like Rudolph's than like Alberto's (original) nose.

R140, that was not a racist post at r139. You, however, have shown yourself to be vile…

The whole controversy of whether or not Rudolph's nephew was actually his son is just something that was cooked up by the husband and wife team authors mentioned above in an attempt to sell a series of books they had self published. There is no solid evidence whatsoever that Rudolph impregnated his brother's wife as claimed and then fled Italy for the United States so the scandal could be dealt with without his presence. It's all based on Rudy having great affection for his nephew...which would seem natural since he did not have children of his own. Also the fact that there was a family resemblance between the uncle and nephew. That's really grasping for straws. My dad and his brother look somewhat alike and I share some features with both of them. That doesn't mean my uncle had an affair with my mom and produced me. They tried to get a lot of mileage out of this claim via their podcasts, books, blog etc.. None of serious researchers of Valentino's life puts any stock in this cuckoo nonsense.

Wasn't Valentino gay?

It's a bit of an unknown of whether he was gay or not. I personally believe he was. His two marriages were extremely conflicted affairs and both ended sadly. There's a book on Valentino's relationship with men that comes down on the side of him being gay in a convincing way.

Emily Leider in her well researched bio Dark Lover confirmed that Valentino was at least bisexual. She documented his affair with his Monsieur Beaucaire co-star tres beau Frenchman Andre Daven. This of course made Leidier the the anti-Christ blasphemer among the frau Valentino cultists. Daven was an interesting character. Apparently he arranged Gloria Swanson abortion.

R149 Ironical. My nephew is a dead ringer for me. When he was a newborn his grandmother took one look at him and blurted out 'Are you sure he's not Bryan's?" Since I'm 110% gay this was only possible in an alternate universe. It drove my brother nuts and contributed to our estrangement. Funny how the DNA turns.

Rudy thought to consummate meant making chicken soup.

Marrying one lesbian is a misfortune. Marrying two is a predilection.

Bello Finocchio!

By 1926 Valentino had reached his expire date. His second lez wife dumped him. Deeply in debt. Smoking 40 cigs a day. Guzzling poisonous bootlegged gin onto his bleeding ulcers. Crashing his cars . Flat broke and wearing a toupe. A hot mess at 31 yo. Death was a great career move.

I had him.

Totally blind in his left eye due to syphilis contracted at 15.

Troppo bello Rudolpho.

It's been a dead butt for almost 100 years. Dust, bones, and wisps of linen now.

He was petit, indeed, R123. I saw one of his costumes on display from Monsieur Beaucaire and the embroidered jacket (silk) was so small. His toned body created an illusion of him being much broader in the shoulders—and taller.

[quote] "Not shilling for this company...but there is a book that documents the men in his life."

It's odd, R14. He was very attractive, but the photo they used for the cover of that book makes him look less-than. The guy in the upper left-hand corner is pretty damn cute, though!

R162 His Italian school records show he was 5'7". Most silent stars were tiny. Gloria Swanson was barely five feet tall and Eric Von Stroheim (Max) was not much bigger.

There is an ongoing feud among the Valentino cultists for nearly 20 years over their idols sexuality. Kween David Brett author of R163 book claims that he was exclusively gay and that he fucked every male he shook hands with. Tough dyke Evelyn Zumaya R146 waves the banner that Rudy was in fact the worlds greatest hetero lover and never met a lesbian he didn't fuck hard and marry. Just because he dressed like a fag didn't make him one. Since the subject and all his possible bed partners have been dead for almost a century authors can make him whatever they want him to be. Think the "truth" tends towards bisexuality. Who knows? History is a pack of tricks we play on the dead.

Rudy con i ragazzi.

The Dyke cites a lot of documentation to back up her claims. The Kween not so much.

I never heard that Valentino was gay. He seemed like he was a milquetoast when it came to women. He liked strong, dominant ones. His flamboyant movie costumes and makeup made him seem unmasculine; is that why he was supposed to have been gay? Anyway, what does it matter now? He was a great silent Hollywood star. Why care who he slept with.

Italy makes the best twinks. Valentino probably went to confession after every dick down.

Guess the blind in one eye accounts for all his car crashes. Still amazing he could do all that dancing ,boxing ,fencing,horseback riding with one good eye.

^ Meh.

For every photo of a hot Rudy there's one where he's not even passably handsome. Maybe he looked better on film and in motion?

With all of those pint-sized Silent stars like Rudy and Swanson swanning around Hollywood, can you just imagine the the impact of 6'4" Gary Cooper arriving on the scene?

^ I didn't have to imagine darling.

Never could fathom why out of the millions of women who worshipped Valentino he chose to fall in love with and marry a stone cold cunt like Natasha Rambova. She treated him like shit. Then like Duke of Windsor some men get off on that. Perhaps Natasha was a good pegger.

Rudy was a wimp, hence his preference for ball busting women who didn't even like men.

Finocchio.

Not anymore.

He and George Clooney share a birthday

with ME!

I went through a silent movie phase a few years back and must confess that I was underwhelmed by Valentino, though some of his movies were pretty good, especially The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

I much preferred John Gilbert and Ramon Novarro.

Navarro was bello but lacked Rudolpho's sexual menace.

The legend that Navarro was choked to death by a dildo replic of Valentino's penis that Rudy gifted him as a memento of their affair is more Kenneth Anger rubbish. They barely knew each other. They both hung out at the Alexandria Hotel early in their careers. Valentino lived there Navarro was a waiter. Ramon appeared as an extra in a Valentino film. Navarro choked on his own blood after being beaten with his walking stick not a dildo. Two hustler left him on his back if they had turned him on his side he would have lived. Sad end for a nice gent.

[quote]With all of those pint-sized Silent stars like Rudy and Swanson swanning around Hollywood, can you just imagine the the impact of 6'4" Gary Cooper arriving on the scene?

Yes, R172, I can!

Ramon Novorro was very modern looking.

^ Been there done that bitch.

Thomas Tyron's novel "Crowned Heads" tells the story of fictional four Hollywood stars. Oone a Greta Garbo type who mysteriously never ages. One is a blonde b-movie sexpot who is a kleptomaniac, a pyromaniac and a nymphomaniac, not necessarily in that order. One is a child star whose career sputters out as soon as he becomes a teenager. And the last story is about "Willie", a star from a bygone era, who, after his domineering stage mother wife dies, becomes so lost and alone that he's taken to drinking and associating with "new Hollywood" types, which has resulted in his being roughed up a few times. Willie is not gay, but what happens to Willie is obviously derived from what happened to Ramon Navarro. Several elements of what happened to Navarro are incorporated into the story: the killers looking for something worth $5000, Willie reading the palm of one of the killers (Navarro actually did that), Willie trying to be an amusing, genial host to his guests who would end up killing him, the killers ransacking and destroying his home, Willie being slowly tortured to death. I day give "Crowned Heads" a read. It's interesting throughout, but the Willie chapter is devastating.