Rudolph Valentino Anniversary

Ninety-eight years ago today, Silent Screen actor Rudolph Valentino died in New York City at the age of thirty-one. While the TikTok crowd probably doesn’t know of him, approximately 100,000 fans lined the streets of Manhattan for his funeral at Campbell’s Funeral Home (also where Judy Garland’s service was held). An art deco statue titled “Aspiration” was erected in 1930 in DeLongpre Park, Hollywood.  Roger Noble Burnham, who also created USC’s mascot, The Trojan, was the sculptor. While the fans loved Valentino, City Commissioners required that the tribute honor but not resemble the dead matinee idol.



Still there today!



And this not-so-stellar bust of the actor is there, too.



For many years, a mysterious woman in black would arrive at the Hollywood Forever mausoleum where Valentino was buried, deliver a single red rose, and disappear. Others have taken over the duty as the years have gone by. When I went in 2014, Hollywood Forever Cemetery tour guide Karie Bible was filling in for that role.





See more of my caricatures at my main website.