The Washington herald., 1922-11-26

tance in the motion picture business, as
the effect of the sole starring of the star
Of the production and dilutes it. II the
company can feature two other players,
it can feature a dozen of them with the
name of the star and the effect is lost
among the other names"
And again the Great Lover complained
of another time when the names of the
same two young women and an actor
named Walter Long land other stars"
were printed in the advertising much to
his damage. Valentino complains in
these words,
"As appears by Exhibit G, was there
advertised as follows:
With Lila Lee, Nita Naldi
Walter Long and other stars
''The reaction Of the public mind to.
such forms of advertising and the diminu-
tion of the value thereof to me is shown
by the article from the first page Of a
New York newspaper of September 9Th,
1922, hereto annexed and marked "Ex-
hibit c, ETC."
Mr.. Valentino further explains why
he can't share his glory with anybody else
in these words:
''The motion picture company is also
enabled by such a method to use the pic
ture in which am sole star to divert at
tention to other growing players. to whom
attention is thus diverted from me ana
seriously effects my commercial value,
and by encouraging the public to look
upon such growing players as a star or
near star soon launches him or her forth
as a sole star. All stars in motion pic
lures with any experience in the business
uniformly insist upon this exclusive fea-5
ture in the contracts"
But worse was to come.
Mr.. Valentino, il will be remembered.
recently married Nstacha Rambova. or
Winifred Shaughnessy or winifred
Hudnut, adopted daughter of the wealthy
perfumery Hudnuts-before the final
decree had been signed divorcing him
from Jean Acker, his first wife. The
California authorities arrested Mr. VAL
entino on charge of bigamy and later
released him. There seems to have been
sort of gentlemen's agreement that IL
Rodolph and Mrs. Valentino No. 2 forgot
that they had been married until the
final decree was handed down everything
would be all right.
Mr.. Valentino does not exactly blame
employers for his marital troubles, but
he does assert that they told him they
would prefer he remained single" as he
calls il. Furthermore, he says, they were
far from anxious to bail him out of jail.
Finally It was decided that il was a.
good time for Mrs. Valentino to visit her
adopted parents in the East while the
bigamy clouds were lowering over them.
II is painful 10 record the following, bus
even Mr.. Valentines employers do not
deny it.
To put it bluntly, the new Mrs. VAL
entino was forced to travel from Cal
ifornia to New York in a lower berth
As Mr.. Valentino remarks: "The
brutality on the part of the company in
sending Mrs. Valentino East in a lower
berth would be more apparent, perhaps,
to one in the motion picture business,
knowing the conditions and practices
thereof"
II is true that Mr.. Fred Kley, assistant
general manager, swears to this: 81 was
not requested to secure a compartment or
drawing room. l asked Valentino partic-
ularly If he wanted a lower berth and he
repeated to me that he did not want a
compartment or drawing room but that
he wanted lower berth" Surely il