Contract Appointing Ullman as Valentino's Business Manager

On July 6, 1923, Rudolph Valentino met with S. George Ullman in the office of his new lawyer Max D. Steuer to sign a contract appointing Ullman as his business manager.

 

Executor's Exhibit 4 - Maria Strada Letter

George Ullman included this personal note from Rudolph Valentino's sister, Maria Guglielmi Strada in his appeals case because it proves she charged him with advancing estate funds to the godfather Frank Mennillo. Ullman made several advances as secured business investments in Mennillo's business, Vab, Inc., and these were disputed by the Valentino heirs. 

This note is also significant in that Ms. Strada acknowledges the "difficulties" taking place with her brother Alberto's interference in estate affairs. Mennillo is also established as a godfather/padrino personage for the Valentino family.

The estate monies Ullman advanced to Mennillo were eventually dismissed as being legitimate investments of profits Ullman generated for the Valentino estate. 

 

The United Artists Contract - 1925

For decades Rudolph Valentino's contract with United Artists, signed in 1925, remained hidden in a collector's secreted collection. When I interviewed collector William Self in 2003, he told me he had the original copy of the contract. I asked him several times if I could see it and never did. 

An official copy was included in the court records I retrieved from the California Court of Appeals library in San Francisco. This is the copy I share via the below Google Drive link. 

Until I shared this contract, it was purported that United Artists specifically banned Valentino's wife Natacha Rambova from any role in his United Artists' films. This was not the case and she is not mentioned. It was the fact she was not given any role which caused the rift in the Valentino marriage. 

The contract also reveals Valentino's contracts were assigned to the ownership of his corporate alter ego, Cosmic Arts. (More about Cosmic Arts in the "Page" link in this blog's header). The sole stock holder of Cosmic Arts was Natacha Rambova which made her the sole owner of her husband's contracts. 

Here follows the contract with the "Assignment to Cosmic Arts" contract and the distributing agreement included:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZGAGO5xY0MRGwDzHwGadhWgW7gMVJBKi/view?usp=drive_link

Svetoslav Roerich Permission

In 1989, Michael Morris secured the permission from Svetoslav Roerich to reproduce his painting of Natacha Rambova on the back of his Rambova biography, Madam Valentino - The Many Lives of Natacha Rambova.

 

Alberto Guglielmi Declaration of Intention

Rudolph Valentino's brother Alberto Guglielmi enters the United States filing his intention to become a citizen. It is interesting to note he cites Turin, Italy as his foreign residence. He is not on file in the Turin City Archives as ever having been a citizen. His surname is also legally Guglielmi although he was known as Alberto Valentino.

 

William Self E-Mail

In 2003, I interviewed Valentino memorabilia collector Bill Self. He knew I was searching for the case file of Rudolph Valentino's probate records and attempted to negotiate my being able to read them. In the e-mail below (transcript) he tells me the case file has been returned to the Valentino family by the collector who had them in his possession. He also refers to the shipping case I discovered which he states here he is not interested in buying. The truth was he already had the shipping case by the time he wrote this e-mail. I have redacted the names of all parties except Bill Self. I add emphatically I told him the records were to be housed in the Los Angeles County Hall of Records and were not family heirlooms. I implored him to inform the Valentino family that the case file should be returned and available for public review. 

 

Letter from James M. Ideman

While researching his book Madam Valentino - The Many Lives of Natacha Rambova, Michael Morris contacted James M. Ideman, the prosecutor of Ramon Novarro's killers. Michael Morris inquired as the the validity of the persistent account that Novarro was murdered by an "Art Deco dildo" given to him by Valentino. This letter, included in the Michael Morris archive, proves no such instrument existed at the murder scene.