Born Today January 9: Vilma Bánky

 

 

1901-1991 

 

Silent film actress Vilma Bánky was born Vilma Koncsics (sometimes credited, of course, as Koncsics Vilma) on this day in Nagydorog, Austria-Hungary (now located in the Republic of Hungary) to an ethnic Hungarian father and a German mother.  Of course she is a very familiar face to even causal film fans due to her acting opposite the Latin Lover himself, Rudolph Valentino in two films; but, unknown to most, she started her film career back in Hungary (albeit in an Austrian/German production).  As an infant, her family was officially relocated to Budapest (her father was an upper level police officer who worked directly for the Emperor), growing up there, she had intended on becoming a secretarial agent, but while in school training as such, she was noticed for her striking looks and offered a job in a film. That film was the now lost Im letzten Augenblick, it had Austrian German intertitles and directed by German writer/director Carl Boese. She did not appear in another film until she took the lead in a Béla Balogh film Veszélyben a pokol in 1921. She would bounce around in the continental European film market, including one of Géza von Bolváry's Hungarian films before his departure for Germany: Tavaszi szerelem (1921). Without a doubt, her most high profile film before her own departure for Hollywood was King of the Circus, a 1924 Austrian comedy starring Max Linder (who has been compared to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton). In 1925, she was "discovered" by studio head Samuel Goldwyn while on a trip to Budapest and signed to an extremely lucrative contract with his company. He went home to drum up an reputation for her and she made an appearance in one last European film, The Lady from Paris (December 1924), a German picture directed by Manfred Noa (she also appeared in another Noa film--Soll man heiraten?--but the film was not released until October of 1925).  Goldwyn's company had done such a good job of promoting her as the next big thing, that when she arrived in the United States in 1925, there was immediately a ton of press and publicity, hailing her as "The Hungarian Rhapsody."  Her first film in the U.S. was a resounding success for Goldwyn and George Fitzmaurice's companies. The Dark Angel (September 1925) was based on a popular play and had Bánky starring opposite Ronald Colman and directed by Fitzmaurice himself. Her next two films were the very famous appearances with Valentino.  The first was The Eagle, directed by Clarence Brown, it was based on a Pushkin novel and released in November of 1925.  Following directly after, was The Son of the Sheik (September 1926), sequel to Valentino's 1921 blockbuster The Sheik, the film was another George Fitzmaurice directed effort and famously became Valentino's last film. As for Bánky, Valentino was the one who selected her for the roles personally; it seems that he was genuinely fascinated with her. For her part, she followed up her role in this--now one of the most famous of silent films--with a return to acting with Ronald Colman in the western The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926). The two films were shot virtually at the same time.  She would continue to act opposite Colman through 1928, including in her fist appearance in a film with sound. Two Lovers (March 1928) was a historical romance film that was directly produced by Goldwyn and directed by Fred Niblo; it was released as both a partial silent and a fully silent film and marked her last role acting with Colman.  Unfortunately, both versions are now sadly considered lost. She made just two more films in the decade--both partial silents. The last of them--This Is Heaven--was a romantic comedy filmed in New York City and released in June of 1929. She made just three films in the 1930's, two of them directed by Victor Sjöström; his romantic drama A Lady to Love (1930) was her first full sound film. Her transition to sound simply did not fly however; her extremely thick Hungarian accent was a career-ender. Her last film was in the German language film The Rebel in 1933 (she was fluent in German from a young age).  She then retired to a long life filled the charitable works and golf....lots and lots of golf (she was, in fact, a championship player in 1950's and she played well into her 80's).  In June of 1927, she married fellow actor Rod La Rocque, and huge ceremony, throwing one the most elaborate receptions that Hollywood as yet witnessed. Theirs was not a typical Hollywood marriage however, as they remained married until his death in 1969.  Bánky herself passed away on the 18th of March in 1991 at the age of 91 (note: some sources put her birth year in 1898--if she were born in that year, she would have made her 93 at the time of her death). She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at sea at the very spot where her husband's ashes had been scattered some 22 years prior.  Bánky was also one of the most fashionable women in films of the 1920's, both on and off the screen.

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Born Today May 6: Rudolph Valentino

1895-1926

Valentino's full birth name was the staggering Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antoguolla!  He was born in Castellaneta in the Puglia region of Italy to a French mother and Italian father (hence some of his names being French).  Initially he enrolled in an agricultural school in Genoa, where he earned a certificate; but then moved to Paris for a while.  He briefly returned to Italy, but was unable to find work; so he left for the United States in 1913 at the age of 18.  He entered the U.S. at Ellis Island on Dec. 23, as so many had before him and so many would after him.  After spending time in odd jobs and enduring a bout of homelessness in New York, he landed a job as a dancer at Maxim's. After legal troubles stemming from his involvement as a witness during a divorce trial and subsequent events this brought on, Valentino joined a traveling show to avoid being called as a witness again.  This is what lead him to the west coast.  While still in New York he appeared in his first movie, a "vamp" film directed by none other than D. W. Griffith in 1914:  The Battle of the Sexes, as a dance extra. In fact, Valentino was in several films while living in New York, a subject not written much about--many of them products of the first "Hollywood:" Fort Lee, NJ. The first film that he was in out west in Hollywood came in 1918 with A Society Sensation, a short comedy drama.  After this, he languished somewhat, accepting bit parts as they came along [indeed he had become so tired of scrounging for work in live performances that he had returned to New York for a time].  During this period of time, he was credited with variations on his name, it was not until 1919 that he was first credited with the name for which he would become ultra-famous.  This came with Eyes of Youth.  Valentino continued on it bit parts until 1921, when by a strange set of events he got a major role in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  The film was a huge success, being one of the very first films to gross more than $100,000 at the box office and catapulted Valentino into into stardom.  Despite this, the studio system--in the case it was Metro Picture (the "Metro" in our current MGM)--wouldn't give him any kind of credit for his being the major reason for the film's success and would keep him on paltry pay and treat him as second rate actor.  His next two films for Metro gained attention of other producers; he quit Metro and signed with Famous Players-Lasky.  It was this production studio that placed him in the role that he so well known for The Sheik.  Valentino was now a super-star and Hollywood's premiere "Latin Lover."  Sadly, he would only star in 10 more films, his last being, ironically, The Son of the Sheik, in 1926. On the 15th of August in 1926 he collapsed either inside or outside the Hotel Ambassador in New York City and was quickly hospitalized.  Diagnosed with appendicitis and gastric ulcers, her underwent emergency surgery, which may have actually hastened his death.  After surgery, he developed peritonitis, an infection surrounding the sack that encases in inner organs, this then lead to an infection surrounding the sack around his left lung.  The condition was fatal.  Despite his terminal condition, his doctors did not inform him of his immanent death; right up to his last moments of consciousness, he was reportedly speaking of recovery and future plans.  There are conflicting reports about how much he actually knew--because at one point he was given last rights; however this would not have been uncommon in those days, without doctors being totally honest about medical severity.  He died of the infection on 23 August; he was just 31 years of age.  He was such a superstar that an estimated 100,000 people came out to the street where the funeral home that had his body on display was located.  It was also reported, but not confirmed, that several distraught fans committed suicide upon learning of his death. What probably killed Rudolph Valentino became known as "Valentino's syndrome," a condition in which perforated ulcers were/are mistaken for acute appendicitis.  Despite that he died so young, his fame was so vast, that even today he is one of the only silent film actors still known to younger generations. His funeral mass was held in New York, but his interment occurred in what is know known as the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  He was placed in the mausoleum under his partial name "Rudolfo Guguliemi Valentino."  His estate was left to his surviving siblings.

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Born Today February 6: Ramon Novarro

1899-1968

Born Jose' Ramón Gil Samaniego in Durango, Mexico to a well off family (his father was a prominent dentist there); the family fled the Mexican Revolution in 1913 and relocated in the Los Angeles area here in the U.S.  His mother, Leonor, was said to be of prominent mixed ancestry and a descendant from the Aztec royal house.  His father's side of the family were pure Castilian.  As a young man in the L.A. area, he decided to study ballet.  By 1917 he had gotten the attention of the movie industry.  He made his motion debut in 1916 in Cecil B. DeMille's epic Joan the Woman as a starving peasant.  By the next year he had steady work in various extra roles; supplementing his income by working as a singing waiter.  By the 1920's, he as being promoted by MGM as a "Latin Lover" type--even as a rival of Rudolph Valentino.  This was done at the urging director Rex Ingram and his wife Alice Terry; early Hollywood friends of Ramon.  It was Terry who suggested that he change his name to "Novarro," though the name had no familial connection and he had plenty of prominent names that he could use that did.  His break through role came in Scaramouche in 1923; a film directed by Rex Ingram.  The film also starred Alice Terry.  By 1925, he had full blown, and well known, leading man status; playing the lead role in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ--his revealing costume causing quite the stir.  After Valentino's untimely demise in 1926, only Novarro was left as Hollywood's Latin Lover.  Oddly he did not make any films in 1926, opting instead for the stage (his work on the stage, is undoubtedly what allowed him to make the transition to talking films).  The Flying Fleet (1929), was his first partial sound film, with the soundtrack and sound effects being provided by Movie Tone.  His next film, the rather infamous The Pagan, in which he plays a "half-caste Pacific islander" who refuses the Christianity of his white father, had a specialized synchronized full musical soundtrack, also by Movie Tone--one of the first of it's kind.  His next role Devil-May Care, based on a French drama, was his first full sound talking film; sound provided by Western Electric.  It also featured on full scene in early 2 strip technicolor.  This would be the last film that he made in the 1920's.  During this time, and through the early 1930's he had prominent roles opposite the greatest leading ladies of their time, including:  Myrna Loy, Greta Garbo, & Lupe Velez; becoming one of the highest paid actors in town.  After his contract with MGM expired in 1935, he made fewer and fewer films; largely retreating from public life.  He developed a drinking problem that was the result of his homosexuality being at odds with his strict Catholic upbringing.  Supposedly, Louis B. Mayer tried on more than one occasion to arrange for a "lavender marriage," the term used for men and women (largely actors) who were gay that marry each other out of convenience; Novarro was having none of it.  Things only got worse for him, when he, and Lupe Velez, Dolores del Rio and James Cagney were all accused of promoting communism in California after they attended a special screening of Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein's ¡Que viva México!.  Fortunately for Novarro, he had used some the hundreds of thousands of dollars he was paid as a leading man to invest smartly in real estate around Hollywood.  His own personal residence as designed by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright.  From this he was able to maintain quite an easy lifestyle, working in acting when he felt like it.  It also allowed him to keep a comfortable low profile.  Throughout the rest of his life, he acted sporadically in films and later television, until his horrific death on 30 October in 1968.  Two young men, one a minor and one not (ages 17 and 22)--brothers Tom and Paul Ferguson--were hired by Novarro from an agency for the purposes of sex.  Apparently they thought the actor kept $5000 hidden behind a portrait.  They tied him up and beat him incessantly, demanding to know where the money was (one of them would later deny this part of the story).  Novarro died from asphyxiation on his own blood.  The brothers left the house with the $20 dollars that the actor had in his bath robe.  They were caught, tried and convicted and spent several years in jail, before being released in the 1970's (they were both rearrested several times, and one of them, committed suicide).  Novarro was buried by his sibling under his stage name at the Catholic Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles as "Beloved Brother."

[Source: AJM (Find a Grave)]

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