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Valentino's Lady In Black

© Jenny Lynn Higgins

Dawn stretched her golden fingers, caressing the swarthy handsome face lying on a pillow. It was a face responsible for the swoonings of women around the world. However, Dawn herself was the only one who touched his face this morning. Her undying adoration shone too brightly, and someone began to shut the window's blinds.

The dark eyelashes stirred, as if they felt the absence of worship. Lids opened to reveal chocolate brown eyes as generous lips parted to say, "Don't pull down the blinds. I feel fine. I want the sunlight to greet me."

But Dawn was to greet her Latin Lover for the last time. At 12:10 p.m., the chocolate eyes closed forever and would no longer feel the sunlight's caress.

On August 23, 1926, silent film star Rudolph Valentino uttered his last words in a stark hospital room. He slipped into a coma due to complications after surgery and left the world that worshiped him shortly after noon.

News of Valentino's death hit his fans hard - many committed suicide to be with their beloved Rudy. His friends and colleagues were devastated. When a private funeral service was held for Rudy at St. Malachi's in New York, it was besieged by more than 15,000 overwrought women.

Rudolph Valentino was laid to rest at Hollywood Memorial Park, where thousands of rose petals rained down on the funeral procession, courtesy of a small airplane. His body was carried to the Cathedral Mausoleum and placed in crypt number 1205, fittingly beside a romantic stained glass window.

Four years later, at the unveiling of a monument in Valentino's honor, several people noticed a mysterious woman standing at the fringes of the crowd. She wore a black dress and a black veil that completely covered her face. Afterwards, she was always seen at the monument and at Valentino's grave on the anniversary of his death.

Rumors began to spread about the identity of the mysterious lady in black. Some said she was Rudy Valentino's one true love; others claimed that it was just a fan imitating the 1930's movie "The Only Normal Man in Hollywood". In the film, a woman dressed completely in black visits Valentino's gravesite every year.

Copycats soon began adorning themselves in black and making solemn trips to Rudy's final resting place. In 1939, three women in black were spotted at his grave. In 1940, a former Ziegfeld girl named Marian E.Watson gained press coverage when she announced that she was the original lady in black. She went on to spin an outlandish tale of how she secretly married Valentino and gave him two children. She is also reported as saying that Rudy proposed to her the night before he was hospitalized. No one believed a word of this, since Rudy was very involved with actress Pola Negri before his death.

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