by Donis Casey
George Fitzmaurice—The director of Valentino’s last film, The Son of the Sheik, Fitzmaurice was a prolific director who helmed over eighty movies for several different studios from 1915 until shortly before his death in 1940.
Barclay Warburton Jr.—Known to his friends as “Buzzy,” Valentino’s friend Warburton was the grandson of department store founder John Wanamaker and was a fixture in Philadelphia society.
Bela Lugosi—The Hungarian actor, most famous for starring in the 1931 movie Dracula, was working on Broadway in 1926 (as Count Dracula!) and did not go to Hollywood until 1928, but I thought he would be well cast as the Clutching Claw, so I brought him to Hollywood to play the villain in Bianca’s movie a bit earlier than the date he actually arrived.
Fakir Rahmin Bey—The popular illusionist from Egypt appeared at various venues around New York City in 1926. Valentino did see his show and was pierced through the arm by a long needle as part of the act, but this occurred at the 300 Club (owned by Texas Guinan, who was quite a colorful character herself) while he was in town promoting The Son of the Sheik, and not at Barclay Warburton’s apartment.
Campbell’s Funeral Church—Founded in 1898 by Frank Campbell, the funeral home now known as Campbell’s Funeral Chapel is still going strong. The earthly remains of anyone who is anyone who dies in New York City will probably be lovingly disposed of by Campbell’s. Some of the famous names whose funerals were handled by Campbell’s include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Joan Crawford, John Lennon, Greta Garbo, and the Notorious B.I.G. The funeral of Valentino, which was the biggest ever seen by the city up to that point, was an even more outrageous circus than depicted in this novel.
Anthony Cornero (Tony the Hat)—Cornero was a notorious bootlegger with a fleet of ships that he used to haul whiskey from Canada, but in the fall of 1926, when this novel takes place, he had not yet gotten into the gambling ship business. In December 1926, he was arrested at the Mexican border while trying to enter the U.S. with a load of rum and sentenced to two years in prison. While being transported to jail, Cornero escaped the guards and jumped off the train, finally making it to Europe, where he spent a few years in hiding. Eventually, he did return voluntarily to the U.S. to serve out his sentence. Upon his release, he took up where he left off and opened a series of very popular gambling ships for “ordinary people” up and down the California coast. He often bragged that no one was ever cheated in one of his floating casinos.
Gambling ships—I was premature in my depiction of floating casinos. The first experimental gambling ship appeared off the California coast in the summer of 1927 and was shut down immediately by the Los Angeles district attorney. However, the idea had been planted, and by the early 1930s, several gambling ships were anchored off the coast just outside U.S. jurisdiction. U.S. Marshals did occasionally use a 1793 law about “pirate craft” to seize vessels when they had the opportunity. The idea of the imaginary Monaco burning was inspired by the following article from the Dallas Morning News, September 1, 1930:
LONG BEACH, Cal., Aug. 31 (UP)—Deep sea divers Sunday worked for hours under the sea in a vain effort to locate a vault containing $50,000 in silver, currency and checks lost late Saturday night when the gambling ship Monfalcone sank after a spectacular fire. The notorious craft was set afire by a leaking gasoline line and a spark from a motor. It burned to the water-line after 300 fashionably dressed visitors were rescued by water taxies and other small boats which put out from Seal Beach, six miles from where the Monfalcone lay at anchor. Thomas Jacobs, proprietor of the boat, said he estimated his loss at $110,000 in gambling and kitchen equipment and machinery. Jacobs paid a tribute to musicians who played lively music until all the passengers had been removed. Three employees of the boat suffered minor burns attempting to extinguish the flames.
H. L. Mencken—A mere week or so before his death, Valentino had lunch with the noted journalist and critic, whose work he admired, to seek advice on how to handle the virulently nasty press he had been the brunt of for years. Mencken advised him to ignore it. Valentino chose to challenge his latest detractor, a columnist with the Chicago Tribune who had called him “a pink powder puff,” to a boxing match. When the challenge was declined, sportswriter Frank “Buck” O’Neil volunteered to step in. The match took place on the roof of the Ambassador Hotel in New York. Valentino knocked out O’Neil with one punch. After Valentino died, Mencken wrote a touching memorial to him in the August 30, 1926 edition of the Baltimore Evening Sun. Mencken included the essay in his collection, A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing. The entire essay can also be found online. My favorite quote by Mencken on Valentino is: “He was precisely as happy as a small boy being kissed by two hundred fat aunts.”
MAYBE REAL, MAYBE NOT
Jenny—Jenny Donahue is a figment of my imagination. However, George Ullman reported that Valentino called out several times for a “Jenny” when he was in the ambulance on his way to the hospital. Ullman speculated that “Jenny” was one of the spirit guides with whom Valentino communed regularly. Valentino was a firm believer in life after death and spirit guides and made no secret of it. His major spirit guide was a Native American called Black Feather.
NOT REAL
Bianca LaBelle, née Blanche Tucker
Fee, surname (or perhaps first name) unknown.
K. D. Dix, gangster queen
Ted Oliver, private detective
Miles Donahue, oil magnate
Marty Levinson, publicity director for United Artists
Caroline White, wardrobe mistress for United Artists
Orange Garden, Bianca’s estate in Beverly Hills
Alma Bolding, actress, Bianca’s mentor
Nils Fox, director of the Bianca Dangereuse movies
Daniel May, Bianca’s co-star
Baldy, tough guy
“Juan,” even tougher
Raffaello Guillermo, farmer
Grand Obsession, Bianca’s movie with Rudolph Valentino
The Clutching Claw, the eighth film in the fictional Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse series
About the Author
By Donald Koozer
Donis Casey is the author of The Wrong Girl, Book #1 of the Bianca Dangereuse Hollywood mysteries, set in the 1920s and nominated for the 2020 Oklahoma Book Award.
Her award-winning Alafair Tucker Mysteries—The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, Hornswoggled, The Drop Edge of Yonder, The Sky Took Him, Crying Blood, The Wrong Hill to Die On, Hell with the Lid Blown Off, All Men Fear Me, The Return of the Raven Mocker, and Forty Dead Men—feature the sleuthing mother of ten children in Oklahoma during the booming 1910s. Donis has twice won the Arizona Book Award for her series and been a finalist for the Willa Award and a ten-time finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award. Her first novel, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, was named an Oklahoma Centennial Book in 2008. Donis is a former teacher, academic librarian, and entrepreneur. She lives in Tempe, Arizona.
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