A Terrible Shock: August 1926

Rudolph Vanlentino Jean Acker One hundred years ago this month, Grace Kingsley was writing about the usual assortment of casting news and Hollywood party-going, and she debunked some gossip about Rudolph Valentino. On the twelfth she mentioned that despite the rumors, his first wife Jean Acker wasn’t going to marry him again. They had been seen together in New York, but Acker said, “That’s all rot. We are just good friends, and I was very glad to see him again, but right now I’m too busy with my own career to think of marrying anyone.” She also stood up for him after he challenged an anonymous editorial writer in the Chicago Tribune (there’s more about that at Rudolph Valentino Connections) who had recently called him a “pink powder puff,” saying, “How silly. And if Rudolph is serious about this fight, the newspaper man had better look out. Rudolph has a splendid physique and he is very powerful.” Valentino was touring the country to promote his latest movie, The Son of the Sheik…