VALENTINO’S DEATH.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1926, Page 2

VALENTINO’S DEATH.

lIEMARKABLE MANIFESTATION. [Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.] XFAV’YORK. August 23. Rudolph Valentino, the famous screen star, is dead. Not since the ■ death of three American presidents, Roosevelt, AVilson and Harding, has there been in the present generation such countrywide public manifestations of grief over the demise of any person as that over Rudolph Valentino. The newspapers throughout the nation, in headlines in many cases six inches high state: “The United States mourns Valentino.” Many of the journals devote half their contents to pictures of the dead cinema star from his boyhood to manhood, and also give long accounts of his life and career, even stressing that lie was not an American, and that his ■ residence in this country was brief, he * having arrived penniless, and having for many years made a. living by the most menial tasks. He was unquestionably the most popular stage figure in America. One writer declared that he was more popular the world over than any king who ever lived. Hundreds of thousands of persons literally blocked the streets around the hospital twenty-four (hours before his death. Au appeal was broadcasted over the radio for helpful thought when his condition became serious thousands of messages a day poured in from people. While the floral contributions filled the corridors of the hospital. ’ His death casts a gloom to-night on the white lights of Broadway, the famous New York theatrical district.