Link to the Rudolph Valentino Podcast here:
Rudolph Valentino & The André Daven Hoax
In the interest of providing documentation and truth about André L. Daven and his affiliation with Rudolph Valentino, I recorded a podcast episode which I titled, "Rudolph Valentino & The André Daven Hoax". In this blog, I share further documentation, images and research material along with excerpts from the podcast script. Please view the podcast's accompanying video through this link: https://youtu.be/B-oaxXfm2sQ
This description of a letter sold at auction in Paris at the Drouot Estimations auction house on March 31, 2006, is transcribed in part in the auction house catalog. The letter was written by Rudolph Valentino to Jacques Hébertot on July 4, 1924 and the English translation reads as follows:
"He (Valentino) thanks him (Hébertot), '...for the always loyal and generous way with which you defended me against the quite nasty slanders that Ciné-Magazine and Comedia made towards me'. Then he, Valentino talks at length about their friend André Daven whom he took under his wing in New York, '...it seems that I think it is my duty, knowing the sincere affection you have for the boy, to let you know the very dishonest way he has thanked me for all that I did for him and tried to do for him....'
Valentino remarks how he gave Daven numerous clothes, paid for his voyage, paid him a salary, set him up in a good hotel, got him, '...hired by Paramount to play the role of my brother in Monsieur Beaucaire', etc. Then he advised him, he got him a job as a 'publicity man' for Paramount in Paris, he paid for his return and an advance... He learns now that André Daven borrowed money and tried to borrow money from many of his friends to whom he had introduced him. Valentino writes, '...he owes me nearly 35,000 francs, which I consider lost. What hurts me most is not the money but the ingratitude and hypocrisy with which he has acted towards me..' etc.
The calculated rate of exchange today makes this debt $28,131.18. U.S. dollars.
Rudolph Valentino & The André Daven Hoax
In the interest of providing documentation and truth about André L. Daven and his affiliation with Rudolph Valentino, I recorded a podcast episode which I titled, "Rudolph Valentino & The André Daven Hoax". In this blog, I share further documentation, images and research material along with excerpts from the podcast script. Please view the podcast's accompanying video through this link: https://youtu.be/B-oaxXfm2sQ
This description of a letter sold at auction in Paris at the Drouot Estimations auction house on March 31, 2006, is transcribed in part in the auction house catalog. The letter was written by Rudolph Valentino to Jacques Hébertot on July 4, 1924 and the English translation reads as follows:
"He (Valentino) thanks him (Hébertot), '...for the always loyal and generous way with which you defended me against the quite nasty slanders that Ciné-Magazine and Comedia made towards me'. Then he, Valentino talks at length about their friend André Daven whom he took under his wing in New York, '...it seems that I think it is my duty, knowing the sincere affection you have for the boy, to let you know the very dishonest way he has thanked me for all that I did for him and tried to do for him....'
Valentino remarks how he gave Daven numerous clothes, paid for his voyage, paid him a salary, set him up in a good hotel, got him, '...hired by Paramount to play the role of my brother in Monsieur Beaucaire', etc. Then he advised him, he got him a job as a 'publicity man' for Paramount in Paris, he paid for his return and an advance... He learns now that André Daven borrowed money and tried to borrow money from many of his friends to whom he had introduced him. Valentino writes, '...he owes me nearly 35,000 francs, which I consider lost. What hurts me most is not the money but the ingratitude and hypocrisy with which he has acted towards me..' etc.
The calculated rate of exchange today makes this debt $28,131.18. U.S. dollars.
In addition to the account given by Valentino's trusted business manager and closest friend, George Ullman in 1975, we now have a second
authoritative source confirming just what happened between André Daven and Rudolph Valentino. This second source is this letter written by Rudolph Valentino
himself.
Recently I was in receipt of an email from the talented translator who contacted me regarding her excellent translation of the Robert Florey piece The Magic Lantern which we discussed in a podcast episode. She forwarded information to me about the sale of the letter written by Valentino to Jacques Hébertot in which he reveals the truth about André Daven.
Recently I was in receipt of an email from the talented translator who contacted me regarding her excellent translation of the Robert Florey piece The Magic Lantern which we discussed in a podcast episode. She forwarded information to me about the sale of the letter written by Valentino to Jacques Hébertot in which he reveals the truth about André Daven.
George Ullman's account of why Daven left New York was true and is now supported by Valentino's letter. As Ullman wrote in his 1975 memoir, The S. George Ullman Memoir:
Daven was not a great love when Valentino paid him a twenty dollar bill more than his handyman (refer to Part I of this blog); not a great love when Daven dishonestly exploited Valentino's generosity by leaving him with a debt in the amount of 35,000 francs. What would have happened if Valentino had not died when he did? How would André Daven's Hollywood career as a producer and agent have gone then? If Valentino had lived would he have eventually told his public the truth about what happened?
Daven was not a great love when Valentino paid him a twenty dollar bill more than his handyman (refer to Part I of this blog); not a great love when Daven dishonestly exploited Valentino's generosity by leaving him with a debt in the amount of 35,000 francs. What would have happened if Valentino had not died when he did? How would André Daven's Hollywood career as a producer and agent have gone then? If Valentino had lived would he have eventually told his public the truth about what happened?
The brazen self promotion by Daven after Valentino's death did not go unnoticed as we learned from the Michel Duran article (refer to Part VI). He went on
to exploit his Hollywood contacts and find work as a French producer for
American and German companies. He was not a great love but as Rudolph Valentino referred to him.."ungrateful and hypocritical"...
Yet the perpetrators of this hoax, the Daven Affair blog and the Valentino porn fiction writer's account published as a biography of Valentino in 1996, have had a calamitous effect on Valentino
and Daven's actual truth. Until definitive proof is presented,
it is my opinion, after twenty years researching Valentino's history, that Valentino and Daven were not lovers and both men, according to
all the existing first hand testimony and documentation, lived their lives as heterosexuals.
I found André Daven to be an extremely sharp and clever man whose good
looks opened many doors for him while he seized all advantages in his
personal situations. This, in my opinion, ultimately revealed him to be a man of
questionable moral fiber. I think he demonstrates a cavalier
attitude in inflicting debt on friends who trusted him. And as we read in Rudolph Valentino letter above, a conniving André Daven bilked him for a great
deal of cash and royally so. That is a fact and not a theory.
I want to ring out 2019 by heaving this obviously contrived hoax to the wind forever and ring in 2020 by giving voice to Rudolph Valentino himself as he finally has his own say about this.