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
How did André Daven come to be cast in his brief appearance in Valentino's 1924 movie, Monsieur Beaucaire? This came about as the result of an invitation from Natacha and Rudolph Valentino with a couple of different versions of how and where the Valentino's first met André Daven.
At
the time, in the summer of 1923, Daven was working as a free-lance
journalist in Paris and as an assistant to Jacques Hébertot who was
then the director of the Champs Élyseés Theater.
One
version alleges the Valentinos met Daven when he interviewed them
during their visit to Paris in 1923. While another version is
purported by the French journalist, Michel Duran, who wrote in Marianne: Grand Hebdomadaire Litteraire
Illustre, (The Great Illustrated Literary Weekly) published on
August 3, 1933, that André Daven met Mr. and Mrs. Valentino in an
upscale bar in Paris, called the Clown Footit.
This bar was located on the Rue Montaigne close by the Hotel Plaza
Athenée where the Valentino's stayed when in Paris.
It was in bars such as the Clown Footit where
Daven and other Parisian journalists cultivated their well-to-do
contacts. Whether for an article they could sell by the inch to a
newspaper or magazine or for nothing more than social prestige, there was competition among the ranks of those local reporters. Conversely, celebrities visiting Paris exploited the hungry reporters by
sauntering in for a few cocktails with a guarantee of garnering some
fabulous press.
By
all accounts, André Daven is described as having been an extremely
handsome, dark-skinned young man of slight build who greatly
resembled Rudolph Valentino. At the time he was twenty-four years old and as
we mentioned he was then living with his girlfriend Yvonne Legeay who
was seven years older than he was.
And
by all accounts, André Daven is reported to have exuded the demeanor
of a prince while decked out in a wardrobe demonstrating an admirably
fastidious personal taste.
So it is not surprising Natacha and Rudolph Valentino would be charmed and comment
immediately upon Daven's potential career in the movies. They both also saw him as a perfect double for Rudy and in this they
recognized his value.
I
think it is relevant to place this into a broader perspective by
mentioning how Daven was not the only French citizen Rudolph Valentino gave a nod
to professionally on that trip to France in 1923. His desire to
establish a collaboration with French cinema was duly noted by the
French press. According to the Valentino's friend, the French
director, René Clair, Rudy extended his famous hand not only to André Daven but to other actors whom he also agreed to cast in Monsieur
Beaucaire.
I
excerpt a letter written by René Clair which is published in its
entirety in Jeanne de Recqueville's book Rudolph Valentino.
As translated into English:
“He (Rudolph Valentino) is the only one, to my knowledge, who tried to have a French film produced in America. This is a very recent matter and I know well about this subject. Yet knowing the hostility towards France, of the germanoganglican world of the Hollywood studios and, moreover, of one of our supposed friends, we can only feel, toward Rudolph Valentino, true gratitude. Finally, he does not announce, like so many others, large work projects in France. He is the only one to really think about it. It is possible that in the future he will allow me to give you details on this point.
I
would add that for his latest film, Monsieur Beaucaire, Rudolph
Valentino hired, in addition to André Daven, a French girl, Ms.
Paulette Duval, and he commissioned the costumes for the movie to a
French artist.”
So
it was not unusual for the Valentino's to spot a new discovery. Natacha Rambova discovered the designer Adrian,
the actress Myrna Loy and Rudolph would have his business manager George
Ullman negotiate a contract with Metro studios for his Monsieur Beaucaire
co-star Doris Kenyon and I cite that to Ullman's 1975 memoir titled, The S. George Ullman Memoir on p.
37. I think this is all evidence of Valentino's entrepreneurial
interest in cinema as an art form which is also apparent in
Natacha. These two certainly recognized their power as talent scouts
and mentors.
In
the nationally serialized, “My Life by Rudolph Valentino”, which was reissued after his death, Rudolph Valentino explains why he
selected someone like Daven to come to America and appear in
movies.
As excerpted from, The Oakland Tribune, September 25, 1926 issue which was
carried by wire services and appeared in papers across the country.
