Rudolph Valentino & The André Daven Hoax
André Daven and his wife Danièle Parola
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
I excerpt Rudolph Valentino by Jeanne de Recqueville published by Editions France-Empire in 1978. I share a translation from the French.
I excerpt Rudolph Valentino by Jeanne de Recqueville published by Editions France-Empire in 1978. I share a translation from the French.
'While
in Paris in August of 1923, Rudy Valentino told a young journalist
André Daven:
'You
should be in the movies.'
Less
than one year later, Rudy sends André an invitation which is
accepted. Daven leaves Paris and his young girlfriend Yvonne
Legeay. (Yvonne Legeay stars as a singer and dancer at the Parisian club the Moulin Rouge and also works as a
theatrical and cinema actress) Daven leaves Paris and Yvonne to
cross the Atlantic to become Rudolph Valentino's
brother, in his movie, Monsieur Beaucaire and in life, Rudy
Valentino's congenial friend. In the studio while filming, they are
really believed to be two brothers. Even if Daven's role is not a
major one, being both the onscreen 'brother' and the friend of
the film's star is an auspicious beginning of a career.
To
his Parisian girlfriend Yvonne Legeay, Daven writes regularly and at
length, on stationary with the letterhead of Ritz-Carlton Pictures
Inc., 48th Street, and an imprint on the left reading, 'Office of Mr.
Rudolph Valentino.'
'I
have only two scenes,' writes
Daven to Yvonne, 'but it's a coincidence that these two
scenes are, one at the beginning and the other exactly at the end of
the film. This requires that I be engaged for the duration of the
entire film.'
Because
this was the process of filming then! The shooting was
scheduled chronologically or otherwise Daven would have appeared in
his two scenes, one after the other, and would have been
released quickly.
'For
most of my time,' André writes on to his girlfriend Yvonne Legeay, 'I mingle
with the crowd on the set because Rudy wants me to be in the studio
so I get the necessary experience for a role he says he has for me in
another movie. I earn sixty dollars a week and Rudy gives me fifty
dollars more for working on his advertising. In total, therefore, I
earn one hundred and ten dollars a week. I hope I can save seventy a
week. I have only twenty dollars a week for my room rental and with
the rest I think I can suffice. Rudy does not want me to eat outside
the studio commissary or elsewhere unless he is present and I also am
a driver of his car.'
This
proves that Rudy, with his generosity,
endeavored to make Daven's stay in the United States as pleasant as
possible."
How
did this remote, relatively unknown Frenchman, André Daven, who
appeared in a minor role in one of Rudolph Valentino's films, come
today to be known as Rudolph Valentino's greatest love with
one website referring to Daven as Valentino's “wife”?
How did such rampant fiction come to be repeated everywhere online and why are there blogs devoted to their alleged love affair? Why is their someone pretending to be André Daven appearing here and there to comment in Facebook group discussions today? What is the fascination with this false and pervasive dross about Valentino and why do people fear to publicly question the very premise?
How did such rampant fiction come to be repeated everywhere online and why are there blogs devoted to their alleged love affair? Why is their someone pretending to be André Daven appearing here and there to comment in Facebook group discussions today? What is the fascination with this false and pervasive dross about Valentino and why do people fear to publicly question the very premise?
We have now learned just who André Daven really was and the truth about his
relationship to Valentino is now fact; as confirmed by
newly-discovered documentation. It has been definitively proven what caused Daven's abrupt departure from New York
City in June of 1924 and the severing of Natacha Rambova and Rudolph
Valentino's sponsorship.
In this blog I will dissect and dispel the trenchant lies about Valentino and Daven which have been and still
are being masqueraded as truth.