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Article: Culture: Books: Silent icon's early demise; Valentino: The First Superstar. By Noel Botham (Metro, pounds 16.99). Reviewed by Caroline Foulkes.(Features)
- Article from:
- The Birmingham Post (England)
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Birmingham Post & Mail Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Caroline Foulkes
Rudolph Valentino was the world's first heartthrob. His silent image only had to flicker across a cinema screen for women to swoon, scream and vow to surrender themselves to him. Thanks to them, every film he was in was practically guaranteed to be a surefire hit.
But Valentino's image was not wholly his own construct. It was due, in part at least, to a Derbyshire pig farmer's wife. Sitting in her remote farmhouse in Derbyshire, Edith Maud Winstanley, under the pen name E M Hull, created the character that made Valentino a household ...