RUDOLPH VALENTINO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20656, 30 August 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

RUDOLPH VALENTINO.

HEAVY DEBTS AT DEATH. CHANGE INTO ASSETS. When Rudolph Valentino died he was £33,000 in debt. But an admiring public and a clever executor have created a £IOO.OOO estate, says an exchange. Ardent admirers of Valentino clam-' oured for his lie, handkerchiefs, and even his suspenders. Thero was £7OOO worth of what lawyers blandly described us " junk," but the public bought it at £19,000.

Mr. George Ullman, who is (he executor, has been temporarily deprived of his position by Valentino's relatives, accuse him of malfeasance. But Mr. Tillman's lawyer has told how his client succeeded in changing Valentino's debts into assets.

At tho start Ullman found £3OOO worth of odds and ends, such as swords, that liolonged to Valentino. He put over a big auction. Valentino, it seems, had shelves of books, but no bookplate. But Mr. Ullman fixed that. "Ho decided to get rid of Valentino's books," said the lawyer, " so ho had a bookplate made and pasted into all tho books. Tho public bought them. Somo of the 6d paper-covered books went for £1 or £2, or even more.

" When Valentino died he owed tho Art Cinema £33,000. His estate was covered with liens, mortgage!, and everything else. " The only thing ho roally did own was all but two shares in his producing company. Ullman was secretary and treasurer, and tho only thing tho corporation owned wero two pictures. " Out of theso Ullman had mado about £IOO,OOO, showing them everywhere, even in China, whero they don't know that Rudolph is dead."