Valentino's Home
"Falcon's Lair," famous home of Rudolph Valentino, has been re-opened. Juan Romero, Brazilian coffee millionaire and close friend of Valentino, bought the place from the estate for 50,000 dollars, a fraction of its. original cost. Termites were undercutting the walls and weeds rioting in the gardens, but Romero decided to renovate.
In all, he is reputed to have spent 170,000 ■ dollars in this work, keeping the 20 workmen engaged billeted on the estate. He built gardens and terraces, placed huge vases among the pines and even built a shrine to the memory of the former owner.
The house itself has only eight rooms, mostly with cream carpets. When Valentino lived there he had the floors and walls painted black, and trimmed with gold, and hidden from the daylight by ebony velvet drapes. He hated sunlight, reputedly, yet the films which made his reputation were sagas of the desert.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19401019.2.137.52.3
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23791, 19 October 1940, Page 9 (Supplement)
Word Count
150Valentino's Home New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23791, 19 October 1940, Page 9 (Supplement)
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