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  • Scholars Spotlight: Stanley Kubrick – Part One


    Introduction

    Stanley Kubrick is widely regarded as one of the most important directors in film history. From his earliest documentary shorts to major works like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Shining (1980), Kubrick continually redefined cinematic form and storytelling, consistently pushing the boundaries of the medium. Often reclusive, fiercely private, and demanding to the point of obsession, he is a figure surrounded by both myth and meticulous reality. His work was rarely hurried, his methods often controversial, but the results—nearly always extraordinary—cemented his legacy in world cinema.

    Throughout his career, Kubrick directed thirteen feature films, many of which are now regarded as masterpieces. He earned thirteen Academy Award nominations, winning once for Best Visual Effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey. His films, including Dr. Strangelove (1964), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), and Full Metal Jacket (1987), were all nominated for Best Picture or Best Director. Credited with pioneering new techniques in cinematography and special effects, and with his meticulous attention to detail, Kubrick has influenced generations of filmmakers.

    Cinema Scholars shines the Spotlight on the life and career of Stanley Kubrick. This two part article traces his development from a Bronx-born photographer to one of the greatest film directors the world has ever known.
    Stanley Kubrick
    Stanley Kubrick on the set of “Dr. Strangelove” in 1963. Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

    Beginnings

    Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928, in the Bronx, New York City, to Jacques and Gertrude Kubrick. His father, a homeopathic physician, fostered in young Stanley an early love of literature and chess, both of which would later play key roles in his films. A mediocre student by all academic accounts, Kubrick’s intelligence was never in doubt. His passions lay elsewhere: jazz music, photography, and the emerging art of cinema.

    Chess became a lifelong fascination for Kubrick. He spent countless hours playing in city parks as a teenager, developing a strategic mindset that would come to define his methodical approach to filmmaking. The game taught him patience, foresight, and the ability to anticipate and control outcomes. These qualities are evident in the construction of his films. He would often play chess with cast and crew on set, sometimes using it as a subtle means of asserting authority or delaying production until he reached a desired outcome.

    Kubrick attended William Howard Taft High School, joining the school’s photography club. Graduating in 1945, his grades were insufficient for college entrance. But formal education was never to be the primary catalyst of his intellectual and artistic development. Kubrick’s schooling occurred in the libraries of New York, in the darkrooms of Look magazine, and in the theaters of Manhattan’s film houses. Kubrick would state in a 1966 interview with Jeremy Bernstein:

    “As a child, I was a school misfit, and considered reading a book ‘school work’. I don’t think I read a book for pleasure until I graduated high school. I had one thing that I think perhaps helped me get over being a school misfit, and that is that I became a student of photography”

    Stanley Kubrick
    Stanley Kubrick was a Look magazine photographer when he caught himself in the mirror of Rosemary Williams, a showgirl, in 1949. Photo courtesy of Stanley Kubrick, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

    Photography

    At age thirteen, Kubrick was given a Graflex camera by his father. The result was igniting a lifelong obsession with imagery and visual structure that would shape and define the director’s career. His early photographs showed a keen eye for composition, mood, and human behavior. In 1946, at the age of sixteen, Kubrick sold a photo to Look magazine—an evocative image of a newsvendor reacting to the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

    Kubrick was soon hired as an apprentice photographer by the magazine, where he worked until 1950. During his tenure, he took thousands of images, many of which were portraits and candid shots of post-war American life. The experience honed his instincts for visual storytelling and taught him how to manipulate lighting and frame shots. These skills would later translate seamlessly into his forays into mainstream filmmaking.

    Kubrick has often cited his time at the magazine as a formative experience where he learned to think cinematically even while working with still images. His photo essays were structured with the rhythm and arc of a short film. Each sequence tells a story, reveals a character, and illustrates a conflict. His early assignments with Frank Sinatra, Leonard Bernstein, Erroll Garner, and Betsy von Furstenburg solidified the director’s early career.

    Short Films and the 1950s

    In 1951, Kubrick financed his first short documentary film, Day of the Fight. A 16-minute portrait of middleweight boxer Walter Cartier, it was shot on a shoestring budget of $3,900. It was eventually sold to RKO Pictures for modest distribution. A minor commercial success, this gave the young Kubrick the signal that he could handle the moving image with the same precision he had mastered in photography.

    Stanley Kubrick
    A still from Stanley Kubrick’s first short film “Day of the Fight” (1951), which featured Irish-American middleweight boxer Walter Cartier. Photo courtesy of RKO Pictures.

    He followed this with Flying Padre (1951), another short documentary that focused on a Catholic priest who flew a small plane to various rural parishes in New Mexico to deliver sermons. Like Day of the Fight, this second short film was distributed by RKO and further proved Kubrick’s aptitude for handling complex logistical challenges and framing strong visual sequences.

    Kubrick’s final short film of the period, The Seafarers (1953), was commissioned by the Seafarers International Union. Though lacking the intensity of his earlier work, it showcased his growing confidence with camera movement and scene transitions. This was notably the director’s first use of the dolly shot. A technique he would later refine in his feature films. These shorts, while minor in scale, were major stepping stones in Kubrick’s evolution as a filmmaker.

    During this time, Kubrick married his high school sweetheart, Toba Metz. The couple lived just north of Greenwich Village, New York City, on 16th Street, a bohemian enclave in lower Manhattan. Their time together coincided with Kubrick’s early struggles and experimentation as a filmmaker. The marriage was short-lived and ended in divorce in 1955. However, it marked a period of creative transition as Kubrick moved from still photography to motion pictures.

    Early Feature Films

    Kubrick’s first full-length feature, Fear and Desire (1953), was an experimental war film he disavowed later in life. With an allegorical narrative and a minuscule budget, the film was visually inventive but dramatically stilted. Nonetheless, it drew attention from critics and producers who saw potential in Kubrick’s command of the medium. The New York Times would say of the director’s work on the film:

    “Stanley Kubrick, a 24-year-old producer-director-photographer, and his equally young and unheralded scenarist and cast have succeeded in turning out a moody, often visually powerful study of subdued excitement. Mr. Kubrick’s professionalism as a photographer should be obvious to an amateur”

    Stanley Kubrick
    The cast and crew of “Fear and Desire” (1953). Stanley Kubrick is second from the right in the top row. Photo likely courtesy of Virginia Leith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

    Kbrick’s next two efforts, Killer’s Kiss (1955) and The Killing (1956) signaled a major leap forward. Killer’s Kiss, a noir drama set in New York’s underworld, displayed a more confident sense of place and tension. With The Killing, a heist film told in fractured chronology, Kubrick demonstrated a boldness and technical mastery that far outweighed the limited resources he had at his disposal. It was a breakthrough, both artistically and professionally.

    Paths of Glory (1957) elevated Kubrick to the ranks of serious American directors. Starring Kirk Douglas, the World War I courtroom drama offered a scathing indictment of military hierarchy and injustice. For the first time on film, the director’s elaborate tracking shots, stark cinematography, and meticulous attention to detail were on full display. Douglas, who was impressed and signed Kubrick to a three-picture deal, would say in 1966 to The New York Times:

    “He made the veteran actor Adolphe Menjou do the same scene 17 times. ‘That was my best reading’ Menjou announced. ‘I think we can break for lunch now.’ It was well past the usual lunch time but Kubrick said he wanted another take. Menjou went into an absolute fury…Kubrick merely listened calmly and after Menjou had spluttered to an uncomplimentary conclusion said quietly: ‘All right, let’s try the scene once more.’ With utter docility, Menjou went back to work. Stanley instinctively knew what to do,” 

    The 1960s

    Kubrick’s international breakthrough came with Spartacus (1960), a Hollywood epic produced by and starring Kirk Douglas. Douglas hired Kubrick for a reported $150,000 fee to take over directing duties from Anthony Mann, who Douglas fired soon after production started. Although Kubrick did not have full creative control over the film, the experience gave him insight into the mechanics and pitfalls of the studio system. Dissatisfied with the lack of autonomy, Kubrick vowed never again to work without having the final cut.

    With Spartacus, Kubrick was firmly entrenched as one of the top young film directors in the industry. It also marked the end of the working relationship he had with Kirk Douglas. However, a new muse would arrive in the form of Peter Sellers.

    Production photo of Stanley Kubrick (left, seated) and actor Tony Curtis (right) on the set of “Spartacus” (1960). Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures Company, Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

    Kubrick and his new wife, Christiane Harlan, and their two young daughters, Vivian and Anya, moved to Great Britain to begin production on Lolita (1962). The director and his family would make it their home for almost the next four decades. This was convenient for Kubrick, as he had long shunned the Hollywood machine as well as the publicity.

    With Lolita (1962), Kubrick pushed boundaries further. The adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel was a risky proposition in Cold War America. Yet Kubrick’s version walked the fine line between satire and sensuality, and it benefited from memorable performances by James Mason, Shelley Winters, and Peter Sellers. Lolita also marked a transition for Kubrick. He was merging fantasy with reality. His imagery was becoming more surreal. Author Gene Yongblood wrote for The Criterion in 1992:

    “…Stylistically, it’s a transitional work, marking the turning point from a naturalistic cinema (Paths of Glory, Spartacus) to the surrealism of the later films. Reality and fantasy coexist for the first time in a Kubrick film…”

    Just One More Take

    By the 1960s, Stanley Kubrick was developing a reputation as a director who wanted what he wanted when he wanted it. Difficult. Extreme. Methodical. These are all words that have been used to describe Kubrick’s directing style. Kubrick’s perfectionism and need to film dozens upon dozens of takes for a single shot have become the stuff of legend. Indeed, this only increased as the director gained more creative control over his films.

    Kubrick’s excessive number of takes was considered by some critics to be irrational. However, the director believed that repetition was the key to getting an actor to suppress their conscious thoughts about the dialogue and act on a purely subconscious level. Nicole Kidman and the late Shelly Duvall both have relayed the horror stories of working with Kubrick. At the same time, both have said that the result was some of the finest work of their careers. A select few actors were exempt from this. We’ll explore that in part two of this Spotlight article.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb706VANkfA

    Coming in August, we’ll bring you part two of this two-part series on the legendary Stanley Kubrick. As we continue to dive into the maestro’s career, we’ll further explore his excellent work in the 1960s with such films as Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey. We’ll also cover his controversial and polarizing work in the 1970s (A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon) and his venture into the realm of horror (The Shining) in 1980. Finally, we’ll dissect his last two films (Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut) as well as Kubrick’s unrealized projects.

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  • Scholars’ Spotlight: Claudia Cardinale – Cinema Scholars


    Early Years

    Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, French Tunisia, on April 15, 1938, to Sicilian parents. Growing up, she was trilingual, mastering French, Sicilian, and Arabic. Cardinale was educated at the Saint-Joseph-de-l’Apparition School of Carthage. She then studied at the Paul Cambon School, where she graduated intending to become a schoolteacher.

    Modeling and Acting in the 1950s

    In 1956, a Brigitte Bardot-obsessed Cardinale appeared in a short feature, Anneaux d’or, by French director René Vautier. This turned Cardinale into a local celebrity in French Tunisia. The following year, she won the “Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia” contest. This, in turn, earned her a trip to the Venice Film Festival as 1st prize.

    In Venice, several producers were interested in her shooting a screen test for them in Rome. The results of these tests weren’t good, as they felt she was incapable of giving a credible acting performance. Discouraged, she returned to Tunisia. In 1958, she appeared in Goha with Omar Sharif, which was her first appearance in a feature film. The producers of this picture wanted an actress from Tunisia specifically to play opposite Shariff.

    Claudia Cardinale
    Claudia Cardinale stars in “Upstairs Downstairs” (1959). Photo courtesy of The Rank Organisation.

    Soon after, Cardinale discovered that she was pregnant. She decided to keep the child, and soon she signed a seven-year exclusive contract with Italian producer Franco Cristaldi’s production company, Vides.

    Cardinale filmed two movies while secretly pregnant: Big Deal On Madonna Street and Three Strangers In Rome. She then traveled to England to give birth to her son, who would be raised by her parents, as her brother. As the decade came to a close, Cardinale appeared in a few more movies. However, nothing she appeared in was very notable. Yet, in the next decade, the actress would appear in some of the most acclaimed and most famous movies of all time.

    Breakout in the 1960s

    The 1960s began with Cardinale working with Italian director Mauro Bologini in Il bell’ bell’Antonio. She would collaborate with the director several times over the next few years. Cardinale would also star in several European movies, including Cartouche, Napoleone ad Austerlitz, and Time of Indifference.

    Tony Curtis and Claudia Cardinale on the set of “Don’t Make Waves” (1967). Photo courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

    Her breakthrough year would come in 1963. First, she would star opposite Burt Lancaster in The Leopard, as well as a memorable appearance in Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2. These acclaimed movies were filmed simultaneously, with Cardinale bouncing between the strict, disciplined set of The Leopard to the chaotic and improvisational set of 8 1/2. These two films would be the first in which her voice was not dubbed.

    Next, Cardinale would appear in The Pink Panther (1963), which starred David Niven and Peter Sellers, and Time of Indifference (1964), with Rod Steiger and Shelley Winters. After the completion of the latter, she would begin to star in Hollywood movies.

    Hollywood Years

    From 1964 to 1967, Cardinale would appear in several American movies. She took the risk of not signing an exclusive contract, which was being offered by Universal.

     “…I took care of my own interests, blankly refusing to sign an exclusive contract with Universal Studios. I Only signed for individual films. In the end, everything worked out fine for me…”

    – Claudia Cardinale

    Sergio Leone and Claudia Cardinale on the set of “Once Upon A Time In The West” (1968). Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

    The first of her Hollywood movies was Circus World, which starred Rita Hayworth and John Wayne. She also starred in Blindfold with Rock Hudson. Cardinale and Hudson would subsequently become the closest of friends.

    Next, Cardinale appeared with Anthony Quinn in Lost Command, which she followed up with her best American movie, The Professionals – a Western that also starred Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, and re-teamed the actress with Burt Lancaster. After starring in the critically panned comedy Don’t Make Waves with Tony Curtis and Sharon Tate, she returned to Italy. During her time in Hollywood, she became friends with Steve McQueen, Barbara Streisand, and her then-husband Elliot Gould.

    End of the ’60s

    In 1967, she married Italian director Franco Cristaldi in Atlanta; however, the marriage was never made official in Italy, and so it wasn’t legally binding. Cardinale and Crisaldi would eventually split up, ending their marriage in 1975.

    The following year, Cardinale appeared in The Day of the Owl, in which she won the David Di Donatello Award for Best Actress. She followed this up with the Italian comedy A Fine Pair, which co-starred her friend from Hollywood, Rock Hudson. Next, Cardinale would appear in Sergio Leone’s classic Western Once Upon a Time in the West, co-starring Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. The actress would end the greatest decade of her career playing opposite Sean Connery in The Red Tent.

    Claudia Cardinale
    Claudia Cardinale stars in “A Girl in Australia” (1971). Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

    Later Years

    Claudia Cardinale has had a steady acting career from the 1970s through today, most recently appearing in a 2020 Swiss mini-series, Bulle, as well as the French Netflix movie Rogue City, released that same year.

    “Usually, you live only one life but I have lived 154 lives.”

    – Claudia Cardinale

    Her work during these several decades has predominantly been in Europe. Other notable roles over the years include 1971’s The Legend of Frenchie King with Brigitte Bardot and 2010’s Signora Enrica, for which she won the Golden Orange Best Actress Award at the 47th Antalya International Film Festival.

    Cardinale lived with Italian film director Pasquale Squitieri from 1975 until he died in 2017. Still going strong at 87, Cardinale currently resides in Paris. Since 2000, she has been a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the Defence of Women’s Rights and is an outspoken supporter of both women’s and gay rights.

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  • Scholars’ Spotlight: Paul Newman


    Early Life

    Paul Newman was born in the Cleveland, Ohio, suburb of Shaker Heights on January 25, 1925. Although Newman’s father, Arthur Sr., was Jewish, his mother, Theresa, was a Christian Scientist. Newman himself had no religious affiliation and was essentially Agnostic (though he was ordained as a minister of the United Life Church to officiate weddings).

    Both of his parents’ ancestry was from Eastern Europe, with his mother being an immigrant from Slovakia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and his father’s parents hailing from Hungary. The Newmans owned a sporting goods store in town where Paul and his older brother, Arthur Jr., would help out when not in school.

    While in the first grade, Newman got his first taste of acting when he earned the role of the court jester in a school production of Robin Hood. Even then, the acting bug hit him hard, and just a few years later, at the age of ten, he was cast in a Cleveland Play House production of Saint George and the Dragon.

    “Acting isn’t really a creative profession. It’s an interpretative one.”

    – Paul Newman

    Paul Newman
    Paul Newman and Melvyn Douglas in a scene from “Hud” (1963). Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

    In 1943, upon graduating from Shaker Heights High School, Newman headed to Athens, Ohio, where he attended Ohio State University briefly. Rumors about Newman’s exit continue to this day. Expulsion gossip includes Newman rolling a beer keg down the campus hill and hitting the Dean’s car. There’s also a variation where he stole a tray from a dining hall and used it to sled down this same slope drunkenly. Newman himself dispelled these stories, stating that he left to join the Navy V-12 pilot training program. He did not complete this due to his color blindness being a disqualifying condition.

    Military Career

    After getting dropped by V-12, Newman was shipped off to boot camp.  After he completed this training, he focused his energy on learning how to work as a radioman and gunner. During World War II, Newman served as a rear-seat radioman and gunner in torpedo bombers.

    In 1944, Newman was assigned to Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons, which trained replacement pilots and combat air crewmen. He also served as a turret gunner in an Avenger torpedo bomber.  In 1945, Newman was sent to the Essex-class aircraft carrier, the USS Bunker Hill, shortly before the Battle of Okinawa. His life was spared when his pilot developed an ear infection and could not fly bomber missions.

    All of the gunners that Newman had served with were killed in action by a kamikaze attack in the ensuing battle. Newman’s decorations for his service included the American Area Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. He parted ways with the Navy in 1945.

    Paul Newman during his time in the US Navy.

    Acting and Education

    After leaving the Navy, Newman resumed his collegiate career at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949. After graduating, he worked as an actor with the Belfry Players in Wisconsin and the Woodstock Players in Illinois. Newman married Jacke Witte around this time. The couple would go on to have three children together, divorcing in 1958.

    In 1951, Newman briefly attended Yale to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in the Department of Drama. He left after the first year of the three-year program to study under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City.

    Newman’s acting career began in earnest in 1952. His first role was for the television series Tales of Tomorrow that year. The following year, he would make his Broadway debut in the original production of William Inge’s Picnic.

    James Dean and Hollywood

    Newman’s first Hollywood movie, The Silver Chalice, was released in 1954 and was a box office bomb. Newman called the historical drama “the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s.” When the movie was broadcast on TV in 1966, Newman took out a newspaper ad apologizing for his performance and asking people not to watch the movie. This plea backfired, and the movie earned spectacular ratings.

    Paul Newman
    Virginia Mayo and Paul Newman in a scene from “The Silver Chalice” (1954). Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

    Also in 1954, Newman appeared in a screen test with James Dean for the movie East of Eden (1955). The role Newman was up for was Aron Trask, the brother of Dean’s Cal Trask. Newman lost out on the role to Richard Davalos.

    When Dean died the following year, Newman replaced him in a television adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Battler. This led to Newman replacing Dean in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), which became the actor’s breakout role.

    Hollywood Success and Remarriage

    1958 was a big year for Newman, both personally and professionally. He starred in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Elizabeth Taylor, which would earn him his first Academy Award nomination. He also appeared in The Long, Hot Summer with Joanne Woodward. Newman and Woodward had met previously in 1953 in New York City. She was an understudy in Picnic at the time.

    While making the Long, Hot Summer in 1957, they began an affair, which ended his first marriage. Newman and Woodward would marry in early 1958. The couple eschewed living in Los Angeles; instead, they settled in Manhattan for a time. They ultimately would move to Westport, Connecticut. The couple had three children of their own and would remain married for fifty years, until Newman died in 2008.

    “There are places you go, and they say, ‘Take off your dark glasses so we can see your beautiful blue eyes.’ And you just want to… you just want to… I dunno, um… thump them.”

    – Paul Newman

    Paul Newman
    Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman in a publicity portrait for “The Long Hot Summer” (1958). Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

    The 1960s and Steve McQueen

    Newman’s career continued to flourish into the next decade. He made a string of classics including The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Torn Curtain (1966), and, of course, Cool Hand Luke (1967). The now iconic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was also released in 1969.

    Newman and Steve McQueen battled at the box office for the majority of the decade. The pair were neck and neck for bragging rights as the highest-paid movie star. McQueen and Newman almost starred together in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. However, a dispute about which actor would receive top billing prevented McQueen from signing on as the Sundance Kid.

    The rivalry McQueen felt with Newman also occurred in the world of racing, as both actors were involved in the sport. They even shared the same racing trainer Dick Barbour, of Barbour Motorsports. The racing rivalry McQueen had with Newman was largely one-sided, as Newman essentially did his best, not worrying about what McQueen or anyone else said or did.

    Newman and McQueen weren’t always rivals. In 1969, the pair joined Sidney Poitier and Barbara Streisand to create the First Artists production company using United Artists (founded by legendary stars Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, among others) as a template. Newman and McQueen would share the screen in one movie, The Towering Inferno (1974).

    In addition to acting, racing, and being a businessman, Newman was also politically active. The actor attended the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. In 1968, he campaigned for Eugene McCarthy, which included a trip back to Athens, Ohio, and the OU campus, 20-plus years after he parted ways with the university.

    Paul Newman
    Anthony Perkins (left) with Paul Newman (right) in “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” (1972). Photo courtesy of National General Pictures via Public Domain.

    The 1970s and 1980s

    Newman’s career continued to be successful throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the films he appeared in included The Sting (1973), Slap Shot (1977), and The Verdict (1982). He was recognized with an Honorary Oscar in 1986, and he won the real thing the following year for Best Actor in The Color of Money (1986), Martin Scorsese’s sequel to The Hustler. Over his career, Newman would be nominated a total of nine times as an actor, winning only once.

    Newman’s racing career began in earnest in 1972 when he raced at the Thompson International Speedway under the name “P.L. Newman”. He competed often in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events for the rest of the 1970s, winning four national championships. In 1979, he raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing in second place.

    “I’ll never forget my first experience of being in a race car. The first thing that attracted me was the speed. That and the faint possibility that I might get good at it one day. It offered me the chance to be graceful, it just grabbed hold of me. I used to just slink off from doing pictures to try and get my (racing) license.”

    – Paul Newman

    In 1978, Newman’s son from his first marriage, Scott, tragically died of a drug overdose. Because of this tragedy, Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son.

    Paul Newman
    Publicity photo for the American documentary film “King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis” (1970). Left to right: producer Ely Landau, actress Ruby Dee, actor Paul Newman, and director Sidney Lumet. Photo courtesy of Maron Films via Public Domain.

    Newman’s political advocacy continued during this time. In 1970, he attended the first Earth Day event in New York City. In 1976, he traveled to Washington, DC to speak out against Big Oil in favor of divestiture of these companies. This would effectively break them up into smaller entities. He was also a proponent of nuclear disarmament, endorsing Walter Mondale for President in 1984.

    In 1982, Newman founded “Newman’s Own,” a line of food products, with writer A. E. Hotchner with the proceeds being donated to charity. He co-wrote a memoir about the subject with Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good. In 1988, Newman founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. This was a residential summer camp for seriously ill children located in Ashford, Connecticut.

    Final Years

    Newman continued to act until 2007 when he announced his retirement. Some of his most famous roles during this time included The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Road to Perdition (2002), and the Pixar animated movie Cars (2006).

    In these later years, Newman continued to work for and support charitable causes. Some of the examples of this work include the donation of $250,000 to Catholic Relief Services to aid refugees from Kosovo in 1999. He also created a $10 million scholarship fund for his Alma Mater of Kenyon College, in 2007.

    An avid racer even in his later years, Newman continued to race even after he passed 80 years of age. He stated he would retire only when he embarrassed himself. The actor won at Lime Rock at the age of 81, which was also the number he raced under. His last professional race came in 2007 at Watkins Glen International.

    Paul Newman
    Paul Newman and Tom Hanks in a scene from “Road to Perdition” (2002). Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures.

    “You can’t be as old as I am without waking up with a surprised look on your face every morning: ‘Holy Christ, whaddya know – I’m still around!’ It’s absolutely amazing that I survived all the booze and smoking and the cars and the career.”

    – Paul Newman

    On September 26, 2008, Paul Newman died from lung cancer. A few months after his death, he was posthumously inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame for car racing at the national convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 21, 2009. Nine years after his death, his voice was used in the movie Cars 3 (2017). This was his last credited role.

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  • Scholars’ Spotlight: Rudolph Valentino


    Early Years

    Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguolla, who would be known professionally as Rudolph Valentino, was born on May 6, 1895, in Castellaneta, Italy. Valentino’s Italian father, Giovanni, a veterinarian, died when the actor was only 11 years old. His mother, Marie, a French national, raised the boy and his three siblings on her own.

    Valentino was a poor student who relied on his good looks and charisma to get by. Eventually, he attended an agricultural school in Genoa, Italy, where he graduated. With difficulty finding employment in both Paris, France, as well as his native Italy, he decided to head across the Atlantic Ocean. He arrived at Ellis Island in New York City on December 23, 1913. He was 18 years old.

    Rudolph Valentino
    Rudolph Valentino as a boy (circa 1905).

    Valentino’s early days in New York City were filled with suffering and misery. Due to performance issues, he was unable to hold down a job long-term. This included being a busboy at the restaurant Murray’s, which was on 42nd Street. Nevertheless, he befriended his co-workers, and they would always sneak him free food.

    Eventually, Valentino found work as a dancer. First through restaurateur Joe Pani, who hired him and Joan Sawyer to dance the tango at his nightlife hotspots Castles-by-the-Sea, the Colony, and the Woodmansten Inn. Once he was better established, he went to work at Maxim’s Restaurant-Cabaret.

    Relationship with Blanca de Saulles

    While working as a dancer, Valentino became involved with Blanca de Saulles. She was the wife of a wealthy businessman and real estate magnate, John de Saulles. Although it has been debated, it is believed that they were in a platonic relationship. This is because he testified on her behalf in court that her husband had been unfaithful.

    In an act of defiant revenge, Mr. de Saulles had Valentino arrested on a trumped-up vice charge. With no real evidence to charge him, he was released after a few days in jail on a $1,500 bond. Subsequently, the charges against him were dropped. In the ensuing days, Bianca unloaded a pistol on her ex-husband over custody of their son on August 3, 1917.

    Rudolph Valentino at 17 years of age.

    Heading West

    To avoid any publicity or testimony in the de Saulles murder trial, Valentino left town and headed west. He joined a theatre company in Utah and soon was in a production of Robinson Crusoe, Jr. with Al Jolson, which was headed to Los Angeles.

    After a brief stint in San Francisco starring in the play Nobody Home, Valentino and his friend and fellow actor, Norman Kerry, headed back to L.A. Their goal was to try to break into the movie business. Kerry and Valentino were roommates at the Alexandria Hotel at 501 South Spring Street before Valentino went out on his own, renting a room on the Sunset Strip.

    Silent Movies and First Marriage

    While living on the Sunset Strip, Valentino began to appear in movies. His first on-screen appearance in Hollywood was merely as an extra in the 1917 movie Alimony. Deemed too exotic looking to be a leading man by the Hollywood Brass, Valentino began to find steady work as the “heavy” in bit parts in many movies. Examples of this were Eyes of Youth (1919) and Passion’s Playground (1920).

    On November 6, 1919, Valentino married actress Jean Acker. Acker was a lesbian involved with a silent actress and the eventual proprietor of the Garden of Allah Hotel. Valentino met Acker at a party two months before their wedding. They soon began to see each other socially, before engaging in a “lavender marriage.” These marriages, which involved homosexual stars, were typically arranged by the studio to hide their sexual orientation from the public.

    Rudolph Valentino on the set of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (1921).

    Valentino, who was unaware of Acker’s sexual orientation, was locked out of his hotel room on his wedding night by his bride before the marriage could be consummated. Valentino tried in vain to “win her back” by writing Acker love letters. Eventually, he gave up and filed for divorce.

    Metro Pictures

    While en route to Palm Springs, Florida, Valentino read a copy of the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The book immediately captured Valentino’s imagination. After a bit of research in the trade rags, he learned that the rights to the book were owned by Metro Pictures.

    Valentino traveled to New York City and went to Metro’s headquarters. When he arrived, he learned that the studio executive, June Mathis, was trying to find him to cast him as Julio Desnoyers in the picture. Mathis was the second most powerful woman in Hollywood after Mary Pickford. Subsequently, Valentino was signed to a salary of $350 per week for the movie.  However, he did not get along with the movie’s director, Rex Ingram, and Mathis was forced to moderate between the pair.

    The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) became a smash hit at the box office, earning over $1,000,000. As a result, Valentino was cast as the leading man in the Alla Nazimova vehicle Camille (1921) at Metro. The costume designer for this film, Natacha Rambova (born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy), became romantically involved with Valentino soon after filming began.

    Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova in a publicity picture for their movie ‘Camille’ (1921).

    Upon release, Camille was considered too avant-garde for audiences and did poorly at the box office. Valentino made one more film for Metro, The Conquering Power (1921), which was a hit at the box office. Once the movie was released, Valentino quit the studio as they had refused to give him a pay raise.

    Famous Players 

    Not long after leaving Metro, Valentino signed with Famous Players-Lasky. He talked Mathis into joining him at the studio. The pair had developed a close bond during the making of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Valentino even thought of her as a second mother. Part of her arrangement with Famous Players was that she would continue to write and develop projects for Valentino.

    “She (Mathis) discovered me, anything I have accomplished I owe to her, to her judgment, to her advice and to her unfailing patience and confidence in me.”

    – Rudolph Valentino

    Producer Jesse L. Lasky recognized the star power in Valentino. As a result, he cast him as the lead in his new picture, The Sheik (1921). The movie was a huge hit, earning over $1,500,000 at the box office on a budget of $200,000. He followed this movie up with Moran of the Lady Letty (1922) with Dorothy Dalton. He also appeared in Beyond the Rocks (1922), which co-starred Gloria Swanson.

    Natacha Rambova and Rudolph Valentino at Union Station in Los Angeles (August 1925).

    Marriage Scandal

    After completing the filming of the movie Blood and Sand (1922), Valentino married Rambova on May 13, 1922, in Mexicali, Mexico. Although he was divorced from Acker at the time, it had been less than a year since the marriage had been dissolved. California law at the time did not recognize a divorce as being official until a year after the paperwork had been filed. Subsequently, Valentino was arrested for bigamy. Famous Player refused to help Valentino in any way, including posting bail for his release from jail.

    After a group of friends pooled their money to get Valentino out on bail, he and Rambova lived in separate apartments in New York City. They officially and legally remarried at the Lake County Courthouse in Crown Point, Indiana, on March 14, 1923.

    Between his arrest for bigamy and his remarriage to Rambova, Valentino was involved in a pay dispute with Famous Players. This resulted in him going on strike at the studio. At the time, Valentino was making $1,250 per week and felt he was underpaid, as Mary Pickford earned over $8,000 per week. The average American made $2,000 per year at this time. Valentino even refused to accept the paychecks that were his until the dispute was resolved.

    Famous Players, who were still reeling from the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, offered Valentino $7,000 per week. Before Valentino had officially accepted the offer, Variety announced the deal was done. This angered Valentino, who summarily rejected it. Valentino, at this point, was over $80,000 in debt and refused to return to Famous Players. He needed to find work outside of the movie business.

    Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres in a publicity picture for ‘The Sheik’ (1921).

    Mineralava Dance Tour

    Valentino signed with a new manager in late 1922, George Ullman. He presented Valentino with the opportunity of doing a dance tour sponsored by Mineralava Beauty Clay Company. This would have marketing synergy for his female fans across the country. Valentino agreed, and the tour was announced on January 23, 1923.

    The tour, which featured Valentino dancing with Rambova, began in February, lasting 17 weeks and going through 88 cities nationwide. The pair also judged beauty contests, which were sponsored by Rambova’s stepfather Richard Hudnut, who produced cosmetics. Each winner was brought to New York City on November 23, 1923, with one being crowned the ultimate winner at Madison Square Garden. David O. Selznick produced a short film about this event entitled Rudolph Valentino and his 88 American Beauties.

    Falcon Lair and Ritz-Carlton

    It was during this period that Rambova took control of Valentino’s career. Valentino returned to the movie business when he received a joint offer from Ritz-Carlton Pictures and Famous Players for $7,500 a week. He accepted the offer at the behest of Rambova and agreed to make two movies for Famous Players and four for Ritz-Carlton.

    The two movies he made for Famous Players, Monsieur Beaucaire and The Sainted Devil, both released in 1924, were commercial failures. His first movie for Ritz-Carlton was to be The Hooded Falcon (1924), with a screenplay by June Mathis. Rambova thought the script was terrible and asked that it be rewritten. Furious, Mathis refused and didn’t speak to Valentino for two years. Rambova then took over scriptwriting duties on the movie, while Valentino shot the movie Cobra (1925). As the months dragged by, the pre-production budget for The Hooded Falcon ballooned out of control. As a result, Ritz-Carlton opted to terminate his contract.

    Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova during their Mineralava Tour (1923).

    While working on pre-production for The Hooded Falcon, Valentino built a lavish estate at 1436 Bella Drive in Bel Air. He dubbed his new home ‘Falcon Lair.’ The 4,700 square foot home was built on a four-acre lot by legendary architect Wallace Neff for $175,000.

    Final Roles and Death

    Around the time Valentino was making the movie Cobra for Ritz-Carlton, he was approached by Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks to join them at United Artists, for $10,000 a week. However, this was to be without Rambova and her now-notorious meddling.

    Valentino accepted the deal, but it caused problems in his marriage. So much so that when the shooting began on The Eagle (1925), Rambova decided to take a “marital vacation” from Valentino. The marriage wouldn’t recover, and they divorced later that year.

    After traveling to Europe to promote The Eagle, Valentino returned to Hollywood to film The Son of the Sheik (1926). Valentino didn’t want to make the movie, but he was nearly destitute and needed the cash in order to pay his mounting debts. At the premiere on July 9, 1926, Valentino reconciled with Mathis.

    Valentino began to feel in poor health while filming Son of the Sheik, and it continued to worsen over the following months. Eventually, he collapsed at the Hotel Ambassador on Park Avenue in New York City on August 15, 1926. Valentino was admitted to the New York Polyclinic Hospital, where he was diagnosed with appendicitis and gastric ulcers.

    Natacha Rambova and Rudolph Valentino at their home in Hollywood Hills (1924).

    After surgery, he developed peritonitis, and his condition worsened. The doctors knew he was going to die. Yet, they let him believe he would recover fully. On August 23, Valentino fell into a coma and died a few hours later. He was only 31 years old.

    Funeral

    Mobs of people, reportedly north of 100,000, swarmed the streets of New York City during his funeral on August 30, 1926. Over 100 mounted police officers were used in restoring order during this calamitous riot. Valentino’s funeral mass was held at Saint Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church. However, a second funeral was held at the Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills when his body returned via train to California.

    Since Valentino was young when he died, he had no burial arrangements made. Mathis decided to let Valentino be interred in the crypt she had purchased for her now ex-husband. This would be a temporary solution until a final one was available. However, Mathis died of a heart attack in 1927, before these arrangements could be made. She was buried in the crypt next to the one where Valentino’s remains were housed. Both are still interred next to each other, nearly 100 years later, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

    Valentino’s estate, including Falcon Lair, was left to his brother, sister, and Rambova’s aunt Teresa Werner. The property and his belongings were auctioned off to pay his debts. Tobacco heiress Doris Duke owned and lived in the home from 1952 until she died in 1993. The house was eventually razed in 2006.

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