Critics are always questioning Valentino. I've heard from die hard Silent fans that he was 'just pretty' or 'couldn't act' and others accuse him of just playing up an image. The ironic part is Valentino fought hard for artistic and creative control, and rarely got it. And when he did it risked his career, as it wasn't 'Sheik-y'.
As we know talkie folk like to always say Silent stars wouldn't transition because they all had funny voices or heavy accents (which we've already proven, was rarely if ever true). Valentino critics like to say he would have never transitioned, and rumors about his voice are fierce.
A lot of people just simply make things up. I've heard people say he had a 'squeaky' voice or too high/low a voice. And of course the most common 'failure factor' was that he was an Italian immigrant, those same gossiping biddies say his accent would have done him in.
Fortunately they are wrong. Unfortunately unlike silent stars who lived longer, we have very little left of Valentino's voice. He died shortly after Don Juan premiered, and a year before 'Jazz Singer' took the world by storm. One could almost say with Valentino, the end of silents reign began.
The only surviving clips of Valentino's voice are 2 recordings he made. During his strike with Famous Players-Lasky Valentino had to find new ways to make some money, and apparently he decided to give music a try. He went to New York City and took a few vocal lessons with a teacher named Mazziotti. On May 14th, 1923 he made two test recordings for Brunswick Records. These recordings were "Kashmiri Song" the theme to the Sheik, and "El Relicario" the theme to Blood and Sand. Kashmiri Song was in English, El Relicario was in Spanish. Listen below on Imeem.
Kashmiri Love Song
El Relacario
For reasons unknown the recordings were never released during his lifetime. The record industry was big business by then and Valentino was a big name...so one can only really guess at this. Emily Leider's guess was that his accent was too heavy on "Kashmiri Song" and that could be. Whatever the case both recordings were released several times after his death, and apparently were quite successful.
In 2006 producer Phil York gathered a band and recorded a bunch of songs about Valentino. Many movie stars (including Miss Pickford) had several songs dedicated and about them during their day and Valentino definitely had quite a few. York also redid the music behind "Kashmiri Song" and "El Relicario" with his own band, and then placed Valentino's voice back in. Thus giving the recordings a really nice fresh sound since some of the older recordings weren't in such great shape. The versions you just heard were from that CD. I highly suggest you check it out and buy a copy, as its pretty awesome. Click here to go to York's site. I once bought an item from York on Ebay and we had a minor shipping snafu. The man couldn't have been nicer and sent me several Valentino goodies to make up for it, including the CD. Really nice guy.
But what about his speaking voice?
The one question that will...sadly...probably never be fully answered. Singing voices aren't THAT different from speaking voices. It is a pretty safe assumption to say based off the recordings alone that Valentino had a deep baritone voice that was accented. How accented is where some debate comes in. "Kashmiri Song" is pretty heavily accented, but then again its not a super great vocal recording either. He sounds more at home in a romance tongue like Spanish, but its possible that through his career his English got better and better. He didn't speak a word of English when he immigrated so its obvious he made SOME progress.
The only other thing we can do is go off first hand accounts. Louella Parsons said he had a lovely accent. Another columnist Margaret Mitchell said this of his voice, "I am pleas' to meet you," and oh! his voice! That was wherein his chief charm lay. Low and husky with a soft, sibilant accent that is unbelievably easy to listen to, it held me with its well- bred, almost monotone intonation." Gloria Swanson said he had a 'delicious accent' and she knew him pretty early in his career.
Fans did not seem to mind his voice either. During his Famous Players-Lasky strike Valentino went on a radio campaign as well as his dancing tour, both of which involved long speeches from him to the masses. No one seemed to have trouble or complaints about his voice or his voice not matching up with his image. Quite the contrary...an accented deeply sexy voice would match with 'The Sheik' or 'Julio' quite nicely.
Valentino's Talkie Career
The trouble with this section is unlike Mary you cant hear one bit of it. However it did happen, so if we're lucky maybe someday something will be found to still exist.
Recordings
In 2006 producer Phil York gathered a band and recorded a bunch of songs about Valentino. Many movie stars (including Miss Pickford) had several songs dedicated and about them during their day and Valentino definitely had quite a few. York also redid the music behind "Kashmiri Song" and "El Relicario" with his own band, and then placed Valentino's voice back in. Thus giving the recordings a really nice fresh sound since some of the older recordings weren't in such great shape. The versions you just heard were from that CD. I highly suggest you check it out and buy a copy, as its pretty awesome. Click here to go to York's site. I once bought an item from York on Ebay and we had a minor shipping snafu. The man couldn't have been nicer and sent me several Valentino goodies to make up for it, including the CD. Really nice guy.
But what about his speaking voice?
The one question that will...sadly...probably never be fully answered. Singing voices aren't THAT different from speaking voices. It is a pretty safe assumption to say based off the recordings alone that Valentino had a deep baritone voice that was accented. How accented is where some debate comes in. "Kashmiri Song" is pretty heavily accented, but then again its not a super great vocal recording either. He sounds more at home in a romance tongue like Spanish, but its possible that through his career his English got better and better. He didn't speak a word of English when he immigrated so its obvious he made SOME progress.
The only other thing we can do is go off first hand accounts. Louella Parsons said he had a lovely accent. Another columnist Margaret Mitchell said this of his voice, "I am pleas' to meet you," and oh! his voice! That was wherein his chief charm lay. Low and husky with a soft, sibilant accent that is unbelievably easy to listen to, it held me with its well- bred, almost monotone intonation." Gloria Swanson said he had a 'delicious accent' and she knew him pretty early in his career.
Fans did not seem to mind his voice either. During his Famous Players-Lasky strike Valentino went on a radio campaign as well as his dancing tour, both of which involved long speeches from him to the masses. No one seemed to have trouble or complaints about his voice or his voice not matching up with his image. Quite the contrary...an accented deeply sexy voice would match with 'The Sheik' or 'Julio' quite nicely.
Valentino's Talkie Career
The trouble with this section is unlike Mary you cant hear one bit of it. However it did happen, so if we're lucky maybe someday something will be found to still exist.
Recordings
*Kashmiri Song
*El Relicario
Radio
Radio
*During 1922 and 1923 Valentino did several radio shows during his Famous Players-Lasky strike and Mineralava Dance Tour. Most of these appearances were to blast Famous Players and berate the greedy movie executives. During one such appearance he got so irate they had to cut him off because his words had become too...spicy.
It's unknown what Valentino thought of talkies. The technology had been tested throughout the early 20s and was basically thought useful for what we'd now call 'music videos'. It probably didn't effect him and probably wouldn't have unless he lived another year. Most silent stars didn't make a talkie till 1928 or 1929. Valentino was sick of playing his Latin Lover roles anyways and had plans to retire eventually. Its likely he may have just went behind the camera all together...we have no way of knowing.
Verdict: Talkie or Silent?
Valentino will always be one of the greatest silent actors EVER. I would probably start a war over this if needed. That's how strongly I feel on the matter. HOWEVER I would have loved to see him make a talkie version of Dracula. I'm sure Valentino would have hated the idea (first Julio, then the Sheik, then Dracula) as it wasn't 'artistic' BUT oh man...he would have been great at it. Sadly we can only dream...
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