So what have I been working on lately? A little site called The Rudolph Valentino Society...which has so many articles its exhausting me! I'll be updating FTT shortly.
One really great thing about this project is the articles section...once I finish the lengthy Gloria Swanson one I'll be happy. I highly recommend checking out the Vilma Banky article, written by her biographer Rachel Schildgen!
One thing I've wanted to do for awhile is put out a solid biography on Nita Naldi...the premiere vamp queen after Theda Bara. Nita was Valentino's most frequent co-star...yet there was absolutely nothing out there about her. The web was useless, and the few books that mention her don't give any details or go into in depth research. Nita deserved way better.
So I spent 3 days straight researching dear Nita. She was as salty as everyone thought! When I found enough information I wanted to run it through Ancestry.com...find the census and what not. That turned out harder than I thought and the results were just amazing!
Nita gave several birth names and places...and dates...throughout her life. These included Jianna Maria Theresa, Nonna Dooley, Anita Donna Dooley, Donna Dooley, and even Mary Dooley. Her birth year was anywhere from 1897-1900, and her birth state was anything from New Jersey to DC depending what she felt like at the moment.
Little was known about Nita's family, other than she had a sister. The articles I read said her father died while she was young and then her mom soon after. She noted she had a great aunt who was Mother Superior of a Catholic school.
Nitratevillian Jim Gettys was able to find the census records. A Mary Nonna Dunphy founded The Academy of Holy Angeles in 1879 in Ft. Lee, New Jersey. A Nonna Dooley attended her school in 1910, aged 15. Nonna was also found to be living in New York, same age. Her father was around in 1900, but by 1910 census he was no longer listed and her grandparents were living with the family. Nita's tombstone verifies the names: Julia Dooley (her mother), Mary Dunphy (her sister), and Daniel Francis (Frank, her brother). Nita said her mother died soon after her father left (or so I'm betting). Indeed Julia died in 1915, the same year Nita entered theatre. Again without Jim I probably wouldn't have found the damn thing...so I owe him so much for that!
So despite the fact Nita will surely haunt me for revealing her real age, she was born March 1895 as Nonna Dooley. This is I'm certain the first time this news has been discovered anywhere. All other reports cite her as Anita Donna Dooley...Anita seems logical but indeed it wasn't her name. Most birth dates cite 1897 at the latest...but nope she was just slightly older than Valentino!
Other interesting things found: Nita stole her husband J Searle Barclay in 1923 (and though they were together almost a decade the marriage was quite short). Her weight was scrutinized quite unfairly throughout her career. And she almost made a talkie in the 40s!
For all Nita revelations please click here. Now who's gonna tell Wikipedia?
3 comments:
I've tried to change Wikipedia, but they changed it back... XD Seems like it will be a hard time until the new information about Nita Naldi will make it to the public and be... official.
Great detective work - very interesting findings. And by the way, the new Rudy page is looking pretty good!
for many years I had on my wall a lovely large photograph of Naldi inscribd to James Kirkwood Jr. Jimmy's aunt Peg Tufford (Lila Lee's sister) gave it to me when I was a boy. when I went to Buffalo for the tryout of "P S Your Cat is Dead" I brought it with me & gave it to Jimmy.
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