Laura Wright 
Hollyweird
Rudolph Valentino is considered the silver screen’s first great “sex symbol.” His piercing gaze stole the hearts of countless women during the 1920s, and his sudden death at the age of 31 only added to his legend. Yet one of the strangest stories surrounding Valentino concerns an unusual piece of jewelry known as the Ring of Destiny.
According to legend, the ring brought misfortune not only to Valentino, but to several people who possessed it after his death.
The Legend of the Ring of Destiny
The story begins in 1920, when Valentino supposedly spotted a ring while visiting a pawnshop. It was not particularly beautiful, but something about it caught his attention, and he purchased it.
Valentino later wore the ring during the filming of The Young Rajah. The picture flopped, and afterward he stopped wearing the ring for approximately two years.
When he finally put it on again, Valentino was touring in support of his new movie, Son of the Sheik. Within a week, he was hospitalized with bleeding ulcers. He subsequently died.
Following Valentino’s death, the ring supposedly passed to his girlfriend, actress Pola Negri. His family reportedly allowed her to choose one item from his estate as a memento, and she selected the ring. Soon afterward, according to the legend, Negri’s health began to decline dramatically. Her career nearly ended as well as her life.
Negri eventually gave the ring to singer Russ Columbo, who was known for his resemblance to Valentino. Columbo later died in what the legend describes as an unsolved shooting accident.
One of Columbo’s relatives supposedly passed the ring to a gangster named Joe Casino. Casino was aware of the ring’s unlucky reputation but chose to wear it anyway. Within a week, he was hit by a truck.
The ring then passed to Joe’s brother, Del Casino. Unlike his brother, Del reportedly refused to wear it. That precaution apparently did him little good. During a robbery at his home, a thief stole the Ring of Destiny along with several other items. Police later shot and killed the thief as he attempted to escape.
Years later, another actor supposedly wore the ring to an audition for the role of Rudolph Valentino in a film about the silent star’s life. Within a week, the young actor was dead from a rare disease.
According to one version of the legend, the ring eventually ended up locked inside a Hollywood bank vault, awaiting its next victim.
It is a wonderful story.
Unfortunately, much of it is unproven.
Rudolph Valentino Before the Ring
Rudolph Valentino was born in 1895 to a French mother and an Italian father. He eventually made his way to New York City, long before becoming the man who would be remembered as the first great sex symbol in American cinema.
Valentino’s life, however, was far less glamorous than the characters he portrayed on the silver screen.
While in New York, he befriended a socialite named Blanca de Saulles. It has frequently been implied that the two were lovers, although there is no evidence to prove such a relationship existed.
Blanca’s real name was Blanca Errázuriz. A native of Chile, she married John de Saulles, a highly influential and wealthy businessman. By most accounts, the marriage was far from happy. De Saulles was more than a decade older than his bride, although Blanca came from a family even wealthier than his own.
At the time, Valentino worked as a “taxi dancer,” someone who was paid to dance with customers. Paid dancers were common during the 1920s and 1930s. Sometimes club owners wanted accomplished dancers on the floor, while other establishments employed dancers who could teach patrons the latest steps.
Valentino caught Blanca’s attention while performing the tango, which was still a novel and celebrated form of dance. The two became friends, and Valentino eventually agreed to testify on her behalf during her upcoming divorce trial.
He was not the only person willing to support Blanca. Valentino backed her claim that John de Saulles was having an affair with a dancing girl, while other witnesses testified that de Saulles had been abusing his wife’s wealth.
Scandal in New York
John de Saulles was enraged.
He allegedly used his political influence to have false charges brought against Valentino, as well as against another woman suspected of being a madam. Exactly what those charges were has been lost to time.
Whatever happened, the combination of the trial, scandal, and trumped-up charges was enough to damage Valentino’s life in New York. He found himself unable to work, and many of his former friends would no longer speak to him. As far as is known, Blanca never even thanked him for his assistance.
Eventually, Valentino had enough of the drama that had overtaken his life. He left New York with his grandfather, and the two traveled west to San Francisco.
His luck did not immediately improve.
Valentino endured a failed marriage that was never consummated. Later, he landed a role in the movie Camille, where he met director Natacha Rambova.
Valentino and Natacha Rambova
Valentino and Rambova became a couple, but their relationship proved turbulent as well. They married in 1923, although the union remained rocky.
Valentino wanted children. Rambova did not.
The movies in which they worked together flopped, and eventually Rambova had an affair with a cameraman. The man who had become one of the most desired figures on the silver screen found himself the victim of infidelity.
The couple divorced in 1926.
Afterward, Valentino seemed almost to develop a death wish. His behavior became increasingly risky and careless. He engaged in a string of simultaneous open affairs, nearly killed himself in several automobile accidents, and refused to see a doctor when he became ill.
The “Pink Powder Puff” Controversy
Valentino’s enormous popularity with women did not necessarily endear him to the men of his era.
One journalist from the Chicago Tribune publicly labeled him a “pink powder puff” and accused the actor of being responsible for the effeminization of men nationwide.
Valentino was furious.
He challenged the journalist to a boxing match. The writer refused, but the newspaper sent someone it believed would be a worthy opponent. Valentino won the match, beating the other man despite being ill at the time.
That illness would soon become far more serious.
The Death of Rudolph Valentino
Valentino suffered from bleeding ulcers but refused to see a physician until he had no other choice. While touring for his film Son of the Sheik, he collapsed and was admitted to the hospital.
Doctors performed surgery and initially said the procedure had been successful. A few days later, however, Valentino succumbed to an infection from the surgery.
The reaction to his death was extraordinary.
In New York, approximately 80,000 women attended his funeral. His body was also displayed in Los Angeles, where several mourning women reportedly committed suicide at his memorial.
Even death did not end the stories surrounding Valentino. His ghost is still said to haunt several places he frequented during his lifetime.
And then, of course, there was the ring.
Pola Negri and the Ring
Silent-screen femme fatale Pola Negri shocked those attending Valentino’s funeral when she announced that she and the actor had been engaged.
Unfortunately, Negri could provide no proof of the engagement. Although she publicly discussed their relationship, members of the press suspected her announcement was a publicity stunt.
Negri experienced considerable tragedy in her own life, including being forced to flee from the Nazis. She also had a history of poor health that included a stay in a sanitarium.
Despite the questions surrounding their relationship, Negri continued to describe Valentino as the “love of her life” until her death decades later.
According to the Ring of Destiny legend, Negri was also one of the ring’s victims.
What Happened to Blanca de Saulles?
Blanca de Saulles’ own story eventually took another violent turn.
She continued to fight with her husband over custody of their son. During one confrontation, the argument became physical, and Blanca drew a weapon on him. He grabbed for it, but during the struggle she shot him five times.
Blanca was eventually acquitted of his murder because her husband had refused to acknowledge court orders.
The Strange Death of Russ Columbo
Singer Russ Columbo really did die from a shooting accident in September 1934, but contrary to some versions of the Ring of Destiny story, his death was not “unsolved.”
Columbo was visiting the home of a longtime friend, where the two men were examining the friend’s gun collection. His friend accidentally discharged one of the weapons. The bullet ricocheted off a piece of furniture and struck Columbo in the eye.
The accident killed him.
Whether Valentino’s ring had anything to do with Columbo is another matter entirely.
The Mysterious Casino Brothers
The next alleged owner of the Ring of Destiny is considerably more difficult to trace.
Joe Casino, described in versions of the legend as a “gangster,” has not been remembered by history. No information can be found about him or his brother, Del.
Nevertheless, the two men remain part of the traditional story. Joe supposedly wore the ring despite knowing about its reputation and was struck by a truck. Del refused to wear it, only to have it stolen from his home by a thief who was subsequently killed by police.
Without additional information about either man, this portion of the Ring of Destiny story remains particularly mysterious.
Jack Dunn and the Valentino Ring
Jack Dunn is the actor most often identified as the ring’s final victim.
There is no record of Dunn actually wearing Valentino’s ring. However, the British Olympic ice skater was just beginning a career in film and had indeed landed the role of Rudolph Valentino in a movie about the silent star’s life.
Then Dunn was struck by a mysterious illness.
Within two weeks, he was dead at the age of 21.
Dunn was diagnosed with “rabbit fever,” or tularemia, a rare disease that can pass from rodents to humans. The disease can be fatal if left untreated.
Jack Dunn died in July 1938.
What Happened to the Ring of Destiny?
There is no definitive record of what became of Valentino’s infamous ring.
Some accounts claim that a barber in Brooklyn, New York, eventually won the ring in a contest. Other versions insist it remains somewhere inside a Hollywood bank.
Even the story of how Valentino originally acquired the ring is disputed.
Sometimes he purchased it from a pawnshop. In other versions, it came from a curio shop or jewelry store. Some stories claim that the proprietor warned Valentino about the ring, telling him that it was known as the “Ring of Destiny” and had a history of bringing bad luck to its owners.
The physical appearance of the ring changes as well.
In some accounts, it is nothing more than a silver band. In others, it is described as a silver ring set with a cat’s-eye stone.
Photographs of Valentino are readily available, and in some of them the actor can be seen wearing rings. In fairness to the legend, photographs do exist showing him wearing jewelry resembling some descriptions of the mysterious Ring of Destiny.
Curse, Coincidence, or Hollywood Legend?
Regardless of the truth behind it, the Ring of Destiny remains one of the most fascinating legends to emerge from Hollywood’s silent-film era.
The story contains genuine people and genuine tragedies, but it also revolves around information that cannot easily be proven or debunked. The ring itself seems to drift between history and folklore, changing appearance, location, and even ownership depending upon who tells the story.
Perhaps that uncertainty is precisely why the legend has survived.
Was Rudolph Valentino’s Ring of Destiny ever real?
Or is the story itself as fictitious as one of the movies that made Valentino a legend?
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