May 06
Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero Filiberto Guglielmi's Birthday

 

After odolfo left Italy to find work in the United States, He started out as a busboy in New York, but his good looks allowed him to work as a gigolo while pursuing a dance career. He made his way to California in 1917.  A friend named Norman Kerry convinced him to go into silent pictures. Rodolfo moved in with Kerry in Los Angeles where he began taking extra and bit work and eventually changed his name to Rudolph Valentino. Rudy impulsively married the lesbian actress Jean Acker who had been caught in a love triangle with two other actresses, Grace Darmond and Alla Nazimova.  Acker thought that her marriage to Rudy might end the rumors. Allegedly, the  marriage was never consummated. Rudy had not been told of her sexuality and thought he had done something wrong.  Nazimova introduced him to her friend Natacha Rambova, also a lesbian, who fell in love with Rudy and they lived together for a while and then eloped to Mexico in the belief his divorce from Jean Acker was official .But divorce papers were never filed and Rudy was jailed and fined $10,000 for being a bigamist,  After their re-marriage two years later. Rambova left him because he signed a contract that barred her from being on his set. He began dating Pola Negri and was also linked romantically to actress Vilma Banky. Rodolfo's continued involvement with lesbian and bisexual women led to the rumors that he was also bisexual. Rudy got his big break when he was signed to star in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). The first million dollar production saved Metro and made him a star. He left Metro and signed with the more commercial Famous Players-Lasky studio. Jesse Lasky cast him as the lead in The Sheik (1921) as Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan. The film was a major success and would go on to define his image as film's first male sex symbol. In 1926, Rudy had a surgery for a perforated ulcer after which peritonitis set in and he died at age 31  His death caused mass hysteria among his female fans. He was severely in debt when he died, and his family could not afford a burial plot for him. Script writer June Mathis offered to temporarily loan him a space in her family crypt at Hollywood Park Cemetery so he could be interred upon his body's arrival in Los Angeles following a coast-to-coast funeral train ride from New York. Rudy's body remains in that "borrowed" crypt, interestingly next to Mathis to this day.  For many years on the anniversary of Rudy's death, a mysterious woman, dressed all in black, was seen laying a wreath of flowers on his grave. Her identity was never established. So to celebrate Rudys birthday, what could be more appropriate than the Lebanese treat, Sheik el Mahshi and renting a copy of The Sheik?

 
Sheik el Mahshi
(Eggplant with Meat Sauce)

1. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and widthwise and "stripe" the skin with a peeler. Core the eggplant, leaving at least 1/3-inch outer layer. Reserve cores for red sauce.
2. Sauté the eggplant in vegetable oil until all sides are brown.
3. Lightly brown the lamb in a frying pan and drain oil.  Add remaining ingredients and cook over medium-high heat for 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook for about 10 minutes.
4. Blend the eggplant cores and jalapeno until smooth in a food processor.
5. Place mixture in saucepan with heated olive oil and sauté until it boils and melts together, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the remaining ingredients and boil until it thickens and oil appears at top.
6. Stuff eggplant with prepared lamb and top with red sauce.