It Begins

I chose third person as the point of view for my first post because it seemed to work better for me.  However, there is no reason to continue with that.   From now on, this story is definitely in a first person point of view.  It happened , and it happened to me.

The date and time was Thursday, March 27, 2008  8:00PM.  

I walked into the family room and found my husband flipping through channels on the television.  He settled on TCM.  The movie about to start was made in 1951 and starred Anthony Dexter and Eleanor Parker.  The title of the movie was, "Valentino", a supposed biography of the actor.  

I sat down to watch.  I was mildly curious.  I am a huge fan of silent films and have been for a long time.  My favorite actors were Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Lon Chaney.  I had never seen a film starring Rudolph Valentino.  Actually, he was basically the punch line of a joke to me, The Sheik and all that.

When the film was over, my curiosity about him was piqued.  I sat down at my computer and started researching him.  The more I read and the more pictures I saw, the more my desire to learn about him increased.  Finally, at about 3AM I had to force myself to leave my computer and go to bed, but not before I had ordered a biography of him and a DVD which contained both films, "The Sheik" and "The Son of the Sheik".  

When I got to bed, I was tired and sleepy, but restless, very restless.  I didn't sleep well that night.

The next morning, I started again.  I found many websites with information about him.  I was struck by the amount of contradictory information and negative, no down right nasty, comments.  He was short - he was tall.  He was a flaming queen - he was absolutely straight.  He never would have made the transition to talking films because he had a really high squeaky voice.  I spent hours reading.  I experienced a jumble of emotions.  Mostly, I was confused.  Who was this man? Could the multitude of veneers be stripped away in order to see what was really there?

I found myself thinking about him again and again.  There was something I couldn't put my finger on, so I kept pushing.

As soon as the DVD arrived, I sat down and watched both films.  It was amazing. Watching Rudy alive, moving, talking and laughing, I felt a sense of recognition as if I were looking at someone I had known, and known well, but hadn't seen in a very long time.  There was a strong sense of sadness.  I developed a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach, accompanied by a sense of urgency.  It was weird.  There was something very familiar about what was happening and how I was reacting.  I tried to shake it off, but couldn't.  Finally, I chalked it up as my response to a mystery that needed to be solved.  It was the only explanation for the agitation I was experiencing.  One concrete result was I ordered as many of his films as I could find.  I even got in touch with the Movie Hunters, a group dedicated to finding rare films.  I asked them to get a copy of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", the movie that catapulted Rudy into stardom.  I was delighted when they said they were sure they could find a copy for me.  It would probably take 3 to 4 weeks.

So, I had more movies coming, and was anticipating the arrival of the biography.  I was going to have to be patient, not one of my strong suits.  The one thing that helped most was the fact that in a very few days, I would be traveling to Ireland with my sister.  I was definitely looking forward to that.  We were scheduled to leave on May 7th.  I was sure the trip would pull me out the funk I found myself in.