His death at age 31 spurred suicide attempts and waves of public violence by mourners; a testament to the singular cultural lightning rod that had been the life of Rudolph Valentino. Dubbed “The Great Lover” for posterity, H.L. Mencken called him “catnip to women,” even as some of the nation’s most influential op-ed pages castigated him as a catalyst in a national wave of effeminacy in…
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