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anybody know who this man is whom Valentino is making up for looks like to be "Son of the Sheik" role?

Online sources claim it's the boxer Gene Tunney.

It certainly is, dear Brooksie. If only they had meet much sooner and settled in Paris.

Yes, that's Tunney looking far prettier than Dempsey ever did.

Tunney was in Hollywood briefly in 1926, starring in the Pathe serial, "The Fighting Marine". Rudy is in costume for his last film , "the son of The Sheik".

thanks,...strange Tunney never mentioned he knew Rudy. Maybe he's in Son of the Sheik in an uncredited role.

It occurs to me that this would have been around the time of the notorious 'pink powder puff' comment. Perhaps the image was taken when Rudy was gearing up to fight for his honour. There could be worse people to take training from.

Brooksie wrote:It occurs to me that this would have been around the time of the notorious 'pink powder puff' comment. Perhaps the image was taken when Rudy was gearing up to fight for his honour. There could be worse people to take training from.

If that is the case, then it begs the question - "Why is he applying make-up to another man?" Nobody would blink an eyelid these days of course, but back in '26 I am sure it would have created quite a stir after that infamous article.

Brooksie, yes, I think Paramount Publicity may have contrived the photo to counteract all that pink powderpuff publicity. Rudy is made up to look unmade up, while Gene looks like he's ready for the Folles Bergere. The photo seems to be saying, "Look, all actors wear make up - even "The Fighting Marine"!

And Donald, I don't think the man applying make up to an actor was necessarily considered effeminate in the early days. It was Douglas Fairbanks who started the whole idea of having a make up man, because he considered it effeminate to make himself up. For some reason, for Doug,it was OK if another man made you up. And these professional makeup men, for example, the Westmores, were not necessarily considered "powder puffs" .

Speaking as a makeup artist, I can tell you a lot of the old timers were hardly a "powder puff."

Also there is photos of Chaney makeing up James Murray on the set of THUNDER (1929) and no one said a thing. Nor did anyone say anything when Chaney did Dempsey's makeup for DAREDEVIL JACK.

Because Valentino was such a major heartthrob to the ladies, disgruntled guys came up with the powder puff comments.
Nothing has changed.

Michael F. Blake

Well, since they were both AC/DC I find the photo quite interesting. Was is ever offered to the news agencies of the day?

On the 'pink powder puff', Ken Russell certainly picked up that bit of Rudy history and ran with it in his movie-bio back in '76. It encompasses a good part of the film and I found quite vicious - all based on innuendo. In his Hollywood series, the episode on Valentino, Kevin Brownlow balances the situation by showing us some newsreel footage of Rudy sparring with Dempsey referreing.