Calling All Ladies in Black!

It was 86 years ago that Rudolph Valentino left this mortal coil. The Sheik was a mere 31 sexy years old when he died in New York of pleurisy. What is pleurisy you ask yourself, well it is a disease that really doesn't exist anymore thanks to anti-biotics. It is the kind of disease that many a heroine in a romance novel falls prey to.
Rudolph Valentino the Latin lover and biggest grossing star of the 1920's was more than a just dashing figure he was a heart throb. He was the original matinee idol. The announcement of his death made women literally swoon. His funeral in New York was a mad house. 100,000 mourners stood in line to view the body. Polish actress Pola Negri collapsed upon seeing the casket. Valentino's body was then sent via train to Los Angeles where another equally elaborate funeral was arranged. As Valentino was a young man and had been in good health he had no final resting spot and one had to quickly arranged. His friend and mentor June Mathis offered her crypt in what is now Hollywood Forever Cemetery. This was meant to be a temporary resting spot but here it is 86 years later and there he lies.

One of the oddest of all results of the icon's death is the Lady in Black. The Lady or as it must be assumed Ladies in Black appear at Valentino's crypt dressed in widows weeds leaving roses. As he died 86 years ago and the Lady in Black still appears one must assume that the mantle has been passed down through at least two generations. This is just a myth I hear you saying but I am here to tell you the Lady in black is real! I have seen her with my own slightly disbelieving eyes. She puts on a show too! The weeping is world class. The Lady in Black I have seen also added a bit of low singing in a vaguely foreign language that was indecipherable. It was an over all mind boggling effect.