July 16, 1926 — The film "Son Of The Sheikh", starring heart-throb Rudolph Valentino, opened in America on this day. It was the follow-up to "The Sheik" – a movie that had established his reputation across the world as a major sex symbol. But just five weeks after the Son’s premiere, 31-year-old Valentino was dead. He had been taken to hospital with a ruptured ulcer and survived for only a week. New York City police were overwhelmed by the number of mourners who turned up for his funeral. It was estimated that more than 100,000 people gathered outside the funeral home where his body was held and a riot broke out as mourners struggled to get a last look at their idol. His final resting place would be Hollywood, the city that made him a star. On the five-day train trip from New York to Tinseltown, thousands of mourners turned out to pay their respects. Born Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguella in Castellaneta, Italy, he believed at an early age that he was destined for great things, and when he was 18 he left Italy to seek fame and fortune in America. He arrived at New York in December 1913 but quickly learned that doors would not magically open for him. He was soon living on the streets. His first job was as a “bus boy” – helping restaurant waiters give out food and clearing away dishes. Later he became a “taxi dancer” at a night club, spending time on the dance floor with wealthy women who were willing to pay for the company of exotic young men. In 1917, Valentino set his sights on Hollywood but after arriving there he was given only bit parts. That all changed when he landed the lead role in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". The 1921 movie was a triumph, becoming one of the highest grossing silent films of all time – one of the first films to make $1 million at the box office. The stardom that resulted for the darkly handsome actor began to turn into mounting hysteria and there were reports that some women fainted when they saw him in his next movie, "The Sheik", which was also released in 1921. Valentino’s sultry performance gave the word “Sheik” a new meaning. More than just an Arab title, after 1921 it denoted an irresistibly attractive man. The Sheik endorsed his image as one of the first male sex symbols of the screen and gave him international stardom. He became known as the “Latin lover” – his tall, dark, handsome appearance making him irresistible to audiences at the time. Off screen, romance proved more of a problem for Valentino. In 1919, he married an actress named Jean Acker, but their union was never consummated. According to several accounts, after an argument she locked him out of their hotel room on their wedding night. Their six hours together is seen as one of the shortest celebrity romances on record, as verified by Guinness. Divorced from Acker in 1921, he was arrested and forced to pay a fine after his 1922 wedding in Mexico to actress Natacha Rambova. Under laws at the time, divorced people had to wait a year before remarrying. Before his death Valentino was having an affair with Polish actress Pola Negri. Overcome with emotion at his funeral, she fainted onto his coffin, and when revived announced that Valentino had proposed to her. She fainted several more times at a second service for him in Hollywood, then pronounced that she was the star’s “widow”. Ironically, the great “Latin lover,” the sex symbol who is said to have caused women around the world to swoon, at one time confessed to a journalist that he had always been unhappy in love. “The women I love don’t love me. The others don’t matter,” he allegedly said.