1

Lily recognized her mother's intense infatuation with Rudolph Valentino at a very young age. Her mother had many mementos of the famous silent screen star and a portrait of him hung over her bed for many years. Perhaps this was what made her father finally leave them , when Lily was just 5 years old. Trying to make love to a woman with a picture of another man's face hanging over the bed would be daunting for any man with any self respect, let alone it being the face of, "The Great Lover. "

But even after her father's abandonment and with them having to move back with her grandma for awhile, (a shrill who constantly needled her daughter, with a ferocious temper that could not be reasoned away), Lily's mother never wavered in her love for Valentino. She would keep Lily up late at night talking about her girlhood days, when she along with aunt Patty would make the hour long walk to town to see his movies. She said, she would just sit there as long as she could, long after the movie ended, hoping it would show again soon after and hoped Patty, being the older sister and boss of the two, would be lulled into staying late. Unlike her mother, aunt Patty was never fixated on Rudolph Valentino, or any man for that matter. She was far too practical a woman for that sort of thing, and so often, she was a rock, providing some stability in their lives. She even got them out of Lily's grandma's house to the duplex, where she also lived. This way they were right next to each other, almost as if in the same house, and Lily could go to her aunt's whenever she wanted and many times did.

Some times Lily wished her dark haired, dark eyed mom, a seamstress, was more like aunt Patty, a bookkeeper with long beautiful, wavy, red hair, usually pulled up in a bun, with green sharp eyes under pointy, thin glasses. But as much as she admired aunt Patty's no nonsense attitude and calming demeanor, Lily truly adored her mother, and on the heels of her 20th birthday acknowledged how hard she worked to keep Lily happy.

She also was mature enough now to understand just how much Rudolph Valentino meant to her mother and could intelligently weigh the possible driving factors behind it. She liked to approach it from this angle. Taking all the emotion out of it, made it seem more manageable and somewhat innocent. She pondered that perhaps her mother didn't so much miss Rudy and long for him, but missed the freedom and newness of being young and longed to recapture a time in her life where everything seemed possible. Maybe that was really the underlying factor for her state, and obviously it didn't help that he was remembered like a myth, a legendary figure enblazend at a point in time for anyone who knew him. Whatever it was, Lily thought, never feeling the wiser on these intellectual jogs, he had her mother, IT had her mother, and she saw from first hand experience how she suffered for it.

Lily wondered if her mother could see his movies again, and actually experience what she experienced so long ago in those darken movie theaters, it would satisfy that some thing within her that had her clinging to a symbol of her past. And perhaps, given the chance she would open herself up to someone new, if she just could quell the desire to see Valentino on screen again. But the chance of catching a Rudy Valentino movie, in Salisbury MD, in 1953 was remote at best. Silents were recognized as something of the past, and it seemed every one's focus was on the future. The era of silents and all that belonged to it, held little interest for them, at least for this community and within her generation.

So, when mother recently came across some information that a man in New York had Valentino movies in his possession, she was willing to help her mother, prepare for and plan a revival. The Valentino revival, for 3 days on Valentine's Day weekend. She even got aunt Patty, who was in the thick of tax season, recruited for this ambitious and enormous project.

"Lily, for goodness sakes keep it up. You still have lots of envelopes to stuff."

When Lily didn't say anything and just continued on to the next flyer her mother said, giving her a quick wink, "Those flyer's won't mail themselves, you know."

Lily rolled her eyes. She knew she told her mom she'd help but this task was tedious. She also felt at this rate she would never be able to taste anything again. Lily licked the envelope after folding the flyer in 3 parts and noticed the eyes of Rudolph piercing out at her. His head was placed squarely in the middle at the top of each sheet which read: "3 Days of the legendary Valentino, Valentine Day's Weekend, twenty-five cents a ticket, at Saint Joseph church of Christ, off Hwy 1."

It also read what movies were showing and when, all were scheduled to show at 7:00 p.m., Friday: the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, Saturday: The Sheik and Sunday: The Son of the Sheik. Even though Lily had never seen a Valentino movie she saw the various pictures and lobby cards for each of these movies at one time or other. Each title of the movies brought back images of Valentino in different poses and costumes. Her favorite of them, was The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Where he looked towards the camera with dark eyes and a hat that had balls on it. His expression was soft yet wild.

Lily also enjoyed seeing her mom so happy, it was fun watching her keep so busy, and working so hard on something she enjoyed. It was as if she was getting ready for her own wedding day. Lily couldn't think of a time she was more excited and jubilant about anything. It was with this excitement, often contagious, she was able to convince the priest's wife, Mrs. Bright to let her use the hall for the event. It was on the promise she would pay for the movies herself, get a projector, find a projectionist, supply the organ music and the organist for it.

Lily's mother found the movies through a private vendor from New York, who she heard about when her and aunt Patty went for lunch at the local diner. The new waitress there, told her mom all about this man, when some how Rudy was brought up, which is known to happen often in the presence of Lily's mom. The waitress said, he was driving through to New York and mentioned the films when she expressed interest in him being a film distributor. She had asked him if he had any Gregory Peck movies. He told her no, that he only had silents and "artsy films". Not knowing anything about silents he went through the list and he mentioned Valentino. The waitress only remembered him because he gave her his card and asked her to call him if she was in New York and he would take her out on the town. She gave the card to mother without thinking much of it, and from what aunt Patty said, her mother clung to it all the way home, like a condemned prisoner with day pass.

When Lily's mother called him, he told her he would be glad to bring the Valentino movies to Salisbury and gave her the cost to do so. Apparently he worked with a mostly private clientele (aunt Patty later called it nudie business) instead of popular venues for public consumption. He also said that he came the possession of the Valentino movies when her mother asked him how, "by chance". That when a client of his went into bankruptcy and had to sell off his beloved Valentino collection to pay off his debts. Getting them at a good bargain, he said he included them in the library but hadn't much use for them. So, he told Lily's mother, "I'm not asking for as much as I usually do for the cost of the movies, but to transport them down to the city makes the price a little higher than what you were probably expecting."

Lily's mother told him "it's a deal" in one exuberant breath, guaranteeing the sale, and not really thinking of the cost until she talked it over with aunt Patty.

Aunt Patty said, "He could mail them here at the same cost, I bet he wants to come back to see that waitress. Maybe we can get her to get us a discount." But even with a discount, it was still a lot of cash to come up with in just a few weeks.

Lily had stuffed and licked about 50 envelopes to send out in a mass mailing that still made very little sense to her even after her mother explained it three times. But she did as she was told because she could see the math behind getting one person to buy 1 ticket for each movie, which would be seventy five cents, and if they brought someone with them, which most likely most of them would, it would be a dollar fifty for each flyer sent out. Also, everything seemed to be falling into place. Dean Wilson was not only kind enough to offer his projection skills for this event,(and as a favor for aunt Patty) he was bringing the projector. His father was at one time a cameraman back in the 1920s and was given a projector on the day of his retirement, but aunt Patty always in the know, quipped the senior Mr. Wilson, actually stole the camera because the studio failed to pay for his last two days of work, because he spent them at the bar with friends from the industry. Aunt Patty was responsible for finding the organ music and the organist. She was able to find the organ music through the library but still was looking for someone to play at a low price or even better, just volunteering.

Although, excited for her mother, and the thought if her mother seeing Valentino on the silver screen again, would be good for her, Lily started to approach the event like her aunt approaches everything in life, and that was to be pragmatic about it. She started expecting her mom to find a void where luscious feelings should be and a conclusion that she had built it up all in her head and it was all flights of fantasy, in all these years she fawned over his memory. Lily hoped so. Even though, her mom seemed happy, Lily wanted her mother to find love again, and she felt sorry for her that she never really had a chance at it. Plus she still couldn't grasp the appeal of someone long dead, and it's hold over her. He was certainly cute enough, even quite exquisite to look at and the poems she read from his book, Daydreams, kept in her mother's nightstand, were very sweet and lovely, but this?

"How many do you have left?" Lily's mother asked urgently, putting the phone to her chest to muffle their conversation.

Lily shrugged and counted eight.

"Well hurry, and finish. I want to get them to the post office before they close." She then put the phone back to her ear. "Well, Dean if you could manage to get here in a half hour, I should be ready. Thanks again for giving me a lift. Patty's working late so much these days."

***

"If that silly, gossipy waitress never mentioned that vendor sitting on a gold mine of Valentino movies, we wouldn't be in this mess," aunt Patty muttered under her breath later in the day when she came through the door. She was annoyed and feeling frustrated trying to find someone who not only would play the organ for silent movies, but knew how to. "Look what she's done!" She put her purse on the counter, after taking out a cigarette, lit it, and leaned back, "Your mom is half crazed with that god forsaken Valentino fever!"

Lily giggled. "You sound like grandma."

Aunt Patty, looked insulted at first and still obviously frustrated, then she softened when she looked at Lily and gave a sly, teasing smile, "That's the most horrid thing anyone has ever said to me."

"Grandma was always pretty terrible wasn't she?"

Aunt Patty, nodded, and brushed Lily's bangs out of her eyes. "Some times I think Lilah is the way she is because of that woman. She made our lives a living hell when we were kids. No wonder she escaped into her thoughts of Valentino," she took a drag off her cigarette and then as she breathed out she looked out over Lily's head and said, "He was strong, gorgeous to look at and so sweet. He could be a protector, a lover, a friend. Shield us from all the ugly truths of the world."

"Some times I wish I could go back in time and see what it was like, watching his movies, and liking him like that."

Aunt Patty chuckled as she took a last drag and put out her cigarette, "Don't worry about that, Lil. If your anything like your mother, and you are, you will. And soon enough too."

As she left the house, she called out, without looking back, "Tell your mom to come over when she gets back! I need to talk to her."