Boudoir Dolls of Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova 1921 CONTEST WINNER DOLLS

Description

Up for auction;
Boudoir Dolls of Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova from the  1921 -1922 Beauty Contest. Winners Received one set of these Dolls from most cities. The dolls are complete but show condition issues, please look at photos closely for condition.
Also included is the original Beauty Contest Movie Reel from 1922.
Please see writeup below.
Along with trophies, Mineralava (advertising sponsors) gave out boudoir dolls of Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova to contest winners. This is a most interesting program about a Valentino dolls from 1922. A finalist in a 1922 Birmingham, AL, beauty contest, (this auction is not the doll from Birmingham but from another unknown city) was presented with dolls like pictured above by Valentino himself; they are likenesses of Valentino and his wife. The contestants won a trip to NYC. Here is the story about these dolls: In 1923 Valentino wanted to tour America for his next leading lady. He was not happy with the movie studio and took off that year with his wife Winifred Hudnut to do a dance performance and choose the most beautiful girl in each of the 88 cities. Each girl would go to NY for the finals in Nov. and be crowned the most beautiful. This contestant was chosen Miss Birmingham and danced with Rudy and was presented the dolls as trophies. Not all city winners got dolls. Some received loving cups. The dolls are about 30 in. long. The heads are made of plaster and the long lanky cotton bodies are loosely stuffed. She had a comb in her cotton yarn hair and a rust colored silk shawl with fringe. The artist.(Sardeaw's Dolls). Helene Sardeaw was a native off Belgium. Made dolls of movie stars 1921-24. On page 542 in Coleman's Encyclopedia of Dolls Vol. 1, you will see her history.. A movie was made of this event and produced by a young producer named David O.Selznick. It was his first film and he went on to big fame with "Gone With The Wind" and others. This girl that came to my house from Penn, and is working on a book, said she had never seen the dolls. So with all that, I would say they are very rare . The contest came to Birmingham, AL, Mar. 31 and went on to Louisville after here and ended in Nov. in NY. Desperate for money, Valentino and Rambova decided to create a dance act and tour the country for Mineralava Beauty Clay cosmetics. Starting in New York Citys Century Theatre at a benefit for the Actors Fund on a bill with Will Rogers and Jeanne Eagels, the couple caused a sensation and received 20 curtain calls. Valentino was stampeded by 300 fans as he left the theater. A Boston headline claimed 10,000 Girls Mob Worlds Greatest Kisser. The mobs became so predictable that Valentino and Rambova often escaped theaters over rooftops. The couple performed in 88 cities in the United States and Canada during a grueling 17-week tour. The hysteria followed them wherever they performed. The dance tour garnered a tremendous amount of publicity and earned the couple a big weekly salary plus a percentage of the gate. They broke house records in several theaters. But while Valentino was mobbed by hordes of fans in every city, local newspaper coverage often sniped at his romantic movie image and professional dancing as being unmanly. Plus, Valentino was hawking beauty products that he claimed to use himself. Following the example of dance idols Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis, the Valentinos created exotic dances and sumptuous costumes to the accompaniment of their own traveling orchestra. They performed a number of dances, but the tango routines were the ones that always brought down the house. The beauty contest (the Miss America contest started in 1921) was another publicity angle of the tour. Mineralava sponsored a contest in each of the tours 88 cities and Valentino judged all the contestants. Then all 88 beauties descended on New York City, where they were paraded up Fifth Avenue to the Madison Square Garden. A young David O. Selznick made a short film of the contest called Rudolph Valentino and His 88 American Beauties; the film survives and is a fascinating glimpse at a natural Rudolph Valentino as well as the beauty contest styles of the day. Selznick shows the terrifying hordes of people who mobbed the streets outside Madison Square Garden, hoping for a glimpse of Valentino. Inside the Garden, the 88 girls come out onto a stage that is surrounded by crowds. Each girl (most with bobbed hair and bee-stung lips) parades in a gown and sash proclaiming her city and carrying (for some unknown reason) a ribboned Bo-Peep staff.
This is part of the Michael Back collection. Michael and his wife Virginia lived in Hollywood for over 51 years and collected Hollywood memorabilia. Michael was considered one of the top collectors of Rudolph Valentino. Over the next several months I will be posting Hundreds of Hollywood collectables from Michael's collection.
Shipped with USPS Priority Mail.