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A Biography of the Silent Film Idol Ramon Navarro: A Biography of the Silent Film Idol, 1899-1968 by Allan R. Ellenberger, McFarland & Co., Inc. 1999, ISBN: 0786400994, 260 pages
Jose Ramon Gil Samaniego lived the quintessential Hollywood story, the rise and fall of a star, as Ramon Novarro. Ellenberger's book provides a chronology of the star's life structured around his career. There is an extensive amount of information about each of Novarro's motion pictures, as an extra at Paramount, with Metro, and finally as a star with Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM).
The description of the trials and tribulations associated with the filming of Novarro's biggest hit, Ben Hur (1925) in Italy and Hollywood will inform both the casual observer and the movie buff. Ellenberger does a good job disrupting the myth that director Rex Ingram "discovered" Novarro and using insight from the star's friends and coworkers to describe how Novarro acted on the set. During the discussion of Novarro's final movies before he parted ways with MGM, Ellenberger notes that Novarro appeared in a musical with Jeannette MacDonald. The author could have provided an analysis of Novarro's limited success with the singer which occurred only shortly before homosexual singer Nelson Eddy joined with MacDonald to become "America's Sweethearts."
Ellenberger disrupts one myth around the star's sexuality, that Rudolph Valentino gave him an Art Deco dildo. While the author could not describe what relationship the two "Latin Lovers" had, he observes that Novarro regularly purchased hustlers. It would have been interesting to know more about Novarro's relationships with other figures on the Hollywood scene, particularly those of Latin decent, such as Antonio Moreno. The presentation of the star's numerous difficulties, betrayal by his friend and manager, alcoholism, the death of his lover travel writer Richard Halliburton who drowned during a typhoon, is compelling. Yet many stars have experienced these tribulations, and Novarro's story could have appeared in greater relief if the author had chosen to offer comparisons to figures, such as Patsy Kelly, who shared his drinking and same-sex interest, and Nelson Eddy, who experienced homosexual interest and a rapid career decline. Allan Ellenberger's biography is one of a few that have emerged over the past few years on Hollywood stars of the 1920s, but both Gavin Lambert's work on Alla Nazimova and William Mann's book about William Haines offer readers more context about the industry in the era. Brett Abrams recently received his Ph.D. is US history from American University. He is working on producing articles and a book from his dissertation entitled, Hooray for Hollywood: Gender and Sexual Non-Conformity In the Classical Hollywood Era. |
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