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description= A PERSONAL JOURNEY--MY ITALIAN IMMIGRANT FAMILY ECHOED IN THE LIFE OF RUDOLPH VALENTINO--AND MORE;
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s form no 1 after the state passed an act on february 7 1917 designed to procure certain information relative to the resources of the state frank stated that he was a u s citizen 17 years old single had one dependent to support unspecified and that he had no physical disabilities he also stated that had no real technical skills but the one thing he could do was swim the military questionnaire did not ask about one particular skill that frank already had or would be able to develop later apparently he had some ability to dance unlike my granduncle frank socci frank varanelli did not enter the military during world war i the 1920 united states census which was conducted on january 5th of that year lists frank as being 19 years old and working for a grocery store as a truckman after the war frank socci resided in brooklyn and manhattan new york before moving to long island new york frank was trained as a barber in italy and worked in this trade all his life a marriage frank varanelli s niece marries my granduncle my friend s grandmother concetta had a sister named giovannina natalina maria nicolo s was born on december 24 1904 in brooklyn she was known as marie and marie of course was the niece of antonio and frank varanelli frank socci would meet marie in brooklyn new york although her extended family hailed from waterbury they apparently had never met any of the socci brothers there so this was a chance meeting the marriage license for frank and marie was issued on august 30 1923 and their wedding followed on october 21 1923 marie would eventually become a nurse unfortunately i have no pictures of frank as barber marie as a young nurse date unknown frank s passport application picture dated december 7 1921 he planned to travel to italy to visit his parents by july 1921 october 21 1923 marie center left and frank center right flanked by their wedding party frank was 28 marie was 19 what s interesting is that a marriage document lists the groom s name as francesco not his naturalized name frank below is a flow chart that summarizes the connection of the varanelli socci families the chart illustrates how it was my friend s grandaunt giovannina who would give birth to the niece of both antonio and frank varanelli my friend s granduncles and how natalina marie would marry my granduncle frank socci so my friend and i are connected through our granduncles by marriage and it was her granduncle frank who worked with rudolph valentino frank varanelli moves west and into valentino s breakthrough tango scene marie s uncle frank would move west before she married frank socci in 1923 sometime after the january 1920 u s census canvas frank varanelli and his older sister mary patrina varanelli left waterbury mary was born about a year after rodolfo guigliemi rudolph valentino on june 29 1896 brother and sister headed west and settled in los angeles during july 1920 publicity reports were being published about the production including the dance sequences alice terry and rudolph valentino were rehearsing special dances according to the los angeles evening express edition of thursday july 22 1920 page 26 a week later there was a report that beatrice dominguez a talented spanish dancer would do a dance with rudolph valentino in the film los angeles daily times wednesday july 28 1920 part iii page 4 frank varanelli the truckman who arrived in los angeles sometime after january 1920 soon found himself in the movie industry he may have seen an ad in a newspaper or trade publication about a search for dancers in a newspaper story published in november 1920 fed by studio publicity staff as production of the four horsemen of the apocalypse was winding down there was a detailed description about how the french tango promised to be one of the features of the production the story actually focused on the exhibition dance by rudolph valentino and alice terry which they had been practicing for the last month note as detailed above this item was actually first reported on in july a dance palace set was constructed and a real french orchestra was enlisted director rex ingram had a more difficult time recruiting 50 couples who could dance the tango because although the dance had been a craze a few years ago he had to cast a wide net to find all the dancers he needed for the tango palace scene the story also states that ingram wanted the dancers to speak french whether he actually found enough couples with both tango and french language skills is unknown but frank varanelli was chosen to be one of these dancers in this scene as well as the earlier bar scene set in argentina he had no speaking part and it s unlikely he spoke french but he apparently could dance well enough to be chosen to be one of the final one hundred chosen from among three hundred contenders to earn a spot in the cast see note 2 below about problems with teaching french extras for speaking parts director rex ingram was compelled to call about 300 persons before he could get a hundred that could perform the steps to this sinuous dance the journal and tribune knoxville tennessee sunday november 7 1920 page 24 frank varanelli after the four horsemen of the apocalypse frank varanelli didn t just do a one off as an extra in the four horsemen of the apocalypse in fact he had a rather dramatic turn in the original 1925 version of the phantom of the opera which starred lon chaney mary philbin and valentino s friend norman kerry see note 3 below about the different versions of this film the reel journal boxoffice media lp october 3 1925 page 940 via archive org here is the story passed along in 2015 to my friend from the business partner of alex who was the son of another of frank s sisters lena this man noted as v was good friends with lena and she would often talk and share stories about the family with him your great uncle frank and lon chaney were good friends frankie learned a lot about makeup and special effects from him and he passed them on to alex on his occasional return to connecticut he would love to scare the hell out of his sisters uncle frankie was a stand in for chaney and did scenes he didn t want to do or was too tired to do in the film the man behind the mask is your relative frank varanelli v this story is quite believable as alex who was an architectural designer enjoyed practicing make up design on his sisters and also trying looks on himself he learned well as shown in the picture below of one of his transformations in recounting the story about the phantom of the opera this friend of the family revealed that frank was in the bal masque de l opera scene where the crowd parts and the phantom dressed as the red death sweeps down the grand staircase turns then goes back up this sequence was filmed in technicolor shortly after this sequence there is another scene in which the phantom descends a small staircase as he leaves the revelers on the grand staircase two film historians who provide commentaries on the film discuss how chaney acted with his body scott macqueen who commented for the 2003 dvd version of the 1929 reissue remarked about how chaney acted like mime giving the film rhythm which he thought much of the film lacked historian jon mirsalis zeroes in on the actor s hands in the bal masque de l opera scene so in which scene did frank varanelli wear the mask of the phantom it is unlikely that an extra would have been used in an early technicolor sequence of such great importance it s more likely that frank stood in for the star during the less demanding brief scene in which the red death quickly and straightforwardly walked down the small staircase the expressive hand of lon chaney the stand in how frank and mary varanelli moved in hollywood circles mary varanelli also sang and did extra work in film and she seemed to always have her camera ready to take pictures of life in hollywood she would send photos back home to her and frank s sister lena hal roach tom mix will rogers these are some of the personalities that frank and mary had contact with as their lives unfolded in hollywood hal roach the connection of the varanelli s to hal roach was particularly interesting roach s long career in hollywood was born at the start of the silent film era and in 1921 he created the our gang little rascal s series mary varanelli took this behind the scene shot from the our gang set and also photographed her brother frank at the studio picture taken by mary varanelli on the set of our gang date unknown frank varanelli left with friends on the hal roach studios lot behind the main studio offices date unknown the historic los angeles site is a treasure trove of information maps illustrations and photographs related to the development of los angeles including berkeley square a gated community first planned in 1903 in 1920 roach purchased an existing house at 22 berkeley square where he would live many years before moving to beverly hills around 1934 see note 4 below before building a full studio roach would sometimes film his projects on the square and at his house this photo from the historic los angeles site shows the filming of a stan laurel short a mother s joy released on december 23 1923 the front of hal roach s house at 22 berkeley square los angeles circa 1923 during the filming of a mother s joy starring stan laurel the highlight box provides a clue to the photos below source historic los angeles website the varanelli siblings spent time at roach s house and posed for photographs on what seems to be the second floor porch compare the highlighted area in the above shot to these pictures of frank sitting on the railing and mary posing with a pair of maids by the time of this photo frank was working for roach in some position at the house the inscription on the bottom of the photo calls him a buttler sic but it is likely that he was also acting as a chauffeur or general assistant around the house sadly this house and others on berkeley square would be lost to highway development frank varanelli left and mary varanelli above with maids at the hal roche house sometime before 1934 after valentino silents transform into talkies will rogers and tom mix will rogers went to hollywood in 1918 after years on the vaudeville circuits and following his time with the ziegfeld follies in 1917 his first silent films were made for goldwyn pictures but in 1923 he started a year long stint with hal roach studios where he made twelve films i ve concluded that the picture below was mostly likely taken during that year by mary varanelli behind the main hal roach studio s office building after looking at pictures of the building and observing the types of windows on several sides of the structure will rogers and an unknown man behind the main hal roach studios building inscription reads william rogers posed for me for a picture mary frank varanelli did some extra work with tom mix and actually developed a relationship with the silent movies king of the cowboys i don t know when the varanelli s first met tom mix but they were definitely friendly during the 1930 s according to the family frank and tom did socialize on a regular basis the talkies virtually ended mix s prolific movie career and after nine films at universal studios starting in 1932 he finally made his final film appearance in a serial in 1935 mix drank was married five times had many affairs made a lot of money and spent even more in 1937 he bought a cord 812 supercharged phaeton and he posed with it for mary varanelli she would send the picture to her sister lena back east on october 12 1940 tom mix died in arizona when his car overturned after speeding through construction barriers at a bridge that had been washed away by a flash flood tom mix posing in front of his cord date unknown sometime between 1937 and 1940 inscription on the back of the photograph right later years in hollywood mary varanelli continued her interest in singing and dancing and passed her performing instincts onto two of her four children the two girls frances and beatrice as recalled by the family friend auntie mary was a singer and dancer in the movies both girls were beautiful frances was an extra in the movies and we often saw her in films beatrice also worked in films but not as much as her sister frances had a few speaking parts she was in several scenes from i married an angel as part of an elaborate party scene another movie she was in was shanghai gesture there is a scene where she is in a cage that is pulled up to a window v i married an angel was the last film nelson eddy and jeannette macdonald made together and was released in january 1942 with the new york opening in july 1942 only trailers for this film and a few short clips are on youtube so it s not certain if she is visible in these scenes the shanghai gesture had its new york opening in december 1941 with a general release in january 1942 this film noir crime movie was directed by josef von sternberg and starred gene tierney walter huston and victor mature the full movie is available on youtube at time mark 1 11 03 the sequence of cages being hoisted up outside a window as an appetizer for our male guests begins first with one cage followed by a group of cages actually four frances is in one of these cages today mary varanelli s legacy in show business is alive through her granddaughter who has become an emmy award winning producer see note 5 below legacies frank varanelli who married twice but remained childless had no one to carry on his legacy when he eventually left the film business he returned to the work of his youth the united states department of commerce 1950 census of population and housing reveals that the then 50 year old frank was once again working as a truckman specifically as a truck driver for the mayflower moving company frank would pass away in 1967 and his sister mary passed in 1999 maria frank s niece and my granduncle frank socci also never had children and would divorce in the mid 1940 s maria remarried but within a few years she become the victim of an auto accident in 1950 frank socci would also remarry and finally have a family which included a daughter who was interested in acting my granduncle frank would work as barber well into old age passing away in florida in 1988 at age 93 of course rudolph valentino would have a much greater film legacy than the extra who danced behind him on the set of a tango palace and a more glamorous life than this extra s sister who enjoyed taking photographs on hollywood back lots and valentino would naturally live a far more luxurious life than the extra s niece who became a nurse and who married a barber a marriage that created the connection to valentino that my friend and i both share yes the connection may be indirect but it is a real connection hidden for one hundred years and finally brought to life now what you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others attributed ...
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