Rodolfo Valentino, Angela Maria's illustrious husband...

When I was a kid, I used to read any illustrated magazine that fell on my hands. I paid special attention to anything related to show business: cinema, radio or TV. One used to read about his favourite singers or actors and their wives or husbands too. 

When it came to Angela Maria, who was a great beauty in the late 50s & early 60s, I was specially piqued because her husband was called Rodolfo Valentino, but somehow he was not the one who had been world-famous in the 1920s and died in 1928. He was someone else. But who was Rodolfo Valentino?

Well, when I found this article at an old Revista do Radio, I finally had a chance to know a little bit more about this mysterious character.

Revista do Radio n.681.

Revista do Radio, 6 October 1962. Egyptian born Rodolfo Valentino runs for public office for the National Labour Party -  PTN (Partido Trabalhista Nacional).

Rodolfo Valentino, born in Egypt in 1928, arrived in Brazil in 1946 when he was 18 years old. Nine years later, in 1955, Valentino became a Brazilian Citizen. He was a businessman supplying stores with fittings and decoration. 

After getting the Brazilian citizenship he decided to run for public office as a Deputado Estadual (Member of Parliament) for the new state of Guanabara - that was formed out of the City of Rio de Janeiro and its metropolitan area - that lost its status as the Capital City of Brazil to the newly-built Brasilia on 21st April 1960. The elections would take place on 7 October 1962. Unfortunately we do not know whether Rodolfo Valentino got himself elected or not.

Know more about Partido Trabalhista Nacional at:

http://www.fgv.br/cpdoc/acervo/dicionarios/verbete-tematico/partido-trabalhista-nacional-ptn

Rodolfo Valentino & Angela Maria visit the headquaters of Cestas de Natal Amaral in the late 1950s. See the state-of-the-art electric typewriter the clerk is proudly handling... 

Valentino & his famous wife on the cover of Revista do Radio (August 1959); Rodolfo Valentino wasn't the 'real' one but also had his charms. They say Angela was crazy about him...