Mr. Ullman - A Ghost Caught Mid-Frame

It has been many years since I recovered the copies of one thousand pages of Rudolph Valentino's lost probate court case file #83678—records which tell the harrowing story of how Rudolph Valentino’s trusted friend and business manager, S. George Ullman, was targeted for years with unjust litigation. Yesterday I re-read Ullman's “Appeals Brief” included in the recovered file. This time I felt something colder than the shock I felt years ago—this time I felt outrage.

Ullman filed his appeal contesting a lower court ruling which made him financially liable for every expenditure he made while continuing, as Valentino's executor to operate his Rudolph Valentino production company. He did so to generate income for the estate.

Ullman won his case on appeal with the judge praising his efforts. Indeed, the numbers tell the story and they reveal he turned straw into gold and reaped remarkable profits. His Appeals Brief is a long read and complex; full of legal arguments about expenditures and assets. But the bottom line is very clear and that is what I focus on here. Contrary to the slander bandied about today about George Ullman, fact is he made a fortune for the Valentino family.

The deeper I read into the Appeals Brief, the clearer it became: this was a textbook case of what is called today- lawfare – frivolous litigation waged unjustly to persecute a man who has since been mercilessly misrepresented.

I will not religitate the complex points of the case v. Ullman here. Suffice to say that in my review these years later I stand firm in my assessment of the persecution of George Ullman. It remains, for me, one of the most sickening injustices I’ve ever encountered in the Valentino story—and that is saying something.

When Valentino died, Ullman, as his executor was handed the reins of a chaotic, debt-ridden estate. He did not flee or flounder and instead generated what his attorneys proved to be a “magnificent profit.” He brought order, income, and integrity and generated millions in income by today's exchange rates.

But for his loyalty and financial success, they made Ullman a target.

Reading his appeal again, I was stunned not just by the pain in its tone, but by the absurdity of the accusations against him. Rudolph Valentino’s brother Alberto brought the original lawsuit of mismanagement against Ullman and mindlessly picked at him with objections to attempts to close out the estate on over forty occasions. This was not about money but a strategy to ruin Ullman.

Alberto's lawyers seemed to ignore the numbers on Ullman's pristine balance sheets and objected to absurdities such the one point on page 34 of the Appeals Brief, where Ullman is accused of absconding with ninety-five cents. Another entry itemizes a mistake of $7.35.

I told the detailed story of the sad outcome for Ullman in Affairs Valentino and The Rudolph Valentino Case Files but yesterday as I read, I noticed the barrage of additional scatter shot taken against this poor, yet noble man.

Two words repeatedly came to my outraged mind as I flipped the faded pages:
Liars. Thieves.

In a few instances, he was even held responsible for worthless property they themselves declared officially as having zero value. Ridiculous. The logistics of the lawsuit and legal pursuit of Ullman were deliberately confusing—classic lawfare: when truth can’t be defeated, it’s buried under paperwork.

They meant to ruin Ullman.
They very nearly succeeded.

But as I was reading the appeal this time around, there was a small moment of great impact for me personally.

I had just posted a gif of Valentino on my blog, a gif of Valentino smiling which I’d seen many times before. But this time, I noticed someone I’d never clearly seen: a fleeting figure in a fedora standing behind Valentino. George Ullman.

A ghost caught mid frame.

I stared at that frame and I felt it: he was thanking me. In that instant, it wasn’t history. It was presence. And it nearly broke my heart. Broke my heart because I want to do more.

There is someone today who especially loathes George Ullman—The Cult Leader, as I call him. His hatred for Ullman is as baseless, obsessive, and venomous as his hatred for me. As in my case, Ullman's truth threatens his entire false narrative.

This Cult Leader—an individual who has spent nearly two decades trying to control the Valentino narrative—has long tried to erase Ullman, just as he’s tried to silence me. He sells us to his flock as villains, corrupt people who must be eliminated.

As someone who has spent decades studying Ullman's performance as executor, let me state as fact: the cult leader is wrong. Ullman was the outstanding hero of the story.

It is also the height of hypocrisy that the cult leader spits his venom at Ullman with accusations of black market sales and theft of estate funds. I say hypocrisy because he recently posted a document publicly which was appeared to have been a part of that stolen file of probate records, Case File #83678. The document appeared on a Youtube video in which he tried and failed to impugn Valentino's beloved wife Natacha Rambova. He failed in his snarky mission to make her look petty and vindictive because he missed the entire point of the document he posted.

As I read through the Appeals Brief and felt the weight of the attacks then and now on Ullman, I looked up to see him peering out from behind that gif of Valentino. I felt acknowledged.

I will not let them bury him.
Just as I will not let them bury me.
History is watching.
And so, it seems, is George Ullman.