I’m not a ballet fan – but I know Nureyev is a legend! Basically, I know him from three things: Tab Hunter talked about their affair in his autobiography, the famous full frontal nude shot by Richard Avedon and (what I really love) his performance as Rudolph Valentino in the very gay and campy 1977 “Valentino” movie directed by Ken Russell (co-starring Michelle Phillips, Leslie Caron and Carol Kane). 

I’m a huge Rudolph Valentino fan and I was soaking up all books, movies, and documentaries that I could.  Nureyev as Valentino is pure gold!  The soundtrack eludes me, but I will find it for $3 someday, I swear!  Michelle Phillips as Natacha Rambova tho … You just gotta see the movie.  Ken Russell. Need I say more. The color, camp and music in the trailer is a show on it's own!

Anyway, with Nureyev, I was tempted to buy his biography when I ran across it at Goodwill for a couple of bucks, but quickly decided that 625 pages was too much, when I’d probably want to skip the 500+ that focused on ballet.  I’ll settle with what I already know about him and having this great autograph on the cover of an intact 1965 Time magazine in my collection. 

It has great provenance in a large collection that I bought described as such: “All of these items, I inherited from my uncle, James Carroll, who worked on Broadway in New York, Theatre in Philadelphia and worked on movie sets in California. He traveled with Tyrone Power as his Wardrobe Dresser. He did wardrobe for Tyrone Power, in a theatre production and traveled across country with him.” 

Interesting to note that I panicked a bit when doing my authentication on this autograph.  Most autographs for sale/sold of Nureyev are simply nothing like this!  People are buying or listing signatures of his where “Rudolf” is legible and where the autograph is nicely written but without any exaggerated upward and downward strokes like you see on mine.  When I dug deeper, I saw that not only does it match perfectly to my reliable “Autograph Facsimiles” book from the 80’s, but also to another piece being sold by a reliable seller (both shown here).  And then there's the B&W photo showing its "original" signature and the facsimile. This photo actually sold on R&R auctions for $138. With a magnifying glass and careful inspection, the photo DOES seem to have the indents from an actual signing. The photo is on DNP Pure Premium Paper, which started being produced in the mid 2000's. Nureyev died in 1993. Neat trick. Always do your research when trying to authenticate.

While we're on the subject of "Valentino", I thought I'd include Michelle Phillips autograph along with the "After Dark" magazine showing her and Nureyev on the cover. Apparently, they did not get along so well (see my entry on Wilson Phillips) and Michelle supposedly slapped Nureyev at one time because he was such a dickhead. Well, he WAS a primo ballerino. Doesn't that come with the territory?

I've got Mikhail Baryshnikov in my collection - never saw him in anything but love that he was a couple with Jessica Lange. And I've also got Alexander Godunuv, who died at 45 from acute alcoholism.