Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro

by André Soares, Anthony Slide (Foreword by)

Overview

The first Latin American actor to become a superstar, Ramon Novarro was for years one of Hollywood's top actors. Born Ramon Samaniego to a prominent Mexican family, he arrived in America in 1916, a refugee from civil wars. By the mid-1920s, he had become one of MGM's biggest box office attractions, starring in now-classic films, including The Student Prince, Mata Hari, and the original version of Ben-Hur. He shared the screen with the era's top leading ladies, such as Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford, and Norma Shearer, and he became Rudolph Valentino's main rival in the "Latin Lover" category. Yet, despite his considerable professional accomplishments, Novarro's enduring hold on fame stems from his tragic death-his bloodied corpse was found in his house on Halloween 1968 in what has become one of Hollywood's most infamous scandals. A lifelong bachelor, Novarro carefully cultivated his image as a man deeply devoted to his family and to Catholicism. His murder shattered that persona. News reports revealed that the dashing screen hero had not only been gay, but he was dead at the hands of two young, male hustlers. Since then, details of his murder have achieved near mythic proportions, obscuring Novarro's professional legacy. Beyond Paradise presents a full picture of the man who made motion picture history. Including original interviews with Novarro's surviving friends, family, co-workers, and the two men convicted of his murder, this biography provides unique insights into an early Hollywood star-a man whose heart was forever in conflict with his image and whose myth continues to fascinate today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604734577
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	04/19/2010
Series:	Hollywood Legends Series
Pages:	422
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

André Soares currently operates a translation business, working for numerous major American corporations. He is the author of several screenplays and is the chief editor of Alternative Film Guide.

Table of Contents

Foreword Anthony Slide ix

Preface xiii

1 Mexican Roots 1

2 Arrival in Paradise 12

3 Ramon's Columbus 26

4 Ascendant Star 41

5 "How Fate Works" 66

6 Harrowing Triumph 81

7 A Certain Young Man 103

8 Crossroads 126

9 The Singer of Durango 146

10 Fade-Out 177

11 Illusion of Happiness 207

12 Comeback and Farewells 230

13 The Last Years 248

14 Death in the Hollywood Hills 272

15 The Trial 279

Epilogue 293

Afterword 298

Notes 307

Filmography 367

Select TV Appearances 379

Select Stage Appearances 380

Bibliography 382

Acknowledgments 387

Index 391

Editorial Reviews

From BooklistTo the recent spate of books detailing the history of gays in Hollywood's golden age (e.g., William J. Mann's Behind the Screen [2001] and Diana McLellan's The Girls [2000]) comes a worthy addition, Soares' chronicle of one of the biggest silent stars, Ramon Novarro, whose fame was parabolic, soaring to a Douglas Fairbanks-like peak when he played the title role in Ben-Hur (1926) and peaking again with his grisly demise some 40 years after his first perihelion. In between, after sound dispelled the silents, his was largely a name from the past, a la Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, though he made the transition to talkies far better than fellow top-of-the-heap silent star John Gilbert.Still, his career spiraled down into cameo appearances and the like. By the time he was beaten to death by a couple of cruisers who may have intended only to steal some money, Novarro had been a customer of "escort services" for men for many years. However, Soares specifically accuses Hollywood sleazemonger Kenneth Anger of fabricating the lead "art-deco dildo" supposedly stuffed down the dead Novarro's throat. Dildo or no dildo, no Hollywood collection should be without a biography of Novarro, and Soares' story of this prototypical cinematic "Latin lover" fills the bill in excellent form. Mike TribbyCopyright (c) American Library Association. All rights reserved From the San Francisco Chronicle, January 5, 2003The rise and fall of Ramon (Samaniego) Novarro, the first successful Latin star in Hollywood, is superbly chronicled in this smooth, solid, exhaustively researched biography by Los Angeles screenwriter Andre Soares. . . . Soares has clearly done his homework, as this life story is notonly packed with the intricacies of Novarro's livelihood but also with Hollywood's racy, cutthroat culture. . . . Historians of Old Hollywood and devoted star trackers alike will bedelighted with this comprehensive portrait of a major actor from Tinseltown's glittery yesteryear. James Piechota.

From Booklist
To the recent spate of books detailing the history of gays in Hollywood's golden age (e.g., William J. Mann's Behind the Screen [2001] and Diana McLellan's The Girls [2000]) comes a worthy addition, Soares' chronicle of one of the biggest silent stars, Ramon Novarro, whose fame was parabolic, soaring to a Douglas Fairbanks-like peak when he played the title role in Ben-Hur (1926) and peaking again with his grisly demise some 40 years after his first perihelion. In between, after sound dispelled the silents, his was largely a name from the past, a la Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, though he made the transition to talkies far better than fellow top-of-the-heap silent star John Gilbert.
Still, his career spiraled down into cameo appearances and the like. By the time he was beaten to death by a couple of cruisers who may have intended only to steal some money, Novarro had been a customer of "escort services" for men for many years. However, Soares specifically accuses Hollywood sleazemonger Kenneth Anger of fabricating the lead "art-deco dildo" supposedly stuffed down the dead Novarro's throat. Dildo or no dildo, no Hollywood collection should be without a biography of Novarro, and Soares' story of this prototypical cinematic "Latin lover" fills the bill in excellent form. Mike Tribby
Copyright (c) American Library Association. All rights reserved
From the San Francisco Chronicle, January 5, 2003
The rise and fall of Ramon (Samaniego) Novarro, the first successful Latin star in Hollywood, is superbly chronicled in this smooth, solid, exhaustively researched biography by Los Angeles screenwriter Andre Soares. . . . Soares has clearly done his homework, asthis life story is not only packed with the intricacies of Novarro's livelihood but also with Hollywood's racy, cutthroat culture. . . . Historians of Old Hollywood and devoted star trackers alike will be
delighted with this comprehensive portrait of a major actor from Tinseltown's glittery yesteryear. James Piechota.


"A remarkable new book. . . as close to the truth as we are able to get."

"Concisely written and carefully researched."

"Intelligent, thoughtful, knowledgeable."

"Level-headed, impressively researched biography of the first Latin performer to succeed in Hollywood."

"One of the best books on Hollywood in years."

"The rise and fall of Ramon . . . Novarro . . . is superbly chronicled in this smooth, solid, exhaustively researched biography."

From the Publisher

Concisely written and carefully researched.

Variety

The rise and fall of Ramon . . . Novarro . . . is superbly chronicled in this smooth, solid, exhaustively researched biography.

San Francisco Chronicle

Intelligent, thoughtful, knowledgeable.

Washington Times

One of the best books on Hollywood in years.

The Guide

A remarkable new book. . . as close to the truth as we are able to get.

Tucson Citizen

Mexican heartthrob Ramon Novarro (1899-1968) was one of early Hollywood's leading romancers. He got his big break in 1923's Scaramouche, went on to play the title role in 1925's Ben-Hur and later appeared with Greta Garbo in 1932's Mata Hari. However, despite these sizeable roles, today Novarro is chiefly remembered for how he died: he was beaten to death by two thieves. Now screenwriter and translator Andre Soares offers the thoroughly researched biography Beyond Paradise: The Life of Roman Novarro. Soares skillfully covers the actor's Mexican upbringing, his ascent to fame, his relationship with publicist and entertainment journalist Herbert Howe and the difficulties he encountered as a gay man. This is a straightforward and insightful account of one star's difficult life. 16-page photo insert not seen by PW.

Publishers Weekly

One of the most popular leading men of the 1920s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer player Novarro had a dark secret: he was gay. The Mexican-born star of such lushly romantic films as The Student Prince and The Pagan, as well as the worldwide sensation Ben-Hur, he tried to walk the fine line between concealing his homosexuality and refusing to play the Hollywood game (including a sham marriage) for the sake of appearances. A sensitive actor, he soon rose above the "Latin lover" stereotype and entered talking pictures with his stardom intact, especially in demand for roles featuring his pleasant singing voice. (He had hoped to be an opera singer.) Although his accent was not intrusive, his fame declined after a few years of poor roles, and he was forced to look to lesser studios and foreign countries to extend his career. In the early 1950s, Novarro returned to Hollywood for a few character roles and then was largely relegated to a life of wealthy retirement until his sordid 1968 murder by two hustlers. With this carefully researched, well-balanced, and intelligently written book, screenwriter Soares has probably produced the definitive Novarro biography. Recommended for all libraries.-Roy Liebman, California State Univ., Los Angeles Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Level-headed, impressively researched biography of the first Latin performer to succeed in Hollywood, from screenwriter and translator Soares. Soares’s well-framed and pleasantly flowing portrait of the star of Mata Hari and the original Ben-Hur consists primarily of critical narratives of Novarro’s cinematic work, which are observant without being tendentious or stuffy. As he details the silent-film star's professional life, Soares embroiders around it his ability to "embrace or reject the conservative cultural values he was raised with" (by his well-to-do Mexican family) and to segregate "areas of his life—professional, family, sexual—in the same manner as he compartmentalized his morals." The nub of this is Novarro's homosexuality, which he skillfully concealed from his audience, declares Soares, by utilizing "the most important public image strategy for a gay actor . . . to establish and maintain positive relations with the press." Prominent though Novarro’s love life is here, his biographer is more concerned with his acting career. It had big ups and downs: the rocky transition to talkies, the parts for which he was weirdly miscast (in one late film, the middle-aged, sophisticated Novarro, complete with Mexican accent, played an Indiana mill worker who became a Yale football star), and boozy deterioration as he was confined to character roles, a decline Soares blames on Novarro’s (and his studio’s) "lack of professional vision." Far from always incarnating a torrid Latin lover, the actor’s roles generally varied from intense and heroic to tender and unthreatening. Soares charts a sorry late-life disintegration, with Novarro "putting both his life and his public image in danger bydriving inebriated around Hollywood in search of sex," while he scraped up bit parts in TV shows like The High Chaparral. His sordid murder in 1968 prompted mostly cheesy vaporings from the press that had once protected him. An intriguing look at a bygone culture—and at a star who exploited its conventions without ever really adhering to them.

Kirkus Reviews