Most of us don't have access to a working time machine, and many of us don't live anywhere near Southern California, but, with some imagination, it is possible to spend an evening with Rudy, to experience the world he knew and loved. The trick is to fill all of your senses with his favorite things. 

   Sight: Trying to surround yourself with European Renaissance furniture and antique weapons can get to be a tad expensive, but books are affordable (or downright free, if you have a good public library or interlibrary loan system). Rudy loved to lose himself in history and historical fiction. Here are some suggestions of books he owned or was reported to have read: "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," "Blood and Sand," both by Vincente Blasco Ibanez (to be truly authentic you should read these in the original Spanish); "The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini" (from the Harvard Classics series -- altho' he also owned and read this in the original Italian); "Stories from the Thousand and One Nights," translated by Edward William Lane (Harvard Classics);  "Old Court Life in Spain," by Frances Elliot; "The Alhambra," by Albert F. Calvert; "The Magic Carpet: Poems for Travellers," by Mrs. Waldo Richards; "The Perfume of the Rainbow and Other Stories," by L. Adams Beck; "Saracinesca," by F. Marion Crawford; "Temescal," by Henry Herbert Knibbs; "The Song of Hiawatha," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; "Captain Blood," by Rafael Sabatini; "The Silver Stallion," by James Branch Cabell. The time-warp effect works best with 1926 or earlier editions in good condition. 

   Sound: Rudy liked opera and other classical music, and especially admired the singing of Enrico Caruso and the violin playing of Jascha Heifetz. It is said he liked Massenet's "Elegie", which Caruso recorded, and the opera, "Tosca," especially the aria, "E Lucevan le Stelle." Caruso's recordings have been re-issued on various CDs and are easy to find. It is more difficult to find early recordings of Heifetz, since it is his later, electrically-recorded ones which are more commonly re-issued. 

   Smell/Taste: In "Rudy: An Intimate Portrait" (1926) p. 35 [p. 27-28 in the 1927 abridged edition, "Rudolph Valentino Recollections"], Rudy's wife, Natacha, writes that they sometimes ate mussels "boiled with garlic and olive oil[,]" or "in a stew of tomato sauce." Even with no other ingredients, this makes a satisfying dish, and in a modern book about the cuisine of Puglia (also called "Apulia" -- the region Rudy was from) , there is a simple recipe for "spaghetti with clams or mussels" that sounds very similar to this. Chopped garlic is sauteed in olive oil, then chopped tomatoes are added and boiled into a sauce, then mussels are added, still in the shell throw away any that don't open after 10 or 15 minutes), then cooked spaghetti. This recipe also adds parsley and black pepper. [from "Flavors of Puglia" by Nancy Harmon Jenkins (1997) p. 88-89, 90.] 
   An angel food cake recipe Natacha sent in to a cookbook that was being written in 1924 calls for eleven egg whites (use small eggs, or about 9 medium eggs), one and a half cups of sugar, one cup of flour, one teaspoon of cream of tartar, and "flavor" (she doesn't say what kind -- most likely it was vanilla (1 tsp. works well), or almond, especially if she was making it for Rudy, since almond is a common flavor in Italian sweets, and also shows up in some 1920s angel food cakes. 
   Enjoy the meal with Italian wine; wines from Puglia are now available in many cities in the United States. 

   Touch: This is the trickiest part. Rudy loved dogs, especially big dogs, so if you have a big dog -- a Doberman Pinscher or German Shepherd or Great Dane or Italian Mastiff or Irish Setter or Irish Wolfhound -- or can borrow one from a friend, by all means snuggle up with it. Or maybe, just maybe (and this is where the imagination comes in) as the fragrance of olive oil and garlic wafts through the air on the mournful, tenor notes of the "Elegie," you'll feel a cool draft, and a large, manly, invisible hand will press against your shoulder...