Norma - The Life & Death of Rudolph Valentino's Beauty Queen

By Evelyn Zumaya Floris

On the evening of November 28, 1923 Madison Square Garden was transformed from a sports arena packed with rowdy boxing fans, to a gala venue with the George White orchestra performing and an audience dressed in gowns and tuxedos awaiting the entrance of silent film icon, Rudolph Valentino and his "Eighty-Eight American Beauties". A national beau

• Language: English
• Publisher: Viale Industria Pubblicazioni
• Release date: Sep 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9780998709871

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Copyright March 18,2022 by Evelyn Zumaya Floris Unless otherwise cited, all images are the sole property of the Vaughn family and protected by their copyright assertion.

The Moral Right of the Author has been Asserted

All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

In Deposito Legale presso SBN

Opera protetta dalla legge del 22 Aprile 1941 n. 633 (Protezione del diritto d'autore e di altri diritti connessi al suo esercizio) e successive modificazioni, e dal Titolo IX del Libro Quinto del Codice civile Italiano

ISBN

978-0-9987098-6-4

978-0-9987098-7-1 (e book)

Norma Niblock atop the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, November 29, 1923

Contents

Calgary

Those French Dolls

The First Dazzling Thing

Cinderella in a Middy Blouse

Touched by the Hand of Rudolph Valentino

Another Fairy Tale Comes True

Homecoming and Going

The Canary Dress Rehearsal

Acts One, Two and Three

Studio Girl

The Girl Worthwhile

Hollywood Bravura

Special Effects

Holland

The Crown

Mrs. Miss America Vaughn

Saticoy Situations

The Brambles by the Bridge

Friends in Need

The Scrapbook

Evergreen

Author's Note

What Ever Happened to

Sources

The Norma Niblock Vaughn Archive

Childhood & Youth

Pride of the Dominion

Rescued Fan Letters

A Family Album

Sittings

The Scrapbook

Interesting Information

The Box of Coins & Miniatures

Acknowledgments

Index

This book is dedicated to Norma's babies, Sally and Roger

Norma with Roger and Sally, Pasadena - 1933

Norma Niblock's daughter Sally took golf lessons after her mother's death in 1962. She did so on the advice of a well-meaning friend who suggested she might meet available men on the golf courses of Palm Springs, California. Sally accessorized for those lessons on the links with three gold bangle bracelets. One of those bangles once belonged to her mother; it was solid gold with twelve small diamonds arranged in a triangular pattern along one side. For Sally, the bracelet was not just a favorite piece of jewelry but a touchstone to keep her mother's memory close.

On one Palm Springs golf outing, Sally decided to have her car washed. She left her car in the hands of those doing the detailing and went off to her lesson. When she returned to her clean car, she realized she was not wearing the bangles. Then she remembered she'd left them on the front seat of the car. They were gone. She confronted the car wash manager with her frantic report of the theft by one of his workers.

None of them are going to admit they took your bracelets, he told her, And stop crying because that is exactly what they want you to do. He dismissed Sally's lamentations and she reconciled to disbelief. The bracelet, intrinsically connected to what she believes to be her mother's murder, had vanished.

Life was not so kind to Sally in the days after her mother's death and especially so in that Palm Springs car wash. The loss of her mother's bracelet became one of her deepest regrets.

For Sally and her brother Roger, the details of their mother, Norma Audrey Niblock's life and death did not fade over the years. In 2021 – 2022, they related it all to me in hours of interviews. Their stories are faithfully recounted in this book and entirely from their detailed, personal memories. It was not always easy for them to recall and share, but this is their mother's story which they waited a lifetime to tell.

Calgary - 1920

1

Calgary

On November 22, 1911, The Calgary Herald's coverage of the ladies tea read as follows:

"Mrs. Bissett and Miss Bissett were at home for the first time formally since taking up their residence in Calgary, when a large number of Calgary ladies extended them a welcome.

The drawing room was redolent with red roses and the tea room scheme was developed in red and green. The table was centered with carnations in a tall vase with red shaded candles shedding radiance on the cut glass and china.

Mrs. Bissett wore a gown of goblin blue eolienne¹ with satin stripes and garniture of Maltese lace and rosebuds. Miss Bissett wore a becoming gown of mauve satin with silver elaboration.

The ladies presiding in the tea room were all perfectly gowned. Mrs. Tempest in Copenhagen blue satin with lace fichu and a blue picture hat with Oriental bandeaux.² Mrs. Wolforth, who was in charge of the ices wore a smart velvet gown with steel cut trimmings, with a black hat with willow plumes. Mrs. Delbert O'Neil wore a white, hand-embroidered gown over blue satin and Mrs. Bragge wore white lingerie with Irish lace trimmings.

Miss Norma Niblock, age three, in a dainty lingerie frock with pink sash and bows, admitted the guests."³

♦♦♦

While baby Norma's dress was described in some detail, her mother Mabel's did not receive a mention in the society columnist's review. This was no small oversight. Mother Mabel Mary Niblock enjoyed considerable status in Calgary society because her husband, D'Arcy Boulton and his father John were renown railroad executives. Both men earned their mighty reputations and fortunes during Alberta's economic boom generated by the C. P. R., the Canadian Pacific Railway; connecting Canada's eastern provinces with the west. As D'Arcy Niblock's wife and John Niblock's daughter-in-law, Mabel Mary held a certain rank among the ladies of Calgary and her dress for the Bissett tea should have been noted. She was, after all, the matron of a Niblock household, a bastion of enterprise and respectability.

The Niblock dynasty was established by little Norma's grandfather, John Niblock. By 1911, he held the imposing title of Divisional Superintendent of the railroad for the entire Province of Alberta.⁴ With such cachet bestowed on the family name, his son D'Arcy operated a successful grain stock exchange, Niblock & Tull, Limited. D'Arcy's exchange offices were located in Calgary, Montreal, Winnipeg, New York and Toronto. Stocks and bonds were traded via his private telegraph wire,⁵ with pre-war trading brisk and profits substantial.

D'Arcy Niblock was born in Point Edward, Ontario in 1875, and raised in Winnipeg and Medicine Hat. After being employed in various capacities with the Canadian Pacific Railroad, he partnered with George F. Tull to open his Calgary grain exchange. In addition to their brokerage business, Niblock and Tull, Limited, booked steamship and rail passages, issued insurance policies and loaned money at interest.⁶ D'Arcy's lucrative exchange provided affluence, guaranteeing the Niblocks of 816 Thirteenth Avenue West in Calgary⁷, status as railroad royalty.

Norma's mother, Mabel was born in England in 1878 and emigrated to Canada in 1896; arriving in Montreal aboard the ship Sardinian⁸. She was the daughter of William Newsome of Port Arthur, Ontario.⁹ Mabel married D'Arcy Niblock on May 25, 1898 in Port Arthur, now known as Thunder Bay. In 1900, Mabel and D'Arcy welcomed their firstborn, a daughter Kathleen and in 1902 a second child, a son John. On January 16, 1908, Norma Audrey was born.

D'Arcy Niblock's professional expertise booking steamship passages was not only a service provided for his customers. He ensured his own family traveled often and ambitiously. D'Arcy and Mabel were veritable globe trotters. In 1913, they took their three young children on a European vacation touring England, France and Italy. D'Arcy was fond of telling a story about five-year-old Norma which took place in Rome on that family vacation.

Before the war, the family took a trip to Italy. One day Mr. Niblock wandered into the ballroom of the hotel in which they were staying and found the five-year-old Norma entertaining a group of tourists by dancing and pirouetting to the music of the orchestra on the platform reserved for the performance of visiting artists.¹⁰

The Niblock family returned to Canada aboard the Baltic of the White Star line, sailing from Liverpool on May 1, 1913.¹¹ They arrived in New York City on May tenth.

♦♦♦

On August 14, 1914, family patriarch John Niblock died. His funeral was attended by hundreds of admirers and local dignitaries. The church was, filled with personal friends of the late Mr. Niblock and officers and employees of the railroad.¹² With pomp and fanfare, John Niblock was laid to rest as Calgary's flags flew at half mast

Within a few months of his father's death, D'Arcy enlisted in the war effort. He joined the Fiftieth Battalion as an Honorary Captain and Quartermaster, registering for service on December 30, 1914. In October of 1915, D'Arcy said good-bye to his wife Mabel and three children and set sail for England with his battalion. The Fiftieth Battalion was deployed to the war's front in France in August of 1916.

D'Arcy soon contracted influenza and would not engage in much field combat. He was transferred to the Michelham Convalescent Home¹³ on the French Riviera during the month of January 1917. Throughout D'Arcy's military enlistment and convalescence, his eighty dollars a month paycheck was forwarded home to his next of kin and beneficiary, wife Mabel Mary in Calgary.¹⁴

Mabel managed the household in her husband's long absence, often traveling with her children. On one jaunt, she trained with John, Kathleen and Norma to Los Angeles, crossing the border into the U.S., at Eastport, Idaho on February 1, 1917. While in Los Angeles, Mabel engaged renown photographer, G. Edwin Williams for sittings with her daughters.¹⁵ This was not a lengthy journey and she returned to Calgary twenty-three days later on February twenty-fourth.

Travel for Mabel and her children was facilitated by her status as Calgary railroad elite. Benefits included the use of a private Pullman car and free passage. With access to such luxurious accommodation, Mabel traveled often, venturing in D'Arcy's absence to Vancouver, Alberta and Port Arthur.

The privacy and comfort afforded by the custom-built Pullman cars appealed to the wealthy and the Niblocks were no exception. Their Pullman cars were outfitted with the finest fixtures, hardwood floors, dining tables set with crystal and parlor furniture upholstered in imported satin, silks and brocades.

These private cars, which attached to commercial passenger trains, were rolling mini-mansions. The back of the car had an observation deck followed by a parlor. The parlor connected to a cluster of staterooms with a dining room and service areas like a pantry and galley.¹⁶

In May of 1917, D'Arcy returned home from the war in France via England. He sailed from Liverpool on, Troop Ship 2810 on the twelfth of May with the reason cited on his records as, Services No Longer Required.¹⁷

By the time D'Arcy's official discharge was filed three months later in August, his home address was recorded as 22 Wilcocks Street in Toronto. After his return to Calgary the previous May, he settled his wife and children into the comfort of their Pullman car and moved the family east. On his discharge from the Fiftieth Battalion, he'd accepted a new Canadian railroad position with an office in Toronto.

Norma Audrey was by then nine years old and about to become a big sister for the first time. Little brother Victor was born on December 7, 1917 and when brother Eugene was born in 1919¹⁸, Norma became the family's middle child.

It is said the middle child exhibits a tendency to be the family peace maker, a diplomat caught between a desire to please and rebel. Norma would abide by this birth order observation, both please and challenge her parents and siblings by instigating events which would change the course of all their lives.

---

1 Eolienne - A lustrous lightweight dress fabric woven with silk and coarser threads of wool, rayon or cotton.

2 Fichu - A small triangular shawl worn around a woman's shoulders and neck.

3 The Calgary Herald , November 22, 1911.

4 The Calgary Herald, August 4, 1914, Funeral of Late John Niblock is Largely Attended.

5 The Calgary Herald , July 22, 1921, cite advertisements for Niblock & Tull, Ltd., Direct Wire to Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and New York.

6 Ibid.

7 WW1 Canadian military records for D'Arcy Boulton Niblock.

8 Mabel arrives on the Sardinian , Immigration Manifest as recorded during her trip to Los Angeles, February 1, 1917.

9 History of the Province of Alberta by Archibald Oswald MacRae, Ph.D., Principal of Western Canada College, Volume II, pp. 625 - 627, published by The Western Canada History Co., 1912.

10 Norma's scrapbook article titled, Winner of Beauty Contest Made Modest Gowns by Herself, uncited.

11 Baltic, Ship Manifest, May 1913.

12 Calgary Herald , August 4, 1914, Funeral of Late John Niblock is Largely Attended.

13 D'Arcy Boulton Niblock's Canadian Military Records, To Convalescent Home Cap Marten.

14 Ibid., cite, Assigned Pay Ledgers.

15 Signature of G. Edwin Williams on photographs.

16 archive.curbed.com/pullman-private-railroad-car-history , Before Private Jets, There Were Luxurious Private Train Cars, by Robert Khederlan, February 1, 2018.

17 D'Arcy Boulton Niblock Canadian Military Records.

18 Age of Eugene Bouton Niblock as recorded on Mabel Niblock's Census records, 1939.

2

Those French Dolls

Toronto, six years later in the spring of 1923

Norma learned to drive a car when she was twelve years old. The task of teaching her fell to the Niblock family chauffeur who assumed his role with all seriousness. He once rode as a passenger overseeing his protégée while she drove from Toronto to New York City. Norma loved driving and by the time she was fifteen, she was confident in her driving skills and fearless behind the wheel.

When she was not speeding along the streets of Toronto, Norma attended a public high school, Oakwood Collegiate Institute. As a second year student,¹⁹ she excelled in her studies, especially classes in dramatic arts and physical fitness. She was particularly fond of playing baseball in the spring and ice skating during Toronto's bitter cold winters.

Norma lived near the high school, at 105 Westmount Avenue,²⁰ in the Corso Italia-Davenport neighborhood of Toronto. The Niblock residence was typical of a Gothic revival style of architecture popularized in Toronto during the end of the nineteenth century; bay-and-gable three-story brick dwellings with large bay windows covering half the facade and extending into a gabled roof.

Depending on the family's financial circumstance, the Niblock household staff consisted of as many as six maids or as few as three. Norma was cared for by a personal nanny who was devoted to her teenage charge.

Although the Niblock home was located in a residential neighborhood, Norma's life was far from provincial. In her fifteen years, she'd