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

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 beauty pageant was underway as the culmination of a year of local contests which were part of Valentino's cross-county dancing tour with his wife Natacha Rambova. The eighty-eight local winners, all chosen by Valentino, convened in New York City in the hopes of being crowned his "Beauty Queen".



The winner of the Madison Square Garden pageant was Norma Niblock, a fifteen-year-old high school girl from Toronto. Little has ever been known about Norma Niblock's life after her triumphant win. Until now. Biographer Evelyn Zumaya Floris interviewed Norma's two children over a period of one year, while they shared the story of their mother's intriguing life and tragic death and opened their family archive for her use.



In addition to the personal accounts of Norma's children and family, Ms. Zumaya Floris conducted other critical interviews and researched other archives. She was also granted exclusive access to Norma's personal scrapbook .



This book is in full color and includes an extensive photographic section documenting Norma Niblock's personal archive of professional and personal images and relevant documents.