During his career, Rudolph Valentino made a lot of money, and spent even more. When he died he was deeply in debt, despite his enormous popularity. One of the things he spent his money on was his Hollywood dream mansion, which he called Falcon Lair. The name came from The Hooded Falcon, a film Valentino very much wanted to make, but never did. Shortly after his death, eerie stories began circulating about Valentino’s ghost haunting Falcon Lair.

There was a report that the mansion’s caretaker was seen running down the canyon near the estate in the middle of the night screaming that he had just seen Valentino’s ghost.

Another frequently repeated story was that one of the stablemen who had worked on the estate left so abruptly that he didn’t even bother to collect his personal belongings. When friends asked him what happened he refused to talk. Months later he confided that he had come into the stable one evening and seen the spirit of the dead movie star petting his favorite horse.

A woman from Seattle who was staying in the house said that she heard mysterious footsteps and saw doors opening and closing. She never saw any ghost, but apparently Valentino’s two watchdogs, Rudy and Brownie, did. These two dogs had been carefully trained to bark and snap at any intruders. But they merely whimpered and wagged their tails happily, as if they were in the presence of someone they knew very well but hadn’t seen for a long time.

A jeweler who had contracted to buy Falcon Lair abruptly backed out of the deal. Rumors spread that Valentino’s ghost didn’t like the fellow and scared him away.

After his death, all sorts of people claimed that they were in contact with Valentino’s spirit. His second wife, Natasha Rambova, who had managed (and some say mismanaged) much of his career, received a message from beyond the grave, saying that Valentino was in the next world where he longed to become "a legitimate actor."