The dramatic true story of the screen sensation you never knew…

Ramon Novarro

It’s 1924.

Gatsby is being penned.

A ‘fascinating rhythm’ is tearing up nightclub floors.

And in the shadows of the iconic “H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D-L-A-N-D” sign, a war for survival is brewing between rival silent-picture studios.

The talk of Tinseltown is eccentric hotshot director for Metro Pictures, Rex Ingram. His newly-discovered tango-trotting Latin lover, Rudolph Valentino is threatening to defect to another studio. Rex’s new wife, silent star Alice Terry, also tired of her husband’s endless “takes” to get that perfect shot, is done with acting. Moonlighting in the studio cutting room, she secretly wants to join the “boys’ club” of moving picture directing.
Enter a dashing young Mexican actor with an uncommon past, who escaped the Mexican Revolution to come to California. Ramón, Alice’s new leading man is a multi-lingual triple threat. Poised to be the biggest movie idol the world has ever seen, the Hollywood gossip press has created a rivalry between him and Valentino.
Meanwhile savvy entrepreneur Louis B. Mayer is trying to save his failing movie company by merging with Metro Studios and Goldwyn Pictures. The fledgeling company, MGM, enters a high-stakes race to make the most lavish spectacle ever filmed, the colossal Roman-era epic Ben-Hur. A fortune has already been spent on filming in Italy, with no end in sight. The lead is terrible in the part and the film is over-exposed. The dreadful daily rushes sent from Rome threaten to bankrupt Mayer’s new studio. To rescue this debacle, a desperate Mayer knows he needs to replace the entire cast and director—and bring the production back to Hollywood for a complete re-filming!
The duo of Rex and Ramón could save Ben-Hur and MGM. But Rex’s difficult temperament and disapproval of Mayer’s new studio system makes him an unlikely candidate. To make matters worse, his movie-star spouse is causing havoc on set. And his jilted ex-lover, June, is now in charge of the hiring for the Ben-Hur production.
To take the titular role, Ramón would also have to leave behind the friends who “made” him into a star. Idolized by everyone including his own press agent, Ramón soon finds that the more famous he becomes the more he must hide his true self from the world. Fame is a fleeting illusion with a huge price tag—one’s self.

IDOLIZED brings the exciting hidden world of early Hollywood drama and the “idols” it created to the musical stage, with a sweeping score that harmonizes lush film music, raucous 1920’s jazz, and the magical dance and vocal music of Old Mexico.