Was Valentino the first person to be called ‘sexy’?

Question

According Etymonline , the term sexy underwent a semantic change in the early 1920s when it was used to for the first time with the connotation of “sexually attractive” in reference to Rudolph Valentino:

Sexy:

1905, from sex (n.) + -y (2). Originally "engrossed in sex;" sense of "sexually attractive" is 1923, first in reference to Valentino. An earlier word in this sense was sexful (1898).

I couldn’t find any evidence of sexy used at that time referring to Valentino in Google Books or other online sources.

Questions:

• Was the term “sexy” meaning attractive really first used for Valentino in the early 1920s or was this usage already in place in before then?

• Is there evidence that “sexy” was used at that time to refer to the famous actor?

Answer 1

Etymonline seems to be out of date here. The earliest examples in this sense are from before Valentino was even in a movie (at least according to the Wikipedia page linked in the question).

I found what looks to be a really early example from 1901:

You should always take a windy day when you wish to study the Sex; because on a calm day the Sex is not, so to speak, anything like so sexy.
_{The Clipper}

The Oxford English Dictionary gives an example from 1912:

If a woman is genuinely keen to win the affections of a man she is a universal woman of the real sexy sort.
_{Colorado Springs Gazette}

The OED also has an example from the 1923 LA Times referring to both men and women, but this doesn't seem to be the quote Etymonline is referring to either:

Even Elinor Glyn, who rather specializes in sexy heroines, has obviously been confronted with this type... The sexiest men have quite a number of other and more important interests.

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Also, Etymonline asserts that the first use of the word (in any sense) was first used in 1905, but the OED has an earlier quote from 1896 (albeit with a different spelling):

Lane had decided..not to handle your work of genius, on the score that it was seksy & America didn't want no seks-problems.
_{A. Bennett's Letters}

(Do note that "seksy" means "erotic" in the above quote as it is a different sense of the word.)