Modern Screen (Jan-Dec 1960)

Debbie (Continued from page 25) made together." Debbie Reynolds told me, "and all this talk that I am in love with him — or he is in love with me — is just plain stupid. "I, better than anyone else, know what it means to have another woman break up a marriage. "Do you for one minute think that I would be secretly seeing Glenn while he is having trouble with Eleanor Powell? I know him very well professionally and I know her scarcely at all. But even though Glenn and I are friends, my only contact with him has been as co-star of the movies we were making. I like Glenn very much. He is very pleasant to work with and a very good actor. "But as for a hidden romance — well, that just isn't my code of behavior." Enough men around She went on. the words spilling out on top of each other in her indignation, "I won't even see Harry Karl until he is divorced, although I did see him before he married Joan Cohn. There are enough men around without dating some other woman's husband!" I hadn"t interrupted Debbie during this hurling down of the gauntlet because it would have taken a combination of an earthquake and a baby typhoon to interrupt Debbie at this moment. She was angry and she was disgusted. Debbie and I were lunching at Romanoff's this particular Saturday — Saturday being a 'day off for both of us. As usual these days. Debbie looked very chic in a bright blue suit she had bought in Spain, a tiny matching hat and veil, and shorty white gloves — the whole fashion bit! Believe me. this gal has come a long way from her pigtails and blue-denim days. But the subject of clothes was not on her mind. Just that morning, before we met at noon, she had read a story in another fan magazine with the startling title. DEBBIE REYNOLDS WILL MARRY GLENN FORD. Wowie! Even before we ordered. Debbie was off and running. She said. "The person who wrote it must have been out of his mind. The whole thing is sheer insanity. How dare they print such complete falsehoods!" And then she went on to tell me heatedly the comments which lead off this story. In fact, she was in such a huff and a puff both the waiter and I wondered when she would give her order. And as so ' much emotion is hardly conducive to digestion, I suggested we get on with our diet meal — and change the topic, at least temporarily. That wasn't hard to do because Debbie had just signed a contract for a million dollars for a series of TV spectaculars and I if it hadn't been for that distressing fan magazine story, she would have been jubilant. In fact, she it as jubilant. I couldn't help wondering if the fact that Elizabeth Taylor had just made public that she is to receive a million dollars I for making Cleopatra didn't add to Debbie's delight in grabbing off a million for herself? Isn't it the irony of fate that the two feminine angles of the most publicized Hollywood triangle in years are in line for a million dollars apiece — everybody but Eddie? Oh, well — he still has" time. He's never looked, or sung, better. Now that she was in a financial mood ; Debbie told me. "I get S300.0C0 and five | percent for each of my four TV shows. It's i the most money I've ever earned," she smiled happily. "It means so much security for Carrie Frances and Todd." she added. "I'm really a completely happy woman now." she said with sincerity. "I have my children, and my work, and my health and I manage to have a good time, too." I laughed. "That I'll not deny! How you've changed from that stay-at-home girl you used to be." Then she said something rather surprising. "Perhaps the change isn't as deep as you think — except outwardly." And I knew what she meant. I think in the beginning, after the first blow, when Eddie Fisher came out and said he did not love her. that he loved Elizabeth Taylor. Debbie went all out to prove she wasn't as badly hurt as all of us who love her knew her to be. Laughter a little too forced Perhaps, in her confusion and hurt. Debbie went overboard. One day when I went out to MGM to visit her on the set of It Started With A Kiss, I'll admit I was a bit surprised at the way Debbie was clowning around. Between rehearsals she was putting on the hat of director George Marshall and doing tap dance steps. She was kidding with everyone and cracking jokes. And her laughter seemed to be a little too loud and a little too forced. Nor did she seem to mind the splash of publicity she rated when, on a visit to New York. Bob Neal gifted her with a diamond pin. More recently she surprised her fans, including TV star Jack Paar and th's viewer, by pulling Jack's coat off. making him dance with her and generally staging something of a roughhouse. When I spoke with her about this later Debbie was a bit sheepish. She said. "Oh. Jack told me not to be stuffy or straightlaced, to let myself go and clown it up a bit. I'm sorry if it was misunderstood." No one knows better than I that at heart Debbie is not an exhibitionist — it is not in her nature. Actually she is a shy and retiring girl except when before the camera — or perhaps putting on a show when the Thalians whoop it up for her favorite charity (mentally disturbed children and the new clinic being built for their treatment at Mt. Sinai Hospital). But when a girl is as bitterly hurt as Debbie was — it's easy to understand how she would not want the world to know how deep the wound went and to keep up a big front. Now that the big hurt is all gone — at least that is what the lady says. I doubt if we'll get much more of this play acting (for that's just what it is) from Debbie. The men in her life Getting back to the men in her life, I said, "Well, if Glenn isn't the one — and I believe you — who is?" Debbie sighed over her Sanka, then laughed. "We've been over this so often it's beginning to sound like a record. You know better than anyone the way I feel. I don't plan to marry anyone I know now. But I won't say I'll never marry. Being happy in marriage is the only completely happy life for a woman — and that goes for a movie star." I said. "I think Bob Neal, that rich young Texan, would marry you in a minute if you would say yes." I looked at that famed diamond pin of his glittering on her lapel. "He showers you with gifts and whenever his sister and her husband come to town — you are the only girl he invites out." Debbie nodded. "I've said so many times how much I appreciate Bob's friendship. He is one of the most thoughtful men I know. When I was in New York he went out of his way to get good tickets to shows I hadn't seen. And when he drove me to WAISTIN Gentlv vet firmly will whittle your waist. Tuck in tummy too. White breathable feathernap — adjustable supporters. Sizes 22-36. S2.95.