Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1943)

THE TROTH ABOUT THE STARS' HOME LIVES Til (Continued from page 68) they arrange to be in the studios at the same time and share the same dressing room!) they live at Palm Springs. "When they do trek in from the desert — the last time they came in to buy tools for repairing their fence — Bill looked marvelous and Diana's happiness shines brighter than all the jewels he showers upon her. Bill tells friends that during the long season they spend on the desert Diana gives him manicures and also touches up his hair. Bill's hair, grey for years, has to be kept darker for the screen. All of which indicates that Bill and Diana, whose marriage courted such dire prophecies, have already found more happiness together than most couples know in their whole lives. THE Fred MacMurrays manage many ' quiet evenings at home. For years Lillian MacMurray was ill and had to guard her health. Many believe this has contributed much to Fred's adoration and loyalty, for they are one of Hollywood's most in-love couples. She's completely well now, but she and Fred continue well content with an occasional small dinner party with their close friends. Fred spends lots of time "tinkering." In his big workroom he has "whittled" about everything from a toothpick to a davenport. Ray Milland enjoyed home carpentry, too — until he nearly crippled his hands with his cabinet-making pursuits and, pronto, sold his tool chest to Franchot Tone. No mention of the Milland home life would be complete without a report of their bell system. So many gonglike rings which bring „ Y.e*^ retread \ T"^6\ \\\\o«*°^* end the unsuspecting guest right smack out of his chair indicate a telephone call awaits Ray and one ring more or less means it's for Mrs. Milland. Before this system was installed the housekeeper would shout out from the hall that So and So was wanted on the phone. This bothered Ray as few things do. Ray likes to relax. It's Mrs. Milland, the charming, gracious Mai who, like so many wives, assumes responsibility for her family's social life. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are another couple who do little galavanting. Before Desi went into service he and Lucille definitely preferred to stay at home together — happy in their own way. At home Lucille and Desi aren't so calm and collected as they appear in public. They're violent lovers who quarrel and make up and quarrel and make up. Desi's jealous. Desi has the Latin temper. Once sitting in the patio with friends while he strummed his guitar in accompaniment to those sad songs he loves to sing, he was angered by something Lucille said. Whereupon Lucille dodged his guitar — expertly! Make what you like of that. Before Desi marched off to war, they used to work on their farm in the Valley; wear overalls, get in and pitch. Literally. Their friends love to tell about the time Desi rushed into the house to fix a stove which was acting up, stuck his head into the contraption without taking off his big straw hat and had it go up in flames. He lost half his hair and his eyebrows before the cook put the fire out. Lucille just stood by helplessly screaming. The servant problem isn't helping home life — private life, either — naturally. The Hollywood restaurants are jammed to the doors these days. Some stars, however, are willing to make any effort to preserve the domestic scene. Like Don Ameche. The Ameches haven't had any help for months. With their large brood (cooks are fussy these days!) they have very little hope of getting help for the duration. Don. who used to whip up special dishes for "fun," now cooks the family's dinner in earnest when he gets home from the studios to give Honore a rest from playing nursemaid all day. Claudette Colbert's given up the big Holmby Hills house where she and Doctor Joel Pressman lived in elegant dignity with a butler in striped trousers and morning coat and English accent. Claudette lives in a Hollywood apartment when she's working. At other times she's in Arizona with Lieutenant Commander Pressman. Whenever she gets away from the studios at a reasonable hour during her Hollywood sojourns she goes over to her mother's French Provincal house out on Sunset Boulevard for dinner. No cook, according to Claudette, ever produced a baked chicken comparable to her mother's. IMMEDIATELY Ginger Rogers fin1 ished "Lady In The Dark" she left for La Jolla and Marine Jack Briggs. It didn't faze her there was a housing shortage. She went to live in a threedollar-a-day room in a hotel — a far hail from her Coldwater Canyon manse. Veronica Lake's home address is Seattle, Washingto.n. That's where her husband, Captain John Detlie, is stationed. That's where she leased the charming house surrounded by gardens to which she shipped the furniture she and John have been collecting so slowly and discriminatingly ever since their marriage. This also is where the faithful Clara remains at all times, to look after Veronica's handsome Captain and their baby. When Veronica is working and can't possibly live in Seattle she shares a two-bedroom apartment with Wallace Beery's ex, Rita, and Wally's adopted daughter, Carol Ann. Rita and Veronica divide the various daily tasks and have a cleaning woman once a week. Dorothy Lamour is trying to rent a little house outside San Bernardino where Captain Bill Howard is stationed. She'll be glad to settle for a cleaning woman once a week, too. She and Bill will cook their own meals very nicely, thank you. Her specialty is Southern dishes. His specialty is broiling steaks. When Dotty 's working — and in Hollywood perforce — she'll live with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. L. Castleberry, as she did before she married. It doesn't concern her that she has to take care of her room and bath in their (Continued on page 88)