Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

I'M ALL MIXED UP! [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31] veneer of success? It was the old Dale Robertson who said, honestly, that he and Jackie had had a spat and he'd moved out for a cooling down period. "All married couples have quarrels," he said later. "We're no different." Hollywood, and Dale's friends, thought differently. It was whispered that the Robertsons had been incompatible for quite a while. Dale, it was said, had only hung around until after the birth of their daughter, Rochelle, and no one had expected him to stick it out much longer. What is the real Dale Robertson today? A mixed-up guy who loves his wife one day, wants to make a go of his marriage, and veers around tomorrow to the opinion that "every husband should have a weekend or a month to go off fishing or hunting by himself." Is Dale Robertson just another plain ordinary nice guy who's taking the count in Hollywood, via gossip, the innuendo that he's "gone Hollywood" — or is he trying honestly to adapt himself to his new success, to work out a compromise between the town that's brought him fame and money and the plans he used to have for his life and marriage? Perhaps, he was bitterly disappointed that their child was a girl. "A he-man wants a he-boy," he said to this writer, before the baby was born. "I've always wanted to play ball with my kids, to watch them play football, take them hunting. You can't do those things with a little girl." Perhaps, too, the Robertson marriage is just another example of "marry in haste, repent at leisure." Dale had known Jacqueline Wilson a scant week before they were married — and the Dale Jackie married was a very different Dale from Mrs. Robertson's husband. "The first thing people ask is what Jackie and I have in common," Dale said shortly after the wedding. "Well, right now we've only just gotten married and we don't have too much in common yet. Our marriage is smooth enough, but no one's is a bed of roses in the beginning. You get things in common after you've been married for quite a little while." town, really out of town, but he probably thought he was just getting a polite excuse for a brush-off. Oh well, that's life for you," she shrugged. "Hollywood is just full of bores who won't take no for an answer, and then when you have an interesting date with a man you'd like to see again sometime, he stops calling because you're not around when he phones." I mentioned to Linda the fact that she's seen so rarely in public that she has people wondering about her. She It looks as though the Robertsons, however, never did get enough in common for a firm marriage. Dale is a man's man, who enjoys hunting, fishing, horses, sports of any sort, and in company with men rather than women. Reared by a mother and two aunts, he's been spoiled and has become a little over-demanding of women. "I guess my marriage means everything to me," he said in the beginning. "My wife expects me to be a little more attentive and aware that she's around. I'm very conscious that she's around, though I don't act it, but that's because I don't know how to show my feelings." Hollywood thinks that Jackie may be a little fed up with all this taking things for granted. It's not much fun to stay home with the baby while your husband works six days a week and spends the seventh on the golf links with a bunch of men. Even Dale's large salary and almost continuous schedule at the studio can't entirely compensate for never seeing her husband. With an impressive string of picture credits to his name, Dale Robertson seems to have lost his suspicion that Hollywood will only keep him for seven years. It begins to look as though he'll be around for quite a while, and he's learning things all the time. That it's fun to go to Ciro's, that there are plenty of people willing and ready to be friends, that interviews are a bore, and that publicity isn't — he thinks — quite so necessary since 20th Century-Fox recently picked up his option. On the other hand, in a confiding mood, Dale recently told a close man friend, "I guess I'm all mixed-up, Bob. Once I thought I knew what I wanted and how I would get it. Now I'm not so sure I know what I want, or when I do know, if I'll fight hard enough to get it. But you can bet on one thing, I won't let Hollywood lick me — like it's licked other people." The truth of the matter is that he still says he's only staying until he makes a pile. Then he's clearing out in favor of a ranch and horses, but while the words are the same, the tune is different, and his closest friends don't think his heart is in it. END grinned impishly at me. "What's wrong with that?" she asked. "Just because I've had enough night clubs and restaurants to last a lifetime doesn't mean I'm sitting home alone brooding," she declared spiritedly. "Just why does a single girl have to be involved in a torrid romance or have constant dates in the nightspots or be planning a wedding in order to convince people that she isn't neurotic or blue? I've been entangled since I was born," she said, "and I'm having the time of my life being one hundred per cent footloose and free! "I have dozens of things I want to do and places I want to see," Linda said emphatically. "There isn't enough time in a day or enough days in a year to satisfy me — and I've never been happier in my life!" Linda's appearance is misleading. Her solemn facial expressions probably give rise to a lot of groundless rumors about her. Those huge brown eyes of hers have a way of looking pensive when she's sitting quietly on a movie set waiting for the cameras to roll. Oftentimes she is thinking of nothing more disturbing than that her feet hurt. Unlike many girls in show business, Linda doesn't go in for much small talk or joshing on a movie set. She's inclined to keep quiet unless there's something she really wants to say or unless she's with her own chums. She usually rests quietly on the sidelines until time to take her place before the camera, or she slips off to her dressing room, where she keeps a typewriter on which she pounds out endless letters to friends in various parts of the world. Add to this the fact that her conversations with her maid cannot be understood even when heard by co-workers, because they're in Spanish — and you begin to realize why Linda seems a mystery and rumors about her remoteness get their start. Despite the fact that Linda has a broad and lusty sense of humor, an extremely entertaining wit, lots of curiosity and an enormous zest for living, people who meet her casually seldom realize it. Linda has to know you before she makes it possible for you to know her. She has a keen eye for sizing up people and picks her own friends. "How about this big ranch I heard you were dickering for in New Mexico?" I asked her. "Are you planning to live there some day if the deal goes through for you to buy it?" She shrugged off that thought in a 57 LINDA'S HECTIC LOVE LIFE [CONTINUED FROM PACE 27]