Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1959 - May 1960)

BEHIND MILLIE PERKINS' ENGAGEMENT continued when he talked with her. Millie found herself confiding her innermost thoughts and problems, and Dean found himself an enthralled and sympathetic listener. They lost themselves in the delights of discovering each other. GURIOUSLY enough, when the first hint of a Millie-Dean romance got out, there was a tendency to dismiss it as studio publicity. It is true that Millie and Dean were working on the same lot when they met— Millie in "The Diary Of Anne Frank" and Dean in "Compulsion." But 20th Century-Fox not only had nothing to do with bringing them together, but had no knowledge that they even knew each other. There was irony within irony. Dean and Millie actually met for the first time as an indirect result of a studio project to help Millie overcome her fear of meeting people. Nina Foch had been hired to coach Millie, and in addition to teaching her acting technique, Nina also undertook to bring Millie out of her shell. To this end, Nina arranged an afternoon party at her house, with a handful of guests including George Stevens, Jr., and Dean Stockwell. Aside from a perfuntory introduction, Dean and Millie barely exchanged words. Strangers they met, and strangers they left. So Millie owed it all to Sandra Knight, not to her studio. Millie and Dean got along so well in drama class that within a week they started double dating with Sandra and Blake. Part of their natural affinity was their aversion to the usual Hollywood scene. The four of them would lake long drives along the coast or go for Saturday afternoon picnics to Griffith Park. They would sprawl on the grass, laughing and talking, and enjoying their delicious anonymity. Dean and Millie began dating by themselves. The instant they were together they came alive. They went boating, horseback riding and sightseeing. They discovered favorite out-of-the-way places to eat and took trips to Disneyland. They exulted in the magic their togetherness gave to the prosaic things they did. And they exulted in their privacy. As long as Dean wore his glasses no one seemed to notice him. And Millie, invariably wearing her beige corduroy carcoat over a white blouse and black skirt, still not seen on the screen, was in no danger of being recognized. Dean caught Millie's enthusiasm for photography. With Larry Schiller's help, they both became expert at their hobby. They took pictures of one another while fishing, while picnicing in the Sequoias, boating in Balboa and Newport. They learned to print and develop in Schiller's dark room, and processed all their photographs there so that the secret of their love did not get out. 64 It was only because of mounting annoyance at dreamed up gossip items that Millie was dating Richard Beymer and George Stevens, Jr., that Dean and Millie finally decided to let Hollywood discover they were going together. But they did it in their own time, in their own way. Dean had rejected a private invitation to the Hollywood premiere of "The Diary Of Anne Frank." He was not even expected at the opening. Then, attired in a rented tuxedo, he showed up as Millie's escort. The studio was just as startled as the fans in the bleachers. After that, there were no further attempts to link Millie with other men. But the record was set straight at a price. It was the beginning of the end of the privacy they had enjoyed. With an ocean between them after Millie went to Europe, they found their chief solace in the hobby of photography they had cultivated together. All over the continent, Millie took pictures with the Leica which Dean had given her as a going away present. Schiller's studio on Sunset Boulevard had become not only the scene where they nurtured their mutual enthusiasm for picture taking, but a refuge where they could meet safe from prying eyes. Back in Hollywood, the lonely Stockwell lost himself in photography, shooting layouts of other stars, and spending hours in the dark room. Dean lived only for Millie's return. "I just can't stand it without her," he gritted. "I don't know what to do with my time." Dean also worried about Millie. "I wish she'd get back," he kept saying. "This was the wrong time for her to go to Europe. At least if I was with her, we both could enjoy it. She's just not ready emotionally for being off in Europe all by herself." Dean constantly tried to put throug overseas telephone calls to Millie. H didn't go anywhere without informing hi telephone answering service where h could be contacted. He ran into man frustrations. Once when a call was con pleted at Millie's hotel in Germany, h was informed that she had checked ou five minutes earlier en route to Israe He tried to phone her in Tel Aviv but wa thwarted because of time differences. Millie tried just as hard to get throug to Dean. One time, to his acute anguisl he learned that she had phoned whe> he couldn't be reached. In the main, Mi] lie was more successful than he. One da Dean was developing pictures when a cal from Millie was put through to the dar! room. They talked more than 20 minutes His spirits soared. Millie phoned him ever two days, and those stolen interludes fron her whirlwind itinerary sustained then during the ordeal of their separation When, at what to them was intolei ably long last, Millie came back to Holly wood, she was exhausted. Her doctor attributing her fatigue to the rigors of he European tour, recommended a long rest Millie's private diagnosis laid her ex haustion as much to her anxiety-riddei absence from Dean as to the rigors a exploiting her picture. Their joyful re union was a tonic to both. Dean swept her in his arms at the air port and smothered her with kisses. I possible, and it seemed quite possible, thii appealing, sensitive young girl and bo) were more deeply in love than ever. Cer tainly in that enthralled state of mine they could not have found the idea oi elopement distasteful. For reasons of theii own, they may have decided it was im practical or premature, but not distasteful It is not totally without basis that some continued on page 6i DOCK-SIDE at Newport where they go sailing, Millie and Dean chat with Joyce Jameson.