Broadway and Hollywood "Movies" (Jan - Aug 1934)

36 •MOVIES' , The XAfarriae'e Mart THE ‘’heart balm” suit filed suddenly against Alan Dinehart, movie actor, by Betty Kaege who claimed the star should have married her and in which she asked one hundred “grand,” later raising the price to a quarter of a million dollars, was dropped just as suddenly and mysteriously. Mr. Dinehart’s attorney claims the case was thrown out of court, and Alan is now honeymooning with his bride, the pretty Mozelle Brittone. Charging mental cruelty, indifference and neglect, Mary Pickford, film actress, recently filed suit for divorce from Douglas Fairbanks, motion picture actor, who is climbing the Alps in Europe as this story goes to press. Despite rumors of reconciliation, including Walter Winchell’s, this magazine predicted some time back the action for divorce, and, as usual, we were right. The complaint, prepared by Lloyd Wright, the actress’ attorney, sets forth that Mr. Fairbanks lacked consideration for his wife’s feelings and sensibilities; that he publicly announced he had no interest in life except travel, which “destroyed the legitimate ends of matrimony”; that he absented himself from home for months at a time, and that this caused “much public criticism and unfair comment.” The complaint also states that the specific neglect began in June, 1930, after which time Mr. Fairbanks, it is asserted, disregarded his wife’s wishes and assumed an attitude of indifference toward their marital status. In a formal statement Miss Pickford said: "For the past several years my married life has become increasingly unhappy. Being convinced that under the existing circumstances the future offers no solution, it is with the deepest regret that I am filing suit for divorce.” Miss Pickford and Mr. Fairbanks were married in Los Angeles on May 28, 1920, and separated, the complaint said, on May 29, 1931. Both had been married before. Miss Pickford to Owen Moore, motion picture actor, and Mr. Fairbanks to Anna Beth Sully. Divorces ended these marriages in 1920 and 1918, respectively After their marriage. Miss Pickford and Mr. Fairbanks continued their film work, but only once appeared together. That was in "The Taming of the Shrew.” Their friends said the first signs of a rift appeared in the making of that picture. Miss Pickford's role as Katherine became virtually a secondary one. Mr. Fairbanks "stole the show.” Mrs. Grace D. Jennings, the former Grace Dealing of screen fame, recently, in Hollywood, had won a divorce from Rudolph P. Jennings. She accused him of scolding her at the slightest provocation. They were married Jan. 22, 1918. . . . June Whalen, wife of the Broadway comedian, Harold .1. Whalen, came West, not for a film career but to seek a divorce, friends reported today. Alice White is back in the movies from her recent honeymoon in Mexico, while her new husband, Cy Bartlett, remained on his Soto ranch, 170 miles below the border, for a roundup. Formal separation, with possibility of divorce action to follow, is being arranged in the Holmes-Herbert family. Mrs. Herbert is the widow of Thomas Ince, pioneer movie magnate. She and Herbert were married in the spring of 1930. Believe it or not, they say that her husband preferred cards to her red-headed beauty. He liked solitaire instead of her company, and Corliss Palmer, one-time Georgia peach, was recently granted a divorce from Eugene V. Brewster, former millionaire publisher of film magazines. The divorce furnished an anti-climax to the bizarre romance between the publisher and one-time Macon cigar stand girl that blazed several years across front pages of the country. Winner of a beauty contest, Corliss’ name began to be coupled intimately with Brewster in 1921 when she came to Hollywood to enter the films. The romance culminated in 1926 in a runaway marriage in Mexico. Mrs. Eleanor Brewster, the publisher’s first wife, filed a barrage of suits the last for $200,000 which was settled just prior to Corliss’ marriage. The couple settled in Hollywood, but Brewster’s publications waned, and with them Corliss’ film chances. In August, 1931, Brewster declared his business bankrupt and two California mansions and furnishings were sold. The couple took a shabby bungalow and posed for photographs washing dishes with brave smiles. Later Miss Palmer was confined in the alcoholic ward of San Francisco Emergency Hospital. She told the judge today that her husband had “shamfully neglected her.” No property settlement or alimony was involved in the default decree. Attended only by four friends, Fifi D’Orsay, vivacious French Canadian film actress, recently became the bride, at Hollywood, of Maurice Hill, Chicago socialite and winner of a magazine contest to find the handsomest man in the mid-West, in the rectory of St. Victor's Church. The marriage climaxed the "first trial honeymoon on record.” Witnesses to the ceremony were Mr. and Mrs. Vernon D. Wood and Mr. and Mrs. Roland Becker. Wood is Miss D’Orsay’s business manager and Becker her tour manager. After the wedding, a reception was held at the Beverly Hills home of Lew Cody, film actor friend of Miss D’Orsay. The couple’s plans are indefinite because Miss D’Orsay has to fill a number of theatrical engagements. Miss D'Orsay met Hill last February, when she was appearing on the stage in Chicago. Peggy Rich, show girl, who lost Freddie Rich, orchestra leader, via the divorce route, and then lost Jack de Ruyter, playboy broker and her vaudeville partner, who was the cause of it all, announced recently that she’s going to marry again. .Rumor had it that she would skip over to the City Hall in Newark, N. J. to become the wife of Ed( Continued on page 43.) Allan Dinehart Mary Pickford