Hollywood (Jan - Mar 1943)

"We »idn9t Part Friends!99 Inn Sheridan »y RICHARD HARD | Ann Sheridan is probably the only Hollywood glamour girl in a decade not to rely on the old Hollywood wheeze, "We parted the best of friends," in seeking a divorce from George Brent. In an exclusive interview on her marital crack-up, Ann got down to brass tacks and decided she would give the public credit for a little common sense. "Of course George and I didn't part the best of friends," she declared. "If we had been falling on each other's necks, the way most divorcing Hollywood couples would have you believe when they separate, we wouldn't have parted at all. I see no reflection on George by my being honest about our separation, and I'm certain the public is tired of hearing the same old refrain every time two movie people decide it's best to end their marriage." The Brents' separation may have come as a surprise to Hollywood, but there had been a number of times when Ann and George had guessed at the inevitable outcome. "It had been the same thing on and off ever since our wedding," said Ann. "Our likes and dislikes were too different for us ever to be permanently happy in marriage. "For one thing, George was never very enthusiastic about going out. He wanted to stay at home all the time. But I like to go out and mingle with other people and have fun now and then. What girl doesn't?" Ann feels that before marriage two people must believe they can forget each other's faults once the knot has been tied. "George and I had gone together for what we considered a reasonable length of time, and although we knew our mutual shortcomings, it was natural for us to trust that we could adjust our lives once we were man and wife. The fact that we were not able to do this adds up to the same mistake made by many people before us. Anyway, we tried very hard, but as I see it now, we simply had too many odds against us. "There was another unfortunate thing about our marriage. We never did have a normal home life. I had just moved into my new home before becoming George's wife, and because it had been de?i<med for a single person, he naturally didn't like it. So part of the time he lived at my place, and the remainder of the time I lived at the bachelor home he continued to maintain. You will get some idea of what I mean when I tell you that at George's place there wasn't even a place for me to hang my clothes when I stayed there. And since my home had also been designed for a state of single blessedness, George had his problems when he came to live with me. "I think our greatest mistake was not having a common home we could call our own. We had been so well established in our respective residences before our marriage that we continued to put off the subject of getting a single place that would be attractive to us both. During our entire marriage there were only vague references to the type of home we could have planned had we really made up our minds to do it." The possession of separate homes by George and Ann also caused endless speculation among Hollywood gossipmongers on the possibility of a separation at any time. This sort of talk certainly does no good, even to the most firmly-established marriage, much less to one which had its shaky periods almost from the beginning. It was a habit of theirs to live at whatever place was most convenient at a certain time. When George was busy on a picture at Warner Brothers and Ann had time off, she would leave him temporarily to enjoy her own home, which was still new to her. There was always a mutual understanding on this arrangement because it was more convenient for George to live in his house near the studio. Practically every time it happened, however, outsiders would take up the cry that they had been tiffing. "But the real break came," continued Ann, "after I had been on location a couple of weeks with The Edge of Darkness company at Monterey, California. George had not communicated with me in any way during this time, and I was naturally angry. It turned out that we didn't see or speak to each other, even by phone, during the entire month I was away. And I was not exactly in the most pleasant frame of mind about our marriage when I did return to Hollywood. "Oh, yes, we did decide to be intelligent about it by trying to thrash the whole thing out. We had a long conversation the night before our separation was suddenly made public. We started out talking very calmly, but the longer we were at it the angrier we became, and George finally walked Ann Sheridan discusses frankly the failure of her tempestuous marriage to George Brent out of the house. So, you see, we never did have too much of a chance at happiness together. Maybe it was our own fault and we should have done something about it; but I still maintain that George and I just couldn't merge our likes and dislikes on certain questions. Of course, George is a charming person, but he is not the most practical man in the world." Although Ann is completely fair to George in analyzing the cause of their separation, the fact is that she could never have had what she considers an ideal marriage with him. "We never did sit down and talk seriously about a home and family," she concluded, "and these are the things I really want. "But even now I have no disillusionment about marriage, and I look forward to having eventually the kind \ of life that belongs naturally to a