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HOLLYWOOD'S
. , 4 The failure of the marriage of Ann Harding and Harry Bannister is one of Hollywood's major tragedies
(Above) The sad break-up of Ann Harding and Harry Bannister can be charged directly to the great fame which came to Ann. (Right) The very frankness and understatement of Ann's letter heightens the sadness of it.
By
K. ROWELL BATTEN
Ann _|_|z^RbiMG
March 21st, 1932.
Mr. 7/alter Ramsey, Modern Screen, Hollywood, California.
Dear Mr. Ramsey: :
The following statement, together with a statement from Mr. Bannister, is being delivered simultaneously to the general Press:
We, Harry Bannister and Ann Harding Bannister, are getting a divorce, because, during our three years in the motion picture industry, i»e have been placed in a position which is untenable.
Due to Harry's constant and generous effort to forward my interests, often at the expense of his own, he is gradually losing his identity, becoming a background for my activities, and looked upon as "Ann Harding's husband".
We have decided that the only way for Harry to re establish himself in his profession, is to cut the Gordian knot, to set forth on his own quite apart from me and win his way back to the standing he enjoyed in the Theatre, before this unfortunate situation in pictures has a chance to reach us, and destroy the love and respect we have for each other
»/e have found courage to preserve the thing we have in the way that seems best to us.
THE two letters reproduced on these pages tell — with amazing and unusual frankness — one of the most poignant tragedies which has ever happened in Hollywood. In those letters— plain and utterly without verbal trimmings as they are— one can see the heartbreak and disappointment. Here, indeed, is one answer to the ever-present question of whether it is possible for love to exist in Hollywood.
Much has been written about the price of fame — a good deal of it absolute hokum, some of it true. This break-up between Ann Harding and Harry Bannister really does prove that there is a price for fame— and a high one. For Ann did love her husband tremendously — and does. That is no publicity story. Anyone who has ever been to Holly44
wood will tell you how she always tried to make her husband more important than herself— at their home and at gatherings. She always tried to show that he was master of the house— that he was no Mister Ann Harding. She never made a decision without asking his advice — whether in public or private. She did her best to make it clear to everyone that he was the head of the household.
Hard as she tried, though, Hollywood and public opinion was too much for her. When she and Harry first came to Hollywood they were two professionals of equal standin° Then the movies, with typical unreasonableness, cast Ann to the top of the heap and left Harry buried in obscurity at the bottom. He's a good actor— Ann herself will tell you he's every bit as good an actor as she is an