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■ The way Pier Angeli and Vic Damone got engaged was really incredible — even to them. And it was romantic and unforgettable.
Vic and Pier were dancing to juke-box music, "September Song," in The Retake Room, a bar and grill across the street from MGM.
"Let's get married," Vic proposed.
Pier giggled. "I can't. I have a date tonight."
"I'm serious," Vic protested. "On the level, let's get married."
"You've been drinking too much champagne."
"I had less than you," Vic said.
"But I haven't been out with you for almost a year," Pier explained. "Now all of a sudden, you want to get married. You are kidding, Vic? No?"
The crooner shook his handsome head from side to side. He said he'd never been more serious in his life.
"By tomorrow morning," Pier insisted, "you will forget what you said. You are tired this afternoon. Just tired."
"Tell you what," Vic Damone suggested. "You have to come to the studio tomorrow?"
Pier Angeli nodded.
"On your way, stop at the driving range in Westwood. Say ten o'clock. Is that a date?"
Pier gave Vic a little smile, and in the juke box "September Song" faded out. The young lovers edged over to their booth. They sipped another small glass of champagne. Across the table they looked into each other's eyes.
Gene Kelly was in The Retake Room at the same time. "Hi, kids," he greeted.
How strange, Pier thought. What a coincidence that Gene Kelly should be in the same place as they on this very afternoon. Strange because in 1952 Pier Angeli was in Munich with Gene. They were making a picture called The Devil Makes Three.
Pier was twenty at the time. She was chaperoned by her mother. For the length of the production they had a double room in the Bayerische Hof Hotel.
One night a call came from a Pfc. Farrinola, Damone's real family name. "This is Vic Damone."
"Yes?" said Pier.
"I'm stationed over here with the Army," Vic explained. "And I heard you were in town."
"Yes?" repeated Pier.
"Well, we're giving a show tonight, an Army show. You know, for the soldiers. I wonder if you'd be kind enough to come."
Pier .hesitated. "My mother is with me. Wait (Continued on page 65)
This is the way young love should be — arriving fast but here to stay, a little bit wacky, a little bit wonderful, a little bit of a miracle for Pier and Vic!
BY ALICE HOFFMAN
MY HEART SINGS
Their sudden engagement announced, Pier and Vic were flooded with congratulations. The most precious were from Pier's hard-to-please mother, who couldn't have been happier.
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