Modern Screen (Feb-Dec 1959)

Rock! Are You Going To Marry Debbie? 2 (Continued jrom -page 51) just talked and talked instead, until he'd talked you into accepting. Saturday morning, you showed up at the boat. You didn't try to kid anyone as you walked up the gangway. You're an honest guy and you still didn't feel so hot and the first thing you told Ty was that you were going to park your suitcase, say hello to the new Mrs. Power and then go off and find a spot and sit alone. But then the new Mrs. Power appeared. She was natural and gracious and all those things Ty had told you about her just before he'd married her. Within a few hours, she'd managed to snap you out of your mood. She kidded with you. She got you to go swimming with her and Ty. Then fishing. Came lunch and she prepared one of her special meals. Came dinner and she did the same, only better. Came evening and she hauled out an old phonograph and put on some records and got you to dance — with her, and with some of the gals from nearby boats who'd dropped over. Came time to call it a day and your gloom had vanished and you were all smiles, looking forward to the next day and to all those other week ends you knew you would be spending with the Powers from that time on. In September, Ty and Debbie left Hollywood for Spain, where Ty would begin work on Solomon and Sheba. You gave a small farewell party for them — aboard the Khairuzan, the boat you had since bought and which you docked alongside theirs. As the party neared an end you put your arms around Ty and Debbie and you said, "You people are really the best friends a guy could ask for. I'll miss you. A lot." You meant it. Debbie leaned forward and kissed you good-bye. A little while later, they were gone. The next time you saw Debbie The next time you saw Debbie was in late November, after Ty's tragic death in Spain. She had come back to Hollywood for the funeral. She was griefstricken. She was nearly seven months pregnant with Ty's baby, and sick. And she didn't want to see anyone but Ty's best friends. You, of course, were among the first to call. You, as it turned out, were the most comforting to the young widow in this, her hour of need. You talked about Ty as Debbie sat and listened. You recalled some of the fun you and Ty had had — long before he'd met Debbie. Some of the stories were very funny, and you laughed together. But sometimes there would be a silence after the laughter and the tears would come to Debbie's eyes and you would take her hand and grip it hard and whisper kind words. More and more, she counted on you. After the birth of her baby did she especially count on you. For this was the toughest period of her life— to have had her wonderful baby and not to have had the baby's father there to share in its wonder. There were times now when Debbie couldn't take it, and had to get out of the house — plain and simple, had to get out. You understood this, Rock. You took her to the beach. You took her to your boat. You took her to the movies and to dinner and, once in a while, to small parties. It was done quietly. But, gradually, reports of your going together began to make the columns. A little here, a little there, and people began to ask questions. Some were cruel. "Why," they asked, "so soon after her husband's death has she begun to date another man?" "What's with Rock," they asked, "letting himself in for this kind of publicity?" "Isn't that something?" they asked. "Her announcing that she even wants Rock to be the baby's godfather." They bothered you, these people and their comments. They made you angry. But your only concern was Debbie. Miiko Taka, the Japanese actress, says: "The fans don't care what I sign, as long as I write from the top down." . , . r Leonard Lyons in the Neio York Post And you continued seeing her, helping her. She was lonely. She was your friend. And, it seems— though you certainly didn't plan it that way — you were beginning to fall in love. We realize this now, though frankly, we thought at first that other people who had noticed this might be wrong. But then, as time passed, we began to change our minds. ... And we began to wonder about Debbie. We figured she must be a pretty special person — in some way — to have attracted first Ty, and then you, so much. We became very curious. So curious that we went down to Mississippi for a few days to talk with the hometown people who knew her best, her relatives, her friends. We found out things about her, things you may not even know — things that Debbie (remembered in Mississippi as Dorothy Jean) has been fighting, and fighting for, all her life. We found out — first, and most important, that since childhood she has been looking for someone to whom she can give her love. You see, Rock, she was just a little girl when her parents were divorced and left her with an elderly couple who had raised her mother. They were prosperous cotton farmers. They gave Debbie everything they could: pretty clothes, expensive toys, money for anything she wanted. But, nice as they were, they were not her parents. And her love for them, as great as it was, could not be the same. When Debbie was fourteen, they sent her to an exclusive boarding school. She was more mature physically than any of the other girls there. Emotionally, however, she was lost. At fifteen, she met a boy— Don Wright. He was twenty-two, handsome and nice. Debbie thought she loved him. One week end they got married. Debbie quit school. She kept house for Don. She would do all the laundry and ironing, even though Don had a good job and they could afford to have it sent out. She would dutifully set the table for breakfast the night before. She developed into a good cook. After a year they had a baby, a girl they named Cheryl. A beautiful baby. Their marriage had been smooth. It should have been perfect now. But, somehow, the strain of motherhood became too great for a sixteenyearold girl to cope with. Debbie got sick. She began to lose weight. Her nerves were always on edge. Gradually, she and Don began to fight. "It was awful for her," says a friend "She wanted things to go well. But it was clear that she'd just gotten married too young, that she really wasn't meant for Don, nor he for her. And so, after about a year of this, they decided to part." Debbie was seventeen when she returned to her foster-grandparents, a divorcee now and a mother. Making up for the iost years For a time she stayed with them, taking care of her baby. Her health, however, seemed in bad shape. Her grandparents suggested that she return to school, get out a little, make up for the two teenage years she had lost. Debbie said no at first. "I've got to be with my baby," she insisted. But after a while she realized that she was doing her baby no good, that an unhappy mother — a would-be woman who is basically still a child herself — cannot bring up a baby properly. So she went back to school. And then, for a while, to college. College, everybody thought, would be fine for Debbie. Lots of fun. Lots of excitement. Lots of people her own age to become friendly with. But college was too slow for Debbie. And because she was a good-looking girl, and had even won a beauty contest in her freshman year, she decided to quit college and go to New York to become a model. She would prove herself. She enrolled in the John Robert Powers School of Modeling. She went through a year -long course. She got her diploma and went out looking for work. Work, however, was not easy to find. Most successful models get a good break. Debbie never got hers. Occasionally something would come up — cheesecake stuff, calendar art, which Debbie didn't like to do. She did, though a few times. But then she gave up. And, with two years down the drain, she left New York for Hollywood. "They use models there, too," she told a friend. "Maybe there I'll have better luck." Hollywood turned out to be no picnic, either. Another mistake Debbie stayed for a while, and was about to leave — when she met a man named Nico Minardos. They met by accident. Nico — then a bit player in television — had a date with Debbie's roommate one night. The roommate was out on another date when he called for her. So after some persuasion, he got Debbie to go with him instead. They drove to the beach, where they had dinner. Throughout dinner Nico spoke of his work, his dreams, the future, about how he hope " someday soon for a chance to get into the movies and to the top. Debbie was fascinated. At the end of their date, Nico asked for another one. Debbie said yes. After a few more dates she thought that she was in love with her young actor, and he with her. On January 12, 1954, they were married. But it turned out to be no marriage at all. Nico was (Continued on page 64)