Pauline Frederick : on and off the stage (1940)

First Marriage 47 who pride themselves that they have only been married once but omit to mention a number of " side lines." On those rare occasions when Pauline was asked about her many marriages, she always gave but one reply, " When the beauty had gone out of my marriage — I went out of it too." The greatest sadness in Pauline's life was that she had no children. She was passionately fond of them. An automobile accident which led to a convalescence of seventeen weeks finally prevented any such joy coming to her. Because of her longing for a child, she adored parts in plays where she was a stage mother. Her mother once remarked that if the play, had a baby in it, Pauline would insist upon doing it, no matter how bad the play was. In later years when she had reached middle age, she enjoyed nothing more than the stage sons and daughters who played with her. She would introduce them with pride as " my son " or " my daughter," only adding as an afterthought, " on the stage, of course," and not even adding it then unless people appeared confused or surprised. She revelled in them and seemed quite thrilled that people should think they were her real children. This habit of hers sometimes led to misunderstandings. A dramatic incident on this subject of children occurred once in her dressing room. A publicity woman who seemed to delight in tattling vicious or unpleasant gossip, remarked in saccharine tones that she had heard that Pauline really had a daughter in the cast but did not want anyone to know it. By her tone, the woman implied that Pauline was hiding the fact because she did not want people to know she was nearly fifty. Pauline's face flushed angrily and, turning to the woman with eyes blazing, she thumped her hand down on the dressing table and remarked: " If I had a daughter the WHOLE WORLD would know it! " After that, one could have heard a pin drop. Nor did Pauline turn and apolo