Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1944)

Best-friend business on Cesar Romero's part with Susan and Peter threw the lamp crash-bang onto the floor. Usually Richard, racing to the rescue, would trip over the lamp cord, plunging everything into darkness and despair. But Susie loved him for it. If there were stairs anywhere to be gotten down, Richard could be counted on to come down the hard way. Once, on their way to a party, Richard made it — he fell all the way down that time, tearing his brand-new suit to the point where they just couldn’t go to the party. I T was all those little things, plus their great love for each other, that carried them through the long hard months of waiting for marriage. For wait they knew they must. Susan had given herself three years in which to be a success in Hollywood. Two of those three years had already evaporated. Dick was working hard at his career, too — and all they had then were their plans and dreams for the future they wanted together. But they could do one thing in those long months — they could wear their wedding bands. And wear them they did, as outward symbols to the world that each had found his own true love, had made his irrevocable choice. It was on June tenth that they had to separate. Richard, having finished his big success, “We’ve Never Been Licked,” at Universal, went off to join the Coast Guard. He was stationed at Alameda, near San Franr cisco. Deep in the picture “Song Of M Russia,” Susan was unable to go ivi north to see him. His furloughs were only occasional and far apart — but every day they spent together was one to be cherished. That was why on that autumn afternoon of November seventh, as Richard stood at the altar of the church and as Susan walked slowly towai’d him, they both knew that this love that had been given to them, that had held strong through many tests, was theirs to keep forever. They had chosen the Westwood Community Church in West Los Angeles for their marriage. It was a beautiful wedding — but what wedding isn’t, especially when it is a young girl of twenty-two and a young man of twenty-three who are realizing, at last, all their dreams. Their honeymoon had a Hollywood touch — and their glorious sense of fun and humor came in handy then. They were riding along the highway gaily, on this their first journey as man and wife, when they ran out of gas. They had to walk two miles to a station and then they were stopped on the road by a group of foresters fighting a fire. It was five a. m. when they finally pulled in at their hotel. In San Francisco they’ve taken a small honeymoon apartment where Susan will stay until her next picture, or until Richard is called away by his Coast Guard duties. Their good friend Cesar Romero bought the drapes and even hung them. They want children, lots of them. Susan would like all of them, except the boys, of course, to be called after her, Suzanne Carnahan (her real name) Quine. Richard favors Penelope Quine and Toby Quine. Thought them up himself and is rather proud of it. A family background of the theater gave Dick a real trouper’s understanding of why Susan should want a career after marriage. So there was no question of “You give up and stay at home while I carry on.” Such an idea would be foreign to the boy whose father, Thomas R. Quine, was a veteran of vaudeville and whose mother, Alice, loved the theater. Born in Detroit, Richard came with his family to Los Angeles when he was just six and went from the El Rodeo Grade School on to the Beverly and Mount Vernon High Schools where he first met Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, both students at the time. While attending Lawler’s Professional School in Hollywood, Richard got his very first stage job in “Cardinal Richelieu” and did so well he was given a role in the serial “Dr. Christian.” The boy was on his way, going into the lead of radio’s “Tom Sawyer,” a role he played for over a year. When Otto Kruger opened in Hollywood in the stage play “Counsellor-at-Law,” Richard went from radio to the stage and when the play was made into a picture, with John Barrymore in the title role, Richard completed the circle of radio, stage and screen. The kid was good, too. But the breaks came slowly and Richard became restless so he lit out for Broadway where, as usual, he darn near starved before he was cast in “Very Warm Fpr May” and then in “My Sister Eileen.” M-G-M signed him after “My Sister Eileen” and there, in his very first musical, “Babes On Broadway,” he met his former classmates Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Richard’s fine singing voice was given a workout and he was on his way to a better role in “For Me And My Gal.” But somehow he likes best “Tish,” that plain little B picture, for otherwise he might never have met Susie. It was that picture, you know, that sent her on to M-G-M’s “Random Harvest” and success. THERE is, and will be, no quibbling * over money or salary as both their salaries will go into one fund looked after by a business manager. Richard is forever attempting to teach Susan to manage on her allowance and then throwing her into a state of confusion by insisting she buy a new suit that would look absolutely stunning on her. No difference that it throws her way off her budget. They love to go shopping together and Susan feels this is one of the most vitally important points in a happy marriage — a husband who loves to shop with his wife. She thinks it wonderful, too, that Richard takes such pride in home and the things that go into it. True, his efforts in keeping things in shape are a bit on the disconcerting side. But he tries. Susan tries, too. And, after all, in any marriage, that’s the main thing. The End. 68