Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1945)

The object of their complete affection — little Victoria Betty Grable and Harry James live in a haunted-by-happiness house with all of their hearts’ desire BY ELEANOR HARRIS OF ALL the hundreds of Hollywood marriages, probably that of Pin-up Girl Betty Grable and Swing King Harry James caused the most gloomy headshaking in movietown. “Won’t last — two careers don’t make a marriage,” said the wiseacres flatly. Meanwhile, what was the nation saying? The nation was crowing in delight, “It’s ideal — the two jive idols of the country will be completely happy!” And we are happy to report that the Hollywood sophisticates were dead wrong — and the nation entirely right. Two careers notwithstanding, Harry James and Betty Grable are so thoroughly happy together that their marriage, with all its daily hurdles, is an example of love and tenderness to the world. It certainly has hurdles* — as witness the fact that Betty works at her studio from seven in the morning until seven at night; while Harry leaves at eight p.m. for his orchestra playing . . . and is gone until two a.m. And yet this is a blissful marriage — somehow the two crowd in a full week together, every week. The reason for this happiness is a simple one: It’s consideration for each other — a habit practiced as a matter of course by our pioneer ancestors, and almost forgotten in the whirlwind living of today. With Betty doing most of the adjusting quietly, and Harry never dreaming that she does. All of Betty’s friends know, for instance, of one considerate mission she accomplishes every single day of her working life: She has an hour off for lunch, like everyone else on the set. Instead of spending it over a leisurely meal in the nearby studio commissary, she gets into her car, costume and all, and drives to her home — which, luckily, is very near the studio — thus allowing her self precious time with Harry in the middle of the day, at lunch. After lunch, she’s back in her convertible heading for the studio. What other star actress has ever done this before? With baby Victoria’s appearance, Betty made another unique decision in the history of Hollywood marriages — she demanded the right to spend every Thursday at home with her husband and baby. Thursday is the nurse’s day off; but all over filmdom other actresses have a substitute nurse come in — all over filmdom, that is, except on the five acres in Beverly Hills owned by Mr. and Mrs. Harry James. Thursdays and Sundays are Betty’s days to be completely a wife and mother, and she makes them just that. She spends those days in sandals and a cotton dress, and her blonde hair worn down on her shoulders the way Harry likes it. Together, all day long, she and Harry play with little Victoria, and feed her and care for her; and meanwhile, they also talk together and swim in their pool — which both of them would rather do than spend an evening in the swankiest night club in town. For that matter, part of their complete happiness is due to their joint simplicity when they have a free, evening together. Perhaps because Harry has spent years of his life playing in night clubs, and Betty has spent years of hers singing in them (and dating in them) — neither of them can see anything attractive in night clubs now. What’s more, they seem to have an uncanny instinct about just what the othei* one feels like doing — and generally that amounts to dinner at a red-checked-table in a hardly-known spaghetti restaurant;' then a movie; and then a hot fudge sundae at Brown’s on Hollywood Boulevard. And so home. Mainly, they both love movies; and dinners at outof-the-way Italian resturants; and staying at home playing poker and gin rummy with their friends. As for drinking, their sole social beverage is a soda-pop drink. And that’s certainly something big they have in common! But, as in the case of most successful marriages, what they really have in common is a mutual desire to think of the other — with the wife silently doing the major part of the rearranging of lives, and the husband none the wiser! For instance, take Harry’s intense interest in baseball — not just in seeing it played, but in playing it himself. Now, you know as well as we do what the average wife would ( Continued on page 81)