Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1962)

NATALIE WOOD 0 Continued from page 59 happened in Hollywood after all my years in pictures. Like all the gossip. . . . “I’m trying to do the right thing and lead my own life — but it isn’t easy under these circumstances. I’ve even read that I’m supposed to get married in Mexico very soon. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I have no plans whatever for being married again.” Marriage plans or not, Natalie and Warren are together at previews and parties on the East and West Coasts. On weekends they swim and sunbathe together around Beatty’s swimming pool. And they are never, never seen with anyone else. While all of Hollywood and the world are talking about Natalie, I thought it would be interesting to see what two people who are really in the know have to say about this red-hot romance. Those two people are Natalie’s lovely mother, Mrs. Gurdin. and her fifteen-year-old sister Lana. Lana, a lively child, has taken the stage name Lana Wood, and makes her film debut in “Five Finger Exercise.” It was refreshing to talk to a Hollywood mother and daughter and find them in complete rapport with one another. In this day and age of children who feel they know more than parents, the Gurdins were a delight. When mother spoke, Lana sat, listening intently, nodding her head in agreement. It was obvious that what mother said went for Lana. too. ( Let me say here and now that there are three daughters in the Gurdin family. Teddy, who is eight years older than Natalie; Natalie, who is twenty-three, and Lana. I mention this because it has a bearing on this story, as you will see.) “Warren’s not like Bob . . Mrs. Gurdin smiled and said. “I doubt that Natalie is in love with Warren Beatty. She’s lonesome right now and he’s free — and. well, they like each other.” Then she sighed and said, “We loved Boh Wagner very much. Our whole family loved his whole family.” “Oh, Warren is nice,” said Lana. “He’s lots of fun to be with. He’s been to New York and lie’s sort of different. But he’s not like Bob!” This made two members of Natalie’s family who seemed to still be rooting for Bob. And was I wrong in detecting a strong note of wishing that Natalie and Bob would reconcile? Let’s see. “Natalie and Bob have not filed for a divorce yet,” her mother went on. “and VOTE NOW AND WIN A PRIZE! We’ll put your name on one of 400 prizes — and all you have to do is fill out and mail this ballot. This month the prize — for the first 400 ballots we receive — is “The Elvis Presley Story,” with an introduction by Dick Clark. Besides twenty chapters about Elvis, there are thirty-two pages of pictures. To win this book, mail us your ballot today listing your favorites. Paste this ballot on a postcard and send it to Reader's Poll, Box 1374, Grand Central Station, New York 17, New York. MY FAVORITES ARE: ACTOR: 1. 2. 3. ACTRESS: 1. 2. 3. FAVORITE STORY IN THIS ISSUE: 1. 2. 3. THE NEWCOMER I'D LIKE MOST TO READ ABOUT: THE FAMOUS PERSON, NOT IN SHOW BUSINESS, I'D LIKE TO READ ABOUT: Name Age Address 3-62 maybe time will take care of it. I hope so. You have to expect things to change in every marriage. One night last summer when Natalie had us over for dinner — I mean her father, Lana and I — I noticed that it was not as it had been with Bob and Natalie the year before. Then they had been together constantly. Now it seemed that they were having small misunderstandings. “Natalie is very sensitive. She never shows it except in her acting. This is why people who do not know her well say that she is cold at heart. “That is not true. She would not be the actress she is if she did not feel deeply and could not he deeply hurt. And she is very hurt now. She told me, ‘Some people grow up when they get married, Mother. I am growing up when I am divorcing.’ She wants to find herself. But I hope she does not have to find herself through divorce. I like Bob so very, very much.” I did not discuss this with Natalie's family, but there seems to be an odd parallel between Elizabeth Taylor’s life and Natalie’s. There was a time in Liz’ life when her parents regretted that they had let her become an actress, and they discussed her giving it all up. Liz was about fifteen at the time. As you probably remember, Liz began her professional career when she was eight. Natalie began acting at four. When she was about fourteen her father discussed her giving it up. She reacted just as Liz did: She cried. Like Liz, Natalie loved her work. It’s strange, isn’t it, that now with her performances in “Splendor in the Grass” and “West Side Story,” she’s the most important young actress — next to Elizabeth. But Natalie’s romance record is entirely different. She has had one marriage to Liz’ four. But Liz, with the exception of Monty Clift, has married every man with whom her name was ever seriously linked. Natalie has been wildly enamored of many fellows. She nearly married Nick Adams when she was barely sixteen, but got cold feet, by her own confession, when she was almost at the altar. In 1956, she said of Scott Marlow, “He is the great love of my life.” She knocked the press for a loop when she raced to Memphis to be Elvis Presley’s houseguest, and then returned home alone. She had a crush on Dennis Hopper. She thought she was in love with Raymond Burr. And Frank Sinatra. And Lance Reventlow. And Nicky Hilton. And John Ireland. And in the photographs taken of her with each and every one of these men she looked as wildly in love as she looks in photos today with Warren Beatty. Bob Wagner is an actor. Warren Beatty is five times the actor Bob Wagner is. Which could mean that Warren can enter into the illusion of love five times more intensely than Bob can. But will Warren be the husband that Bob was? This is what Natalie’s mother and sister wonder. “I think Bob was Natalie’s first real love.” Mrs. Gurdin says. “She was always popular, as Lana is now, but I remember she came home from her first date with Bob and she told me, ‘Mother, I’m going to marry him.’ She had never done that before. She was just eighteen. She never went out with another boy after that first date with Bob. She was nineteen when they 70