Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1962)

cism of her being seen with Mr. Stevenson. For the first time Joan frowned. Trying to control her temper, she said, “Lots of so-called society people said to my face that it was shocking for a dignified man to be escorting an actress. That made me mad. I think an actress is as dignified as a diplomat or a politician or anyone. It all depends on the person. I’m glad I’m an actress. I’m proud of my family lineage.” “Just what is society?” Joan threw back her head and laughed. Lovely neck, lovely laugh. “Just recently I invited a society man to tea,” she said. “I asked him, ‘Do you go to the theater?’ And he answered, ‘Well, you see, I live on the East Side and the theater is way over on the West Side.’ If that’s society, may I never be there.” Then I showed Joan the photograph of her and Adlai in Life. “Oh, oh,” she said, “that picture is enough to cause all the furor even if we never saw each other again.” A different reaction to the picture is one recorded by New York Post columnist Leonard Lyons. He wrote: “Adlai Stevenson’s friends were delighted to see his Life photo with Joan Fontaine. A few years ago at a party here he admired a blonde beauty. A friend whispered, ‘Tomorrow night, if you come to dinner. I’ll have her and six other such beauties there — just for you.’ ... ‘I can’t, tomorrow night,’ said Stevenson. ‘I'm dining with Nehru.’ . . .‘You turn down seven beauties for Nehru?’ his friend sighed. ‘Now I see why you lost the election.’ ” I flipped through some of the column items I had with me and asked for her comments. To the one calling her Ambassador Stevenson’s “new girl-friend” she snapped. “It’s dreadful. Shocking. I can go out with seven different men seven different nights of the week and there'd be no comment. But when I’m escorted by a famous man, suddenly it makes good copy. Why is a romantic connection immediately made when one is seen with a charming escort?” I continued my questions. Did she call Mr. Stevenson “The Governor.” as Louis Sobol claimed? “Yes, everyone who knows him well calls him this,” she explained. “He identifies himself with that title. That’s what his secretary calls him. Even his place cards have that on them.” I pointed out that some columnists even make a point of her going somewhere without Mr. Stevenson, as had Suzy in her item about artist Bouche’s studio-warming party. For a few seconds she giggled like a schoolgirl, and then she caught herself. “My escort at that party was Borden Stevenson, Governor Stevenson’s son. What a story the columnists could have dreamed up about that l” For a moment my eyes strayed over to the photograph of Ambassador Stevenson on her desk. But she chose to talk about another picture there, a news shot of the ruins of her Hollywood home that had been completely gutted by the fire last fall. “It all went up in smoke,” she said. “Everything. My whole past. Pictures of my three husbands. Pictures of my daughters. Copies of my three interlocutory divorces. My scrapbooks, letters, paintings. Everything. . . . I’m born again. . . . Free.” But there were still a few embers smouldering in the ashes. Memories of the past that she couldn’t stamp out. . . . She talked about them. About her husbands — Brian Aherne, whom she married to get away from her mother and sister (Olivia de Havilland) ; William Dozier, whom she married so that she could have children, and Collier Young, whom she married for companionship. Three marriages. Three divorces. But she’s -still not bitter and would marry again if a man with an “extraordinary sense of humor” came along. About her illness — in 1957 she went to Switzerland to ski but “couldn’t make my legs work.” She lost weight, ran a temperature, felt horrible. Doctors could find nothing wrong with her and recommended psychiatric treatment. As she was waiting in the corridor to see her psychiatrist for the tenth time, one of her doctors passed by, saw her, asked how she felt (“lousy”) and took a blood sample. Diagnosis? Mononucleosis; later rediagnosed as mononucleosis, and undulant fever and hepatitis. Then came a long recuperation period during which no one wrote to her and no one visited her. She says of that time: “I was too ill to kill myself, but if I had had the strength. I would have.” About her daughters — 13-year-old Debbie was taken from her by the court in a custody battle, an action she labels “legal kidnapping”; she lost custody of 15-yearold Martita, too. but adopted her back in 1951. Then the photograph of Adlai Stevenson drew us back from the past, which isn’t quite dead, to the present, which is very much alive. “Are you in love with Adlai Stevenson?” I asked. “No,” she answered. “I love intelligent men. but it doesn’t mean I’m in love with them — or they with me.” “Is Adlai Stevenson in love with you?” “No.” Witli the unimportant questions out of the way, how does an interviewer ask the important question, namely: “Do you and Ambassador Stevenson dance The Twist?” I hinted around it. “I read that Ambassador Stevenson learned The Twist.” “So I read, too,” she answered. “I see where you won a prize for doing the ‘most dignified’ Twist.” “It’s a barbaric dance,” she replied. “I dance it once an evening just to be sociable. That’s all. After an answer like that, how could I ask anything else? A few days after the interview with Joan I read a column item that surprised me very much. She had assured me that I wouldn’t be seeing any more column mentions linking her with Ambassador Stevenson. Yet here was Elsa Maxwell, society columnist, telling us that at a dinner party Joan Fontaine had confided to her that she’d dined with Adlai Stevenson the night before. Strange. But I guess a beautiful woman always has the right to change her mind. — Paul Anthony OftRMCKEfr For LASTING Eye Beauty! NEW! IMPROVED! PERMANENT DARKENER FOR LASHES AND BROWS The new “Dark-Eyes” is not new ... it is 28 years old . ... but there are new features. An added adherence-to-hair quality for easier, quicker application — “Dark-Eyes” now goes on in the wink of an eyelash! And two . supersoft brushes now perform the “Dark-Eyes” ABOUT 12 APPLICATIONS JlCfl beauty miracle for you_ (normal year's supply) |UU . . at leading drug, dep't I so s.mply, ,o neatly, .o and variety chain stores pleasantly! F IT ISN'T QtuUtfthOofr IT l$N;T “Dark-Eyes” REALLY IS Swimproof! Soap-andwater proof ! 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