Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1963)

unoeR HCDDa’S HaT continued Tony Curtis kept reassuring one and all that he had no plans to wed Christine Kaufman up to the moment they eloped to Las Vegas. He did a lot of painting before the wedding. When I asked about it he described his work as “wild and frightening abstracts. Flowers and fruits I cannot paint.” I remember when rumors first started about his interest in Christine; Tony was highly indignant. But he was still married to Janet Leigh, then — so what could the guy say? There’s been a complete reversal in the Glenn Ford-Hope Lange romance. Once he didn’t cotton to the idea of marriage; now it’s Hope who doesn’t want to be tied. So itk Linda Christian who’s the most frequent visitor to Ford’s new house, which sits on a hunk of land Louis B. Mayer once bought for a hundred grand. Mayer’s property has been subdivided, and there are now eight houses on what Louis laughingly used to call his lawn. Dolores Hart is still paying bills for the wedding she didn’t have. Invitations and the bridesmaids’ dresses had already been ordered. Edith Head put away the wedding dress she designed for Dolores — for future use. Ernie Borgnine wasn’t very gentlemanly when I asked about his estranged wife Katy Jurado. “I haven’t seen her since August and couldn’t care less.” He does see the first Mrs. Borgnine when he drops by her house to visit their daughter, as he often does. George Hamilton and Susan Kohner see each other when they’re both in the same town, but the flame has gone out. Says George: “Our breakup is nobody’s fault. Susan needed to make up her own mind — everybody else was always doing it for her. She’s very happy on her own.” George and Gloria Swanson are swapping pads. Gloria did a “Dr. Kildare” show and now everybody wants her. She may give Hamilton her New York apartment in exchange for his quarters in the new hilltop home he owns. The last time George stopped off in New York, Julie Newmar loaned him her Sutton Place apartment; but she’s in residence now so he has to find a new home while he’s East playing Moss Hart in “Act I.” It’s Pat Buttram’s line: “If Liz Taylor and Richard Burton get married, I don’t know whom they can invite to their wedding. They’ve already married all their friends.” “Marilyn,” the picture 20th put together from all their films starring Monroe, will make millions. I predict it will help put the studio back in the black. After her death, every theater in Paris played her pictures, and Paris Match devoted an entire issue to her. I applaud Hollywood photographer John Meredith who has hundreds of beautiful stills of her — many nudes — but refuses to sell them. “She was my friend, and you don’t cash in on friendship.” Jane Powell and Pat Nerney patched up their differences. Then she went to work at the Sahara in Las Vegas. I was all set to play her mother in an M-G-M picture some years ago, but Louis B. Mayer was mad at me, and threw me out. But I collected $5,000, my week’s pay, for not working. The screen’s leading men had better look to their laurels. Along with Photoplay’s Gold Medal Award winner, Dick Chamberlain, Vince Edwards is knocking our movie glamour boys off the top of the popularity polls. Vince isn’t bitter now about the ten years he spent beating his brains out trying to get noticed here. “I love the town,” he says. “So maybe you go into a restaurant and they brushed you. Perhaps some kid sitting there today may be the big star in town ten years from now.” Vince should be happy. He’s gotten everything in the world he wants — and what’s more he got it from Bing Crosby who’s not too free with his money. Bing owns the “Ben Casey” show. You’ll love Tippi Hedren, the girl Alfred Hitchcock discovered on a TV commercial and cast as Rod Taylor’s leading lady in “The Birds.” Hitch took her on a three-week tour of cities throughout the country and introduced her personally to the press and TV. She’s very much a lovely lady and has been married and divorced and is the mother of a five-year-old daughter Melanie. She’s a self-sufficient girl — a few years ago she took a trip around the world all alone. That’s all the news for now. I’ll write more next month. •