Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1948)

in CEREY Wool, quality rayon lined with EARL-GLO, about $45. Ask your favorite store for ETTA GAYNES fashions or write for store nearest you : know she will get her chance.” Now I am a sentimentalist by nature. I feel as every happy wife does that there is nothing more wonderful than a marriage of mutual interests. Yet I couldn’t help wondering if Pat isn’t making a mistake in insisting upon a career of her own, especially at a time when Cornel is having studio troubles of his own. I feel that much of his brusqueness with people on the lot and some of the reputation he has earned of being hard to get along with comes from his inner bitterness at Hollywood’s failure to recognize the talents of the girl he loves so deeply; a bitterness at the repetition of the tough time he got when he was trying to get his start. Patricia Knight Wilde has something very fine, very wonderful and very precious in her husband’s love that, to me at least, is far more valuable than her name on a theater marquee. He has never looked twice at another woman since the first day he met her. Most of the wildeyed Wilde fans know the story of how the smitten Cornel saw Pat and followed her around New York just admiring her until she finally spoke to him. Their elopement did not meet with her parents’ approval but few parents have ever turned over a daughter to a more protective or adoring husband. “Tell me,” I asked, “did you walk out on ‘Forever Amber’ because you disapproved of the bools? You insist that salary, or your wife, had nothing to do with your decision to balk at making the movie.” “The truth is,” he answered, “the first script was very bad. I couldn’t bring myself to play Bruce Carlton as he was written in the first version. But it has all been rewritten now and I think it’s pretty good. At least,” he smiled, “I’m back in it.” “All right,” I pressed on, “since you are giving me such frank answers, how about some of the gossip that you are arrogant, rude and difficult to deal with?” “I certainly never intend to give the impression of being arrogant or rude,” he said quickly. “I don’t believe the people who work on the sets with me daily believe that of me — or spread such gossip. “But where my work is concerned — there, I have to keep faith with myself. I ask only for what I believe is right. I cannot play a role in which I have no faith. ‘A Song to Remember’ brought me my first success — but more important, it brought me many friends and fans. I am grateful to them and feel I owe them the debt of keeping my appearances on a high level. One vulgar or indifferent picture could destroy these friends I have made, f waited a long time for ‘A Song to Remember’ and I want to go ahead from there, not backward.” You don’t have to be an experienced character analyst to see that here is a determined young man, perhaps too serious for his own happiness, but definitely one who does not give up easily. For instance, when he was in college, he read the life story of Lord Byron and became fascinated with the poet’s personality. For years, during the up and down times in his life, Cornel turned over Byron’s story in his mind. A year ago, he took his vacation time to write it and if you still don’t think he has a one-track mind, you don’t know how hard and persistently he worked to get his story sold for motionpicture production. “Twentieth has taken an option on it,” he added. “I hope to make the film and play Byron myself.” One rumor I did not bring up is the altogether silly one that he became a star merely because Tyrone Power was serving his country during the war and Twentieth needed another romantic hero. Whether he happens to be your favorite actor or not, Wilde is a good one. The popularity he has won has been strictly on his own. Somehow, I wanted to advise Cornel to relax and enjoy his blessings. For a boy who came to Hollywood without a nickel and with no reputation as an actor, he has done amazingly well. He has a fine, studious mind and a splendid education back of him. Yet he doesn’t know how to enjoy himself. He’s one of the most talented makers of mountains out of molehills I have ever met. Certainly there are worse trials than that a beautuul wife does not have a contract that suits her, or that such a costly film as “Forever Amber” is being forced down one’s throat. I say this in all sincerity and with a feeling of admiration for his devotion to Pat and I think it is unfortunate that this completely unselfish boy should be regarded as a spoiled and difficult personality by many people who work with him. Stories such as this are supposed to solve problems or at least explain them away. But in Cornel’s particular case, with his particular viewpoint, I don’t know what can be done about it. Only he and the blonde girl, whose smile of approval means more to him than the praise of critics or bosses, can work out his future and his destiny. The End AIRWAVES BRING A WINNER! Tune in on Louella Parsons’s Radio Program SUNDAY NIGHT, January 12 and listen to her exciting interview with ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST POPULAR STARS as chosen by the American movie-going public in the annual poll conducted for PHOTOPLAY By Dr. George Gallup and his Audience Research, Inc. ABC on your dial at 6:15 PST, 8:15 CST, 9:15 EST ETTA. GAYf*aC:5#» Seventh Ave. NF*¥» tWVZ N. Y.