Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1950)

This You Must Understand (Continued, from page 35) those questions soon enough and dared to answer them honestly this divorce need not have taken place. For this you must understand — much that was wrong with this marriage transpired before the marriage ever took place. I’ll always remember their wedding, a matter of the greatest romantic interest all over the world. Shirley was a lovely bride. And John Agar, in uniform, was very handsome indeed. I thought he must feel somewhat like a prince consort, somewhat the way Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh must have felt when he married Princess Elizabeth. I wondered, too, if such a young man as John Agar might not be intimidated by a bride who was world famous and reputed a millionairess. Soon enough I was shocked out of this thinking. For while John and Shirley were still on the altar steps, he took her into his I arms and embraced her with the longest kiss I have ever seen. It was evident Mr. Agar was not intimidated. But no one could guess that he would react the other way — that he would find such superiority as a man must achieve, one way or another, through cocktails, and other women. The Hollywood gossip, including Shirley’s court testimony, put down starkly makes a bad case for both of them. For gossip taxes Shirley with flirtations, with being a little predatory where other girls’ men were concerned. Always, however, when we understand how peoples’ very lives conditioned them so that what came to pass was, largely, ini evitable, our judgment must be less harsh. I I I FIRST met Shirley when she was a little I girl making “Susannah of the Mounties.” I well remember that English friends who ij were my guests at the studios were enchanted with Shirley when, the scene over, she poured tea for us. She had great poise, delightful wit. Shirley early grew accustomed to being the pivot of attention, to having everyone around her concerned with her welfare, generally. She has not, I feel, equalled her childhood performances. She must have a strong creative urge or she never would have been the child star she was. And a creative urge that goes unsatisfied is a driving thing. Shirley, also, is completely unaccustomed to being anything but tops. John realized this when she tried to learn golf because he likes to play. Her tiny hands are just not good golf hands. John, explaining her frustration, said, “Shirley is a champ, always has been, and defeat doesn't come easy to her.” I wonder, too, sometimes, if the warm sincerity that John Agar brings to his t screen performances (in “Adventure in Baltimore” he acquitted himself better than Shirley) was not a small thorn in the side of their marriage. John plans to go on with his acting career. Since the divorce he has been touring with Rory Calhoun, Isabelita Baron, Louis Jourdan and Rhonda Fleming. “I hope I’ll be good,” he said, when the troupe was rehearsing in New York. “I’ve never done any stage work, never even was in a school play. In St. Louis, where I did an opening solo, I got scared and missed a line of my song. I said, ‘Okay, I messed that up.’ The laugh I got was reassuring.” During his New York stay, he drank tomato juice when others took cocktails. He would not discuss his affairs. But, asked if he missed Linda Susan, he said, “I miss my baby, and my wife.” Then he walked i away to hide his tears. It is easy to see why Shirley fell in love with John. He has charm, laughs easily, talks well. I suspect he really likes people more than she does. With some reason. All her life, people have hounded her; to do this, to do that. She learned to protect herself, I think, by letting others take the conversational lead. People sometimes have the feeling that Shirley laughs at them behind their backs. This alienates those who might well admire her for all she has to offer. She really behaved like a thoroughbred before the divorce when she and John were out together and he neglected her boldly. However, Shirley’s had years of training in putting up a good front. She has always loathed being photographed in front of (Jie painting that was done of her as a little girl. But she has posed before it whenever some photographer again has had what she, herself, bitterly describes as “that original idea.” When she lived with her mother and father, she had her apartment, a sitting room, bedroom-and-bath dressing room. But it wasn’t really her private apartment. It was photographed regularly. In a way, she had everything. In a way, she had nothing. THOSE who know Shirley best believe that the happiest time of her life was at Westlake School for Girls. Her ambition then was to be what she never had been before — like other girls of her age. Gertrude Temple, I think, made a sincere effort not to be a movie mama, not to dominate her daughter’s life. But that is easier vowed than done. Mrs. Temple, like any other mother, would be quick to see Shirley standing awkwardly, wearing an untidy blouse, needing her hair brushed. And since everything Shirley did was important, Mrs. Temple was quicker to speak than another mother might have been. Not more than six months before Shirley’s marriage to John, her mother was telling her not to smile so broadly, not to drive so fast, nor let her dress fall so low. No one ever doubted that Shirley resented this, devoted as she is to her mother. A girl who worked closely with Shirley prophesied, “She’ll marry early, you’ll see — to get away from her mother.” And she did. Unfortunately, John and Shirley made their home on the Temple estate. They set up housekeeping in the playhouse — remodeled for their needs. Better, by far, had they gone to live in a more modest place where John, in effect at least, would have been lord and master. Better, too, had it been drilled into the minds and hearts of both of them that a playhouse is an inappropriate setting for marriage, an adult venture that must be counted worth all the give and take and sacrifice it so surely will entail. But even so, could they have made a go of it? It is all too natural for a man overshadowed by his wife to assuage his ego with cocktails and other girls. It is also all too natural for a girl, who always has been treated like a little princess, to be so bewildered and hurt when her husband neglects her that, instead of reasoning why, she hurries to flirt to prove to herself that she is still desirable. And where does a marriage go then? Neither John nor Shirley are happy. When John is at home he lives with his mother and two younger brothers in Beverly Hills. Shiriey remains in the remodeled playhouse with Linda Susan. And when she talks of her divorce or when anyone mentions John she is tense and nervous. Jcnn and Shirley, too, have lost a dream. The End Beautiful, Heavenly Lips For You WITHOUT LIPSTICK Ade!e Mara appearing in “Sands of Iwo Jima” a Republic Picture And These Newly Luscious Colors Can’t Come Off On Anything Bid “good-bye” to lipstick and see your lips more beautiful than ever before. See them decked in a clear, rich color of your choice — a color more alive than lipstick colors, because — no grease. Yes, this new Liquid Liptone contains no grease — no wax — no paste. Just pure, vibrant color. Truly, Liquid Liptone will bring to your lips colorbeauty that’s almost too attractive! 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