Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1952)

Believe It or Not (Continued from page 48) New York, when Joan Crawford was visiting there, that she was breaking up the home of Yul Brynner and Virginia Gilmore. The King of Broadway and the Queen of Hollywood— a juicy tidbit. But Joan swears it wasn’t true. “I met this guy,” she told a friend shortly after her return, “to discuss a television show. I’m not interested in him romantically.” And she must have been right because, soon after, Mr. Brynner went back to his wife. ANEW rumor has Ingrid Bergman returning to Dr. Lindstrom, when and if she divorces Rossellini. And her close friends in Italy and Hollywood now are saying that boredom is raising its marriageshattering head in Bergman’s heart. But this I know, in spite of the gossip. No matter what happens to Ingrid and Roberto, she never will return to her first husband. He zeroed his chances when he froze Ingrid out of a warm meeting with their daughter in London, for never in the stingy periods of time allotted her was she alone with Pia. Just one half-hour the first day! And to get to her daughter as quickly as possible, Ingrid had ferried across the stormy English Channel in a small private boat. It will be interesting to see what happens when Pia is of an age to choose the parent she wants. Greta Garbo rumors always are rampant. Every month for the past ten years, she’s been going to make a different picture. I’ll believe she’s going to make another movie when the last foot of film is in the can. You’ve heard, of course, about the diamond ring Scott Brady gave to Dorothy Malone. “Just talk,” says Scott. “Dorothy and I never have been engaged.” Maybe not. But Scott’s in love with Dorothy. Or he wouldn’t check her landlady on all her movements! When Dorothy arrived incognito, as she thought, in Palm Springs not long ago, she was surprised to hear herself being paged as she entered the hotel lobby. On the phone was Scott — describing the clothes she was wearing. Brother, that’s no rumor— that’s romance. Elizabeth Taylor is supposed to have said, “I have the body of a woman and the mind of a fourteen-year-old girl.” She insists this is a figment of an imaginative reporter’s notebook. So many lines of print, true and false, have spilled over Elizabeth’s beautiful head. She also denies now that she was ever in love with or engaged to Glenn Davis. I remember however, when she showed me the little gold football she wore on a chain near her heart. And Stanley Donen! She and Stanley never had plans to marry, she says now. But they did. This month, Liz will be free of her Nicky Hilton marriage. Wanna bet she stars in a new, immediate rumor of marriage? Not long ago I had lunch with Tony Curtis at Universal. He had jumped up fast and I wondered aloud whether the studio had given him a new contract to match his new status. “No,” said Tony. “They offered me another deal. But I’d rather wait and see how the public likes me as a star. Then maybe I can get a bigger contract.” Makes sense! But this simple, sensible statement of planning developed into a supposedly big fight Tony was having with the studio. Not by me — by someone who heard only half the story. To show you how facts can be twisted in Hollywood, when Lauren Bacall was expecting Bogart’s baby, I was told by a Columbia publicity man, “This isn’t Bogey’s first child, you know. He had a child when he was married to one of his former wives.” I was surprised. “Are you sure?” I asked the press agent. “It’s easy enough to find out,” he reminded me. “Just ask Bogey or Betty.” So, the next time I was talking to Betty (Lauren’s real name), I said, “I was told the other day this isn’t Bogey’s first baby, that he had a child by another wife. Is that true?” Lauren laughed and said, “No, this is his first.” I laughed too, and called my press-agent friend. “You were wrong,” I told him. And thought no more about it. But some months later the story came back to me like this — that I had called Lauren Bacall just before she got into the car to go to the hospital to have the baby, to tell her that her husband had fathered a baby by a nameless woman — born that very same morning! For years the rumormongers have been insisting that Nelson Eddy was going blind, that Margaret Sullavan was stone deaf, and that Gregory Peck had a weak heart. For the record, Nelson is merely myopic, Margaret did have some hearing trouble that was cured in an operation, and Gregory, who has overworked consistently, jokes about his heart with reporters. When I first came to Hollywood, I was told that Clark Gable had removed his upper and lower teeth at a party and waved them about while he cried, “America’s Sweetheart!” I have never asked Clark, “Are your teeth your own?” That’s a matter between Gable and his dentist. But I’m sure he has too much good taste to remove his molars at a party, even if he could. The most prevalent and perennial Hollywood rumor is that this or that star has been killed. Bing Crosby, especially. Studio press chiefs are continually being routed out of their beds in the wee small hours with gruesome details of the sudden death of the studio’s top star. Once in a while, of course, as in the tragic case of Robert Walker, the story is unfortunately true. But mostly, these reports are grossly exaggerated. Have you ever been hit by a revolving door or walked into a lamp-post? You might get away with either of these explanations for a black eye. But were you a star everyone would smile unbelievingly. Betty Grable reported for work one morning with a beautiful shiner. She said something about backing her car into the garage and hitting her face. The story went round and round and came out here quite differently. Something about a fight with spouse Harry James. Talking of black eyes, when Joan Fontaine was dining at Deauville with Prince Aly Khan, he ogled another beautiful woman at a near-by table. Whereupon the woman’s husband upped and punched him. That is the story as it appeared in print. But Harry Crocker, who was there, knows how Aly really got his shiner — when, exercising, he banged his head on a parallel bar! June Haver, a devout Catholic, spent hours in the hospital chapel, praying for her fiance Dr. John Dusik both when he was ill and after he had passed on. But when a rumor circulated that, as a result of John’s death, June would give up her career and enter a convent as a lay sister, she was most annoyed. FOR a long time there’s been a fantastic rumor that a wealthy admirer pays Jean Peters a big annuity to stay single! This I don’t believe, never have. The man is unmarried. If he wanted Jean all to himself, why wouldn’t he marry her? One of the classic fabrications of all time reports that Pat O’Brien’s chest was tattooed and that he had the skin peeled off to make a lampshade for his wife. (Sounds more like a yarn from Buchenwald.) Pat says that if he ever catches the person or persons spreading this ridiculous tale, he’ll murder them. When Ann Sheridan’s name is tied romantically with a guy — I usually smile. Unless they spell it “Steve Hannagan.” I never believed she was in love with Jeff Chandler, even though I read about a torrid romance daily in the columns. Because, when the Chandler thing was supposed to be at its height, Steve slipped quietly into town, and Annie slipped firmly into his arms. She always does, ever since they met about ten years ago. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they announced one day they had been married for lo, these many years. Ava Gardner was dining with Frankie in Mexico’s plush Acapulco playground. Across the room sat Hedy Lamarr with her new husband, Ted Stauffer. Hedy, newly wed, was reported to have snubbed the not-yet-married couple. Hedy was the first to rush into print and say it wasn’t so. The simple truth — she didn’t see them! Anne Baxter admits she dieted strenuously to lose weight. “But the figures are always wrong,” wails Anne. “I lost twentytwo pounds, not sixty!” Even mules are not immune. Do you know what they say about Francis? Well, gather round, kiddies, and I’ll let you have it. They say that he’s two men in a muleskin! The End 72 A/o Atake-Helieve 4jete! say thousands of regular listeners to radio’s “My True Story”. That’s because “My True Story” is not just another radio program with made-up characters and situations. It’s a refreshingly different slice of real, everyday life, lived by the kind of people you know and see all the time. And for a true life drama acted behind the scenes at a broadcast of “My True Story,” read “Ring For Mary” in February RADIOTV MIRROR magazine now at news-stands. TUNE IN MY TRUE STORY American Broadcasting Stations