Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1954)

living in war-time Italy, she still remained as fresh and beautiful as a morning rose. When I saw them together in “The Story of Three Loves,” I was horrified. It was . obvious on the screen that she had fallen ' in love with one of the biggest wolves in Hollywood. What broke up their romance, I don’t know. I’d like to think it was a latent gallantry on Kirk’s part. Anyway Kirk went to Italy to do “Ulys, ses,” and there he really continued to blossom as a celebrity. In Hollywood, his small house was so untidy that even his intimates apologized for it. Clifton Webb I tells me this is all changed. He saw Kirk ! in Rome, and the guy has taken over a I veritable palace. The beauties still soar i around him like moths around a flame. Gene Nelson, by no stretch of the imagnation, is a Kirk Douglas. I had always I thought he was as solid as the earth. Even on the screen he doesn’t register as anything resembling a fireball. He was deeply in love with his wife, Miriam. He should . have been. After they married, she gave up her career to further his. It was she who helped Gene work out his dance routines, only to step aside and watch another I do them with Gene on the screen. Jane Powell was regarded as an AllAmerican girl, a happy wife and mother. But Metro happened to loan her to Warners for “Three Sailors and a Girl,” in which Gene also appeared. Before they knew what hit them, the solid citizen and the All-American girl were head over heels in love. Hollywood was aghast. It developed that Jane was not the happy wife and mother. She was the I working girl and Geary Steffen, the playboy. With such a situation something had . to give. And the perplexed Gene found I himself on the receiving end. I’m not saying he ducked or that Jane made the advances. But there was a strange chemistry between them. Here was a mixed-up young lady who found consolation in her leading man — an old Hollywood story. Perhaps, Gene, bored with many years of marriage, was only too willing for Jane to lean on his shoulder. Marty Melcher used to have an office next to mine. He, like Geary, was a fun lover who I thought would never settle down. Marty did his share of roving. His romance with Patti Andrews was long; but his marriage to her was brief. Patti adored him. Marty was ready to take his turn at playing the field again when he started going out with Doris Day. There were no emotional fireworks. They courted and married without fanfare. On their way to Burbank to get their marriage license, Doris got hungry and Marty had to take her home to eat first. Compare that with the hullabaloo that went with the Lana Turner-Bob Topping or the Elizabeth Taylor-Nicky Hilton marriages, and you may come up with the answer. Both Lana and Elizabeth have divorced and re-married. Doris and Marty were never more steady. He has an appreciation for her ability. She has faith in him. Joel McCrea did the right kind of thinking about marriage in Hollywood when he moved to a ranch far from tinsel town years ago. As a young man, Joel was as naive as he was good looking. I took him to his first major social function, a Marion Davies costume ball. He showed up at my home in a plain linen suit, and I had to disguise him as a South American by pinning a few ribbons around him. Joel didn’t understand that a Marion Davies costume ball meant costume. But scarcely had we arrived, when a top feminine star pulled me to one side and asked, “Who’s that big, handsome lug you’ve got with you?” I told her he was an actor. That very night five stars got together and pooled a bet on wl.jch would be the first one to land Joel. To get close to the guy, all of them asked to have him as the leading man in their next pictures. Producers were going crazy asking, “Who is this guy Joel McCrea?” It so turned out that none of the girls got Joel for romance, but they made him a star. He married Frances Dee, moved away from Hollywood, and seldom comes to town except to make a picture. Frances retired until she’d raised two stalwart sons. Now she’s doing films again. The conflict between two careers in the same family is often the base of domestic difficulty. And that’s what’s wrong with Shelley Winters and Vittorio Gassman. Both have a tendency to act on frenzied impulse. Their frantic international courtship and marriage made numerous headlines. But the necessary sobriety of marriage is a different matter. Vittorio has commitments in Italy, while Shelley has to remain in Hollywood. And Shelley’s the kind of girl who wants her man around. They’ve had some dreadful arguments; but if anybody can tame the tempestuous blonde, it’s Vittorio. He has the stubbornness of a bulldog — remember he’s a Latin and used to wearing the pants around the house. Shelley can yell and scream until doomsday and Vittorio remains impervious. “We are opposite in nature,” Vittorio told me shortly after his marriage. “My ideas may be wrong, but it’s too late to change them. I don’t like the complete independence of American women. It’s an ancient rule that says a man should dominate.” Well, dominating Shelley is about as easy as controlling a fire engine going downhill. How Shelley will react is unpredictable. Besides the necessary “absences,” film stars are faced with the fact that for weeks at a time they work with attractive members of the opposite sex, often doing flaming love scenes day after day. Well, that puts a strain on human nature, to say the least! I know of one star who admits she tries to get her leading man to fall in love with her so that he’ll give a better performance. Patricia Neal, a forthright, honest girl, did a picture with Gary Cooper and fell for that old “boyish shyness.” I could have told Pat that Coop was neither boyish nor shy. Pat, realizing the odds against her, broke her relationship with Gary, pulled up her Hollywood stakes, and moved to New York, where she found a man who adored and married her. Meanwhile, Coop, with his newfound freedom, continues to puzzle Hollywood, but not me, by roaming Europe with various women, and still managing to keep the home fires burning after his fashion. I remember visiting Jimmy Stewart in his bachelor days and being appalled at the barrenness of his home. “There’s not a feminine touch about the whole place,” I said. “Why don’t you get married?” “Well,” he replied in complete innocence, “I’ve been thinking about it. But it’s this way. I’ll soon be forty. I’ve waited this long; and, Hedda, at this stage of the game, I don’t aim to be rushed.” His engagement to Gloria came in a typically undramatic way. She was visiting him on his birthday, when the telephone rang. Jimmy answered, hung up, and said, “Will you marry me?” Gloria was so startled that all she could say was, “What!” Jimmy repeated the question, and Gloria said, “Oh, yes.” Jimmy, though many women found him charming, is no dashing lover on a white horse. But he’s revealed the qualities of an excellent husband. When he finally said, “I do,” it was for keeps. Now that’s the kind of guy I’d go for, but there are no such animals left in this neck of the woods. The End Ann Pinkham* reports rcm^ c/«xm()sof wmtMii in 3 out of 4 cases in doctors' tests!" “IT'S WONDERFUL news,” says Ann Pinkham, ■‘for women and girls who suffer from those functionally-caused cramps, backaches, headaches and 'no-good' feelings of menstruation . . . who feel upset and irritable on certain particular days. In doctors’ tests, Lydia E. Pinkham’s Compound or Tablets gave complete or .striking relief of such distress in 3 out of 4 cases, even on first day of period!” Yes! Lydia Pinkham’s is thoroughly modern in action . . . exerts a calming effect on the uterus without the use of pain-deadening drugs. Its effectiveness is known to millions. Take Lydia Pinkham’s regularly . . . and see if you don’t avoid the feelings of tension and weakness that precede your period ... as well as the cramps and pain of “those days.” Get either the liquid Compound ... or the new, improved Tablets with added iron — so convenient to carry and easy to take. 25^ Ann Pinkham Booklet . . . FREE! Easily north $1! New booklet (illustrated in color —over 5000 words) tells all about menstruation — answers questions authoritatively, simply. Explains mysteries of female system. Tells what to expect in change of life. For free copy write ANN PINKHAM, 626 Cleveland St., Lynn, Mass. Mailed in plain envelope. Not for children. 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