Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1960)

MARRIAGE BREAKUPS JAMES ARNESS VIRGINIA CHAPMAN Continued from page 48 more than when they lived together. He’d come over to visit the children either during the day or in the evening. “I will always love him,” Virginia once said. “But he thinks more of the children than he does of me.” Virginia tried acting to forget Jim. She starred in a local company doing “Streetcar Named Desire.” This didn’t work, and she went to Europe. On her way back in October of 1959, she stopped off in Honolulu. From there she telephoned Jim, begging him to come back. He refused and she slashed her wrists in a suicide attempt. Her friends thought she had really resigned herself that Jim wasn’t coming back when she announced, in March of 1960, that she was planning to file for divorce. Less than a month later, she tried to take her life again. This time by taking fifteen sedatives. “I want to die,” a note read, addressed to Jim. “Life is not worth living.” The exclusive story behind the second attempt is this. Jim had told Virginia’s mother that he was willing to give their marriage a second try when she returned from Europe. However, he said when she tried to commit suicide in Hawaii he didn’t want anything more to do with her. Her mother unfortunately told Virginia this the weekend in March when she tried to end it all. She has been released from the hospital, but is under close supervision of her psychiatrist. Cal’s Comment: The tragedy that ended this marriage, was seemingly brought about by one of Hollywood’s crudest masters: the work itself. When Jim began his series, he found himself with less and less energy and time left to devote to his family until he found the marriage falling apart. And, after having struggled together for so many years, Virginia found it impossible to give him up. He was her life. She had worked and fought through difficult times only to find him leaving her behind when he finally became successful ... as is so often the case. HOPE LANGE DON MURRAY P 84 Continued from page 49 of eight films caught in the middle by the strike. Don and Dolores used to spend a lot of time together on and off the set at 20th Century-Fox while the film was in production. They claimed that they were rehearsing their lines. But after the filming had been stopped by the strike, Don paid daily visits to Dolores. It surprise many around town, because Don had never appeared as the playboy type. He’s ofttimes naive and even shy. The Dolores Michaels-Don Murray romance undoubtedly led to his marriage breakup but whether he told Hope that he was in love with Dolores and wanted a divorce is purely speculation. Dolores, who’s very popular around the studio, has, in the past, dated most of the young eligibles in town and while going to dramatic school last year, met John Duke, a young actor. They were reportedly engaged, but that was before Don stepped into the picture. She’s been married once — to Maurice Martine, an interior decorator who owns a small art shop in Laguna Beach, California. She once worked with him in the shop but claims that it was boring and left him for a movie career. They were divorced a year ago. Oddly enough, earlier rumors of a rift in the Murray-Lange marriage had started over Hope’s attentions to the dashing, young Stephen Boyd when they became close friends while co-starring in “The Best of Everything” last year. They were inseparable on the set and a daily twosome lunching in the commissary. Several columnists began to infer that Hope had fallen in love with Boyd and wanted a divorce. She became so upset over these rumors that she nearly suffered a nervous breakdown. Boyd said, at the time, that he liked Hope very much as a “good friend.” He made no bones about it that he would certainly seek her affections if she were single. “She’s very happily married,” he confided to me, “and I would never even attempt to break up a happy marriage. I think Hope is the greatest girl in the world and I respect her very much.” At that time Hope and Don vehemently denied the rumors. They even quelled the gossip by going to Europe together. Just before their announcement, I saw Hope and Don at a party for Shelley Berman at the Crescendo. Both seemed jolly (even though at that time they knew of their decision to separate but hadn’t announced it). I remember Hope kept complaining that there was no room to dance in the place. Don wasn’t too talkative, but he never is. Cal’s Comment: This was a surprise all around! VERA MILES GORDON SCOTT Continued from page 49 1955. She had already met Scott, now 32, while filming a picture with him, and they dated off and on for a couple of years. On March 2, 1956, he proposed to her via long-distance telephone from London where he was making a Tarzan picture. Previously she had told the press, regarding marriage rumors to Scott, “I want to make very sure before I marry again.” The marriage breakup with Scott began last summer and came as a surprise to Hollywood. There hadn’t been one indication that anything was wrong. Both their careers were booming. However, Vera confided to a close friend that Gordon had been going out with other women, and that she had put up with it as long as she could. It was the second marriage for both. The six-foot, three-inch “Apeman” previously married Lea Duarte in March of 1954. She was a switchboard operator at the Sahara hotel in Las Vegas. Gordon worked as a lifeguard at the same hotel. It wasn’t until Gordon became a movie star that this marriage came to light. He claimed that they only lived together less than a year following their overnight marriage in Tijuana, Mexico. The brief marriage produced a son, Eric, born in December of 1954. They were divorced in 1955. Cal's Comment: Long separations and conflicting careers seem to be the cause of the breakup of this marriage. In so many Hollywood marriages, such lengthy separations have usually been the prelude to divorce, even if the divorce was won for other reasons. Theirs is a story repeated over and again: the struggle for love which finally ends in disappointment and break up, because of a greater love: the screen. BRIGITTE BARDOT JACQUES CHARRIER Continued from page 50 already saying that all was not running smooth in the Charrier family. Brigitte seemed upset at being pregnant and soon became disappointed at her husband’s lack of adjustment to Army life (which finally won him a deferment on medical grounds) . After the baby arrived, further squabbles took place — this time over Brigitte’s insistence on continuing her career. Some say Jacques, two years younger than Brigitte, resented her success. He, too, is an actor. Brigitte was married once before when she was seventeen — to director Roger Vadim. It lasted four years. And it was reported that it broke up because she never settled down. For Jacques, it is his first marriage. Cal’s Opinion: This seems to be a perfect example of a marriage where the woman outshines the man so much that, as Brigitte herself said, “You cannot love a man 24 hours a day — you also have to respect and be able to rely on this.” And she did not find this with Jacques. He became resentful and jealous (particularly when she did love scenes with other men). And, like many women stars, she refused to give up her career to save her marriage. AUDIE MURPHY PAMELA ARCHER Continued from page 50 had become final from actress Wanda Hendrix. Pamela was an airline stewardess, an employee of Braniff International Airways. The wedding of the World War II hero was quite an occasion in his home state of Texas. They were married in Dallas by the chaplain of Audie’s Texas National Guard outfit, the Rev. W. H. Dickinson. They separated briefly eight years later — in 1959. At that time they gave the reason as a conflict between Audie’s career (he has to be away many months out of the year) and his home life. On March 24, 1960 they announced a second separation. Audie married his first wife Wanda Hendrix, in January of 1949, and they separated in February of 1950. They had no children. Wanda charged, in her divorce action, that Audie “constantly criticized . . . even to the expression on my face and any opinion I had.” Wanda since married again, this time to Jim Stack, the brother of actor Bob Stack. This marriage has ended in divorce. Neither Audie nor Pamela will give the reason for the second separation. But one friend remarked, “Audie is married only to his career and a horse.” Cal’s Comment: Career versus marriage: a story that is told time and again. But it is a story whose ending is almost always assured . . . the career wins, breaking up the home. Maybe not this time, though. Most of their friends insist that the separation just doesn’t look final. DEBRA PAGET BUDD BOETTICHER Continued from page 51 with David Street was a fast one even for Hollywood — they knew each other only a few days when they married. He proposed to her on their first date. The wedding, which took place at Debra’s parents’ home, was surrounded by gossip about David’s four former wives and a suit his latest “ex” had filed for money she claimed he owed her. With this mixed-up begin