Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1962)

Continued from page 57 those tourists who had come to Vegas — as much in hopes of seeing celebrities as of hitting jack-pots — stared at the pedalling couple and whispered: “She isn’t a bit like Liz, is she?” “I wonder whether he and Liz bicycled when they were here!” “I wonder if she’s jealous of Liz.” “I wonder if he’s missing Liz.” “I wonder why a nice young girl like that dates a man who’s had two wives.” “I wonder . . .” “I wonder . . .” “I wonder . . .” If Eddie was conscious of the nagging refrain, he gave no sign. Already, in New York and Los Angeles, it had dogged him. If he showed up anywhere alone, they whispered. If he were with a date, ditto! Only more-so ! Ann-Margret didn’t even hear the pursuing whispers. She wasn’t sharing her bicycle ride with a gorgeous ghost. She wasn’t sharing Eddie with Liz. Without even trying, she’s able to ignore — and thus defeat — the women her suitors have loved before. In fact, by her own admission, a woman (or women) in a man’s past only makes him that much more attractive. She prefers divorced men! “Right now,” she said, “all the men I’m dating, except two, have been divorced. I’ve discovered that a man who has been divorced is more understanding — is a more thoughtful date.” She didn’t say whether she thinks of Eddie as divorced. He fits into the category, of course, because he was divorced from Debbie; but, technically, he’s not divorced right now. He’s still Elizabeth Taylor’s husband. What a confession! When Ann-Margret confessed that she prefers to date divorced men, she was lunching with a reporter and two representatives of Columbia Pictures. Her admission was so unusual, even the reporter was startled. Young actresses are seldom so straight-forward, and Ann-Margret, with her clear, baby-fresh skin (scarcely touched with makeup) and her delicate boning, looked more the type to confess a fondness for Ivy League frat boys. Or maybe young internes. “You aren’t really recommending,” the reporter ventured, “that young girls make a point of dating divorced men?” “Oh, no,” Ann-Margret began, speaking in her soft, sultry, sexy voice. “No, I . . .” “No, of course she isn’t,” a studio man firmly injected. “What she means is that she’s come to appreciate mature men for qualities that younger men haven’t had the opportunity to develop.” At the peak of the Welcome-Home-Eddie boom, reporters avidly sought details of each of his dates— particularly with girls as newsworthy as Ann-Margret. And she did answer questions about her feeling for Eddie, but indirectly. By making her comments applicable to men at large. “I wouldn’t tell any girl whom she should date,” she said, tossing her head slightly so that a glistening copper sweep of hair shifted across her shoulder. “But a man who has been divorced has suffered. No matter who is to blame, a divorce hurts. And so a man who has been through the experience is gentler and more understanding than a man who’s never known a personal tragedy.” Despite her scorching song style and provocative dancing, Ann-Margret in repose looks like what she is — quiet, shy, carefully-reared. But there’s a ton of sexappeal beneath that rose-petal exterior. A girl-woman This girl, just past her teens, considers herself a fairly astute judge of male character. It is true her parents wouldn’t let her date until she was a sophomore in high school, but once the lid was off she was allowed to decide for herself which dates she would accept. According to one newspaper columnist, Ann-Margret introduced her parents to Eddie in Las Vegas and they all had dinner together without any explosive aftermath. Yet when their daughter broke her engagement to Burt Sugarman this year, rumor had it that those same parents had opposed the match because Burt was a divorced man. The other day, at lunch, Ann-Margret pursued her theories about divorced men. A tea-room atmosphere predominated in the little Beverly Hills restaurant she had chosen. The luncheon crowd seemed to be made up almost entirely of housewifeshoppers who nibbled salads and didn’t notice a genuine movie actress in the corner booth. “A man who has been married,” the sexy Scandinavian said, “knows what a woman needs — emotionally, I mean. He knows how to treat a woman, and he’s not too demanding.” When I pointed out the obvious loophole in this reasoning: that if the divorced man was such an expert on feminine psychology, he probably wouldn't be divorced in the first place — Ann-Margret was wise enough not to answer. A gag-man might quip that Eddie undoubtedly knew what Liz needed — Richard Burton. But it goes deeper than that. Eddie has realized Liz’ deep need to reach out and obtain something that would be completely unobtainable to a lesser beauty. 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