Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1963)

Continued from page 55 “The man who kids himself into believing that he is experiencing love from nightly visits to a variety of sexy bedrooms is kidding the hell out of himself. “Love can exist only in a man’s heart, never in his physique. “Shortly after I finished making ‘A Gathering Of Eagles’ I went hack to Hollywood. It may sound a bit strange hut I was sick of dating a parade of girls whom I'd forget — and who’d forget me, too. I was at the point where I just couldn’t accept the impermanence of the quickie romances that couldn’t survive an hour after the passions of the moment. “I wanted emotional security. I wanted love — warm and real. “And then one evening I walked into that well-known crowded room and I knew I’d found the girl. She was all of the woman I had ever hoped for and she was staring back at me. From way over on the other side.” Rod grinned. “I’ll never forget that moment,” he said, “hut Mary Hilem, the girl who started it, the woman I’ve married, can’t even remember it. Let me tell you, I wasn’t ready for that!" Just in time “But I got over it in time to marry her. Though we were both feeling cautious for a while. I was married once before in Australia and it didn’t work out. You know, you fail at something like a marriage once and the memory of it lives in your thoughts. “I think I was simply concerned about whether or not I can make the woman I love happy. Loving a woman is one thing. Contributing nothing but the best to her life is another. Mary deserves that.” Rod and Mary were finally married in Westwood Community Church in Los Angeles. It turned out to be the happiest and the saddest day of their lives. At 10:30 that night Mary and Rod called her father in North Carolina. It was to be one of the most important calls Mary ever made. But they were to realize its importance later. Right now they were only thinking of their honeymoon. They were to have only Sunday because Rod was due on the set early Monday. But Mary, the new mistress of the Taylor house in West Los Angeles, happily set about making it a home that Sunday. In a utility room just off the kitchen she spied a few bottles of soft drinks. Rod just might like them cold this afternoon or tonight, she thought. She picked them up, brought them to the refrigerator, opened the door and placed them on the wire rack. Suddenly, without warning, the shelf gave way . . . and with a great crash the bottles hit the floor and exploded. Pieces of the small glass fragments burst through the air like shrapnel. Then, one of the razor sharp pieces caught Mary on the upper eyelid and in the next moment she was desperately trying to stem the blood from an open wound. Rod, bearing the noise rushed to her side, saw what had happened and minutes later was rushing his bleeding bride to a nearby emergency hospital. It took four carefully placed stitches by the doctor to repair the lid. Rod’s estimate of his wife’s calm was more than apparent at that time. Mary showed no hysteria and although frightened, managed not to panic at the sight of her own blood. But the real test of the new Mrs. Taylor's courage was only seconds away. Though neither Rod nor Mary could know it then. . . . The doctor had barely finished completing the dressing on Mary’s eye when the nurse in the hospital told her she was wanted on the phone to answer a call of “great urgency.” Who could be calling her at the hospital? The next voice she heard was that of her mother speaking from North Carolina. Her mother, in great grief, told Mary that her father had just died of a sudden heart attack. Somehow Mary kept her head. Quietly, with the tears barely showing, she told Rod the unhappy news. Then she went back to her new home. She was a bride of less than twenty-four hours but in a silence alive with the memories of her beloved dad, she packed her bags for the long trip home and the funeral. There was no chance for Rod to go with her because of bis commitments. Mrs. Taylor and her sister, her maid of honor, made the trip together . . . alone. It was probably the most tragic honeymoon for a Hollywood bride on record. And, after the honeymoon, has the tragedy that already touched their lives touched their marriage, too? “If you think it has,” says a close friend of Rod's, “you don't know Rod and you don’t know Mary. God knows Mary suffered great shock at the passing of her father. And it was a terrible blow to Rod. But Mary’s last memory of her dad is their happy conversation she had with him on the phone only minutes after the wedding ceremony. Some of us even think it was fate that rushed Rod and Mary together before her father’s death. As you know, Rod and Mary had very definite plans to wait until he was through with ‘Sunday In New York’ before marrying. “Perhaps it was not so much that Rod and Mary couldn’t wait to get married as it was that life just couldn’t wait for them. You can call it coincidence and speculation if you like, but stop and think of it for a moment and you realize that Providence indeed had a hand in giving a father who was about to die the joyful knowledge that his daughter had married the man she loved. Had the wedding been held when they originally planned he’d have never known it.” And had he never married again, as Hollywood thought he planned, no one would have been surprised. But this way, when Rod announced that he would marry Mary, the news caused Hollywood to inhale with a quiet gasp. “I was waiting for a girl who hit me right in the heart,” Rod said. “A girl who would charm me out of my indifference. A girl OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOU For ad rates, write PCD 549 W. Washington Chicago 6 OF INTEREST TO WOMEN (P.W.—Sept;63) $300 PAID FOR Your Child's Picture by advertisers. Send small photo. (All ages.) Returned. Print child’s, parent's name, address. Spotlite, 1611-PI LaBrea, Hollywood, California. EARN MONEY AT home sewing or assembling our products. No charge for material to fill store orders. Write: Jiffy Company, Fort Walton Beach 1, Florida. DRESSES 24c; SHOES 39c; Men’s suits $4.95; trousers $1.20. Better used clothfng. Free catalog. Transworld, 164-A Christopher, Brooklyn 12, N.Y. CHILDREN DRESSES 20c. Best Quality Clothing For Entire Family. Free Catalog. Wearwell, 63 Suffolk Street, New York City 2, N.Y, MAK^ $25-$50 week, clipping newspaper items for publishers. Some clippings worth $5 each. Particulars Free. National, 8 1 , Knickerbocker Station, New York City. MAKE $25.00-$75.00 Weekly Typing At Home. Details $1. ( Refundable) Bonco, 130 Cumberland, Masontown 7, Pa, EARN UP TO $2.00 hour sewing babywearl Free Details. Cuties, Warsaw 1, Indiana. EARN $50.00 FAST, Sewing Aprons. Details Free. Redykut's, Loganville, Wisconsin. EDUCATIONAL & INSTRUCTION COMPLETE YOUR HIGH School at home in spare time with 66-year-old school. Texts furnished. No clashes. Diploma. Information booklet free. American School, Dept. X674, Drexel at 58th, Chicago 37, Illinois. HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA at home. Licensed teachers. Approved materials. Southern States Academy, Station E-1, Atlanta, Georgia. MEDICAL SECRETARY HOME Study Boston Institute, 725P Boylston St., Boston, Mass. AGENTS & HELP WANTED RUN SPARE TIME Home Greeting Card-Gift Shop! Show samples new 1963 Christmas, All-Occasion greeting cards, gifts! Take orders . . . earn to 100% profit. Experience unnecessary. Samples on approval. Regal Greetings, Dept. 146, Ferndale, Michigan. MAKE $50.00 SELLING 25 boxes of our personalized Christmas cards. 49 exclusive designs. Free album. No obligation. W r i te: E Imcraft, 5930 So. Western, Dept. EC-2, Chicago 36, III. EARN EXTRA MONEY selling Advertising Book Matches. Free sample kit furnished. Matchcorp, Dept. WP-93, Chicago 32, Illinois. STAMP COLLECTING SMASHING COLLECTION FREE— Includes Triangles, Early United States, Rockets, Sports, British Colonies, High Value Pictorials, etc. Complete Collection plus big, illustrated Magazine, all free. Send 10c for postage. Gray Stamp Co., Dept. PC, Toronto, Canada. MUSIC & MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS POEMS NEEDED FOR songs and records. Rush poems. Crown Music, 49-PW West 32, New York 1. OLD LEG TROUBLE H Easy to use Viscose Applications may HB heal many old leg sores due to venous " congestion of varicose veins, leg swelling or injuries. Send today for FREE BOOK and fullrefund Trial Plan. R. G VISCOSE COM PAN Y 100 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago lO, Illinois X FOR YOUR CHILD'S PHOTO 1 This child’s mother 1 received big check {T Up to $300 paid for children’s photos when used for advertising. Ages 2 j mos. to 20 yrs. Rush 1 small photo for approval. Print child’s add \ mother’s name, address on back. Returned. No obligation. Hollywood Spotlite, 1611 No. LaBrea, Ml, Hollywood, Calif. SONG IDEAS NEEDED for MUSIC RECORDING and PROMOTION ACTIVE, PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITERS with publisher contacts need new song ideas — in any form: Titles, short descriptions, poems. SHARE ROYALTIES. More than $50,000,000 earned by SONGWRITERS in 1962. Our staff has written these Hits: LET THE LITTLE GIRL DANCE — BILLY BLAND PRETTY LITTLE ANGEL EYES — CURTIS LEE WHAT A SURPRISE — JOHNNY MAESTRO HOMBRE — THE BELMONTS **PLUS MANY OTHER HITS! All types of song material needed, ballad, rock & roll, gospel, rhythm & blues, country & western. Send one or more of your best song ideas or poems for consideration. You will be notified immediately if they qualify for MUSIC, RECORDING & PROMOTION. TURN YOUR IDEAS INTO DOLLARS! FREE examination, details, appraisal — SEND NOW! SONGWRITERS' ASSOCIATES Studio 21E, 236 West 55th St., New York 19, N.Y.