Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

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FOR YOUR WIFE 285 Post Paid CANTON PAJAMA SUIT Special Introductory Price ! These lovely new Orien £ tal Jinken Satin Pajama Suits 9J are the smartest of garments ' ■ — for lounging, sleeping, etc. — make ideal Christmas gifts. Come in rich Black Satin with trim in Chinese Red. / c Also Red with White; Royal (&//? reeularl> Blue Satin with Gold trim; for $5) Green with Gold. All handembroidered in silk floral designs. Belt to match. State size. SEND NO MONEY Shipped C.O.D. or send check, stamps, currency or money Older on my money back guarantee. DOROTHY BOYD ART STUDIO 265 Art Center Bldg., San Francisco, Calif. Write for catalog Oriental Articles from $2 to $50 Of the men favoring wives as career women, several qualified their answers by saying: "If the career is established before marriage." A few more said yes, they believed a woman to be entitled to a career but that they would oppose their own wives' having one. "In theory, it may be okay," wrote one. "But in practice, it is the bunk!" Among the masculine dissenters a goodly per cent admitted that the idea of a wife's working is bad for the masculine ego. "I like the idea of paying a wife's bills, provided they're not too big," one remarked. Another: "The old 'protective instinct' gets an awful kick in the pants from the 'career woman.' I'm against her!" HARD on the heels of Photoplay's question concerning career women came this one: "Do you believe that half a husband's earnings is rightfully his wife's?" Results were rather unexpected. Only fifty-one per cent of the women questioned believed in this share and share alike plan, while a chivalrous seventy-seven per cent of the men embraced it! "A wife earns her keep, all right, and then some!" one young married woman declared. Another, however, while endorsing the idea, had a different slant on it. "Yes," she wrote, "a wife has a right to half her husband's income, but he also has a right to half of hers!" A few of the women who were against the theory said they thought the less financial independence a married woman has, the better off she is. "It is the right of the male to rule, as well as his duty to protect the female," one wrote. "I think newfangled financial practices do a lot towards promoting divorce!" On the other hand, "I don't want my wife to have to ask me for every cent she has. She is entitled to her share of my earnings," insisted a certain male star. "In fact," he added, "her responsibilities are more exacting than my own." Turning from marriage to a deplorable but often logical sequence of events, Photoplay next concerned itself with questions on divorce. "Do you believe in divorce?" was the first of these. "Yes," said sixty-seven per cent of the women and ninety-five per cent of the men. "Certainly I believe in divorce," wrote one young woman star (unmarried) . "If you make a mistake in choice of a career or in any other choice, you try to remedy that mistake. I believe the same practice should apply to marriage." "Divorce is the only answer to some marital problems," wrote another star (divorced), with decided conviction. "Yes, I believe in divorce, but only as a last resort," said a third, conservatively. "I do not think a couple should conduct their marriage with the thought of a divorce court forever present, though." On the other hand: "I am not a Catholic, but I believe that marriage should be for life!" said one of the dissenters. "I should think a long, long time and try every other remedy before I even considered it!" "I am for divorce — but only as a last resort!" was the consensus of the masculine "fors." "I never think of divorce, even when I quarrel with my wife, but I suppose it is a good thing in some cases," said another. "Emphatically, I do not believe a divorce court the solution of marital trou bles! If divorce was not so easy, fewer couples would jump into hasty marriages," wrote a second male dissenter. "I think I know what I'm talking about," he added. He should. He has been divorced himself. "T I HE most frequent cause of serious marital difficulties?'' Among the women who answered that question, thirty-seven and one-half per cent selected money trouble, eighteen per cent selfishness and lack of consideration, nine per cent sex maladjustment and nine per cent plain incompatibility. The rest of the reasons were well scattered, including jealousy, personal or professional, no sense of humor, moral instability, infidelity, lack of friendship between parties, lack of common interests, lack of good manners. In contrast, thirty per cent of the men considered jealousy the villain in the marital peace, twenty-nine per cent chose selfishness, fifteen per cent sex maladjustment and only ten per cent believed money the root of all marital evil. One thoughtful young star added to his choice of drink as the greatest cause of trouble, "the neurotic condition of modern women." Another considered "nagging" the main source of trouble. Still another, "inability to see another's point of view." A majority of women who voted for money trouble apparently believed the old adage: "When poverty walks in the door, love flies out the window." The women divorcees were almost equally divided in their belief that either money or lack of consideration was the cause of marital trouble. The divorced men favored jealousy, although describing this in several cases as "professional, not personal." "What do you consider ample grounds for divorce?" was the next question. "Incompatibility!" answered a majority of both men and women. "Such a reason may sound a little vague, but try and live with a person who goes .against the grain!" wrote one feminine star, herself recently divorced. "Incompatibility is harder to take than villainy!" declared another divorcee. "If you are not compatible, you've nothing left when the novelty wears off." wrote a young actor, married. Second choice of just grounds for divorce among the women was habitual drunkenness. "Some things can't be helped," one wrote contemptuously, "but this can! And if it is not helped — then I want a divorce!" One man wrote: "A male drunk is bad enough, but a drunken woman is beyond the pale." A CORRIGAN SCOOP! Here for the first lime is the real reason why the famous ftyer,' WrongWay Corrigan, is going into the movies. Also, a hitherto unpublished story of Lindbergh's Hollywood venture. Both these unusual features to be found — in January PHOTOPLAY A majority of the men, however, considered infidelity second to incompatibility as justification for divorce. One said: "A fellow might still love an unfaithful wife, but his pride would take him to court." A fair-sized group of women also considered infidelity grounds for legal separation, but, in general, for a different reason. As one said, "Things would never be the same again if that happened." Other grounds cited by both men and women included non-support, habitual nagging, public humiliation, refusal to have children, gambling. "I IF necessary, would you gain a divorce by mutual consent (illegal in most states and known as 'collusion')?" To this question, next on the list, sixty-five per cent of the women answered an unequivocal yes, while only a slight half of the men felt that way about it. "The only civilized method," stated one young woman player, flatly. "Emphatically yes. Should be legal in every state!" wrote another. "The only intelligent way," said one of the men supporting it. The "against," with scarcely an exception, took their stand because collusion is so extensively illegal. "We've enough of law breaking, without conspiring to do it," one young star wrote. I HE last question in the first section of Photoplay's questionnaire, was: "Should there be alimony?" The answers to this stacked up rather illogically, for only fifty per cent of the women said they believed in alimony, while sixty per cent of the men declared themselves for it. Of the women "fors," twelve and onehalf per cent of the original fifty per cent demanded alimony only in case there were children to be supported. A large majority of the men, who went on record as being against alimony in general, qualified this by agreeing that it should be paid in case it was needed for children's support. Comment for and against was emphatic. "My father never paid my mother alimony and she was too proud to ssk it. But he should have! She gave him the best years of her life!" wrote one girl star, bitterly. "I wouldn't accept alimony if I were starving!" said another. "I suppose alimony is all right if there are children, but I am against it in principle," said a third. Most of the men "fors" considered alimony a "just obligation." "But not in excess," said several, cautiously. "Women who have done their best to make marriage a success, even though that best is not good enough, should have help until they can make their own living," said several. On the other hand, "Women have made such a show of being equal . . . Well, here's their chance to see how it works. DOWN with alimony!" concluded a small but militant group of males. Strangely enough, of those questioned, more of the divorced men favored alimony (although within reason) than the divorced women. "It's too hard to collect," explained one of the latter, wearily. "I find it easier to work at a job." This is the first of two Photoplay articles on "What Hollywood Is Thinking." Next month: the stars' answers to sitch vital problems as child raising, sterilization, social theories, politics and religion. 90 PHOTOPLAY