Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1938)

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This famous laxative is the choice of millions. It does not shock the intestinal system. And it stimulates the secretion of bile without the discomfort of drastic o r irritating drugs. Get Dr. Edwards' Olive Tablets at your druggist, 15^, 30(i and 60^. his own mate and married her with his usual quiet determination. His selection couldn't have been wiser. Veronica Balfe (Mrs. Gary Cooper) has beauty, brains and breeding — a combination hard to beat. And I sometimes think that it takes a terrific amount of good sense and character to marry the right woman in Hollywood. Gary hasn't, for some reason, been billed as a great lover — for which I'm sure he is profoundly grateful. But when you stop to consider that he was the object of the affections of the three most hectic and overpowering bundles of feminine dynamite Hollywood has ever known and that he came through it all unscathed, you have the measure of the man. I refer, of course, to Clara Bow, Lupe Velez and Dorothy, Countess di Frasso. At that, I am leaving out another high-powered siren, Evelyn Brent. At one time or another, Gary Cooper was supposed to be about to marry all these ladies — and if you will think for a moment, you will see what a hurricane of emotional experience must have been his. I don't think Valentino, Gable or Taylor ever came anywhere near that record. It wouldn't be just to say that Gary was the pursued in all these cases. But I think we may go so far as to say he was selected — or elected — if you prefer. But he is a great guy for a graceful exit. When Gary first crashed upon the feminine consciousness of Hollywood some ten years ago, the ladies found him elusive. Nobody knew him; he went nowhere. A famous screen star, a friend of mine who had never failed to get her man, wanted to meet him. So she said to me, "You know Gary Cooper, don't you? For goodness sake have him for dinner or something." I asked him and, somewhat to my surprise, he came. (We got along very well because I could ride a horse before I could walk, too. If you ever meet Mr. Cooper you can count upon it that the one sure way to turn his silence into a conversation piece is horses — with big-game hunting running a close second.) Well, anyway, he came to dinner and the glamour girl turned on the works. Halfway through the evening she remarked prettily that she had let her car go home and would Mr. Cooper drive her? Mr. Cooper said he would. But when the time came, Gary was mysteriously missing. Next day the star and I both got flowers to cover his retreat — with a little note explaining that his car wasn't very trustworthy and he was afraid it might break down on the way. Knowing Gary better now, I suspect a bit of humor in that fear of a breakdown. DUT the lines of retreat weren't always open. When I am told that today Gary Cooper, on the Paramount lot, is being directed by the supercritical Ernst Lubitsch and doing a highly satisfactory job of comedy in "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife," I get practically hysterical because it reminds me of a picture made by Mr. Cooper on that same lot eleven years ago, a picture entitled "Children of Divorce." For, believe me, there were plenty of times when it didn't look as though he'd be in that picture long. Plenty of times during the shooting of "Children of Divorce," the career of one Mr. Gary Cooper almost ended. In fact, I hope Mr. Cooper realizes that but for a motion-picture director named Frank (Continued jrom page 19) Lloyd — the man who gave us "Cavalcade," "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Wells Fargo" — he would probably be singing "Home on the Range" to a herd of cattle right now. There may conceivably have been worse actors than Gary Cooper was when, after a bit in a Western, he was cast by Paramount opposite Clara Bow, then at the height of her "It" powers; but I doubt it. He was cast because, as usual, Hollywood was going through a shortage of leading men and he had looked like a possibility in "The Winning of Barbara Worth," where, incidentally, there were plenty of horses and lots of space. DUT when he got on the set in a real part, he turned out to be — not a bad actor, just not an actor at all. It wasn't a question as to whether he would give a good performance or a bad one. It was a question as to whether he would give a performance at all. He became actually paralyzed with selfconsciousness and froze up so tight it took hours to thaw him back to movement. He didn't know what to do with his hands or his feet. He was about as comfortable in his elegant new clothes as a man in a hair shirt. And a look of perspiring, blushing, unbearable agony came over his face when the tenderer scenes were even mentioned. On top of that, the redheaded Bow gal, who was a born actress and never had to worry, fell in love with him the second day out on the production — and having Clara Bow fall in love with you was something that took all an ablebodied man's time. I remember once she decided to root for the U. S. C. football team and they never won another game all season. (I hope Clara will forgive this slight excursion into her past, now that she is a happy wife and mother. She knows I think she's tops as a person and that I think one of the screen's great losses was when somebody discovered her sex appeal and so capitalized on it that we never realized she was one of the great dramatic actresses of all times.) It was nip and tuck in those days about Gary. Odd to think now how close he came to having his whole career called off half a dozen times. The powers-that-be stormed and yelled to take him out of the picture, but Frank Lloyd set his jaw and said, "No." Frank was sure Gary had all the things he has since proved he had. A less sympathetic, patient and hard-working director would have acknowledged defeat and Gary would have done what he threatened to do daily — go home. I sometimes wonder if we appreciate the enormous improvement in a star like Gary Cooper over the eleven years since he entered pictures. Mr. Cooper got it the hard way. That's why it's so sure now. It's built upon the rock of work, character, integrity and real effort and thought. Gary has learned a great deal about life. It's been forced upon him. Many men, with less sense of humor, strength and proportion, have cracked up under his experiences and never come back. Gary cracked once — but he came back. I HERE was a time when Gary Cooper and Lupe Velez were "that way" about each other. All I can say is that when Lupe is that way or any way about anyone or anything she is more that way than any other woman I've ever known. Volcanic is the word for Lupe. Her domestic relations with Johnny Weissmuller have become historic. Johnny is a long-distance Oly swimmer. Gary was only a cov Also, he consumes his own smoke One thing about Lupe that is m in reports of her wild doings is tha is one of the funniest women who lived. She keeps you in a gale of la ter from morning until night. Not discounting her feminine a; — which is almost too obvious — I it was this gift for the amusing v kept Gary from exiting sooner, amused him more than anyone he 1 I used to watch them when they at Malibu visiting me or some friend and Gary was doubled i silent laughter most of the time, he wasn't, he went to sleep on the and Lupe sat and admired him, wi] impatiently for him to wake up. explosions tickled him. But in the end she wore him He consumed, in Lupe's case, so of his own smoke that between tha overwork — his ambition had awal and when it came to acting, Garj to work hard — he had a breakdo^ always thought of it rather as a <a mental and spiritual indigestion, much Hollywood taken in too doses. It hits different men in difl ways — and in those days the doses rawer than they are now. In C case it brought about a collapse of plete inertia. HE went to Europe — the idea bei get as far away from Hollywood could. A very wise exit; in fat absolutely essential one. In Europe he met Dorothy di P And he learned about women fron The Countess di Frasso hasn' made a motion picture. But she well known in Hollywood and by interested in Hollywood as most s stars. She is called Hollywood's dictator and the Elsa Maxwell film capital. To be asked to her p is the social ambition of Holly screen stars. She is the intimate of the great names of filmdom. Her influence in the life of U Cooper was potent and decisivJl many ways, it was the turning pell ' his career. The ladies from whom Gary a learned about life, up until this a had taught him a good deal emotinil but not much socially or intellect 11; He had seen a good deal of life :l raw, a lot of it under the hotm lights of Hollywood, but very lit i it dressed up in its best. Dorothy di Frasso showed him ;W world. She was rich, well-born, r ve in the most exclusive circles in Eo( and America. She, herself, was br ai and altogether fascinating. Whe sk found Gary Cooper, alone and sicH homesick, in Rome, she took him U famous villa, saved his life first, on! doors to him afterwards. He had ridden horses on the n| since, practically, the day of his d Now he rode with the Italian calfl the most dashing horsemen in E )? He had hunted bear in the Roc* now he learned about big-game h'tifl ' in Africa. He met, for the first time, an I civilization, European men and wMl and saw the way those people live' ,1 talked to them and it broadened hi>J smoothed off the rough corners. It fll something to his personality, w|D* in the least changing him. He ke » sense of humor and his sense of p: w' (Continued on page 74) 72