Radio-TV mirror (Jan-June 1954)

was method in my madness. I knew that Abe loved chicken. Ever since I was eleven years old, one dish I could make was roast chicken. Abe was vociferous in his praise, as I had known he would be — all agents are! " 'Best chicken I ever tasted. Better than my mother's,' Abe said. Ray's agent was my agent too." There's give-and-take humor in every marriage. Ray and Gwen even kid one another about their work, though they have performed together only once. It was at .the Capitol Theater, where Gwen did a sketch, a take-off on Marlene Dietrich, which she had written. "I was so scared," she says, "I felt ill. I had to walk out on a runner through the audience. On the way back, I nervously tripped over the footlights. I never heard the applause." "When I heard all the applause," says Ray, "I almost cancelled the act. . . ." There has to be mutual respect, of course, to make a marriage go. Gwen and Ray do respect each other, both intellectually and emotionally. That's why they have been able to work successfully together in many projects as star and producer. The Broadway hit, "Where's Charley0" is an outstanding example. "We worked together as a team," Ray says. "The producer — that's my wife! — told me what to do. I had to do whatever she said . . . although I may have thought: Wait till I get you home!" Says Gwen, "I was harder on him than any other producer could be. In fact, if anyone else had made him do the things I demanded, I would have been on that producer in an instant, beating away with my best umbrella!" It takes understanding, too, to make a marriage work. The demands of show business have put heavy pressure on the Bolgers' lives. "For example," says Gwen, "' 'Where's Charley?' was a hit, and it took all of Ray's time. He had to do eight performances a week, two on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Ray was the star, with no understudy. If he wasn't able to go on, there was no show. He couldn't be sick, he couldn't take a day off. The* show ran for three years. 'Where's Charley?' was Ray's prison! You can't call this a 'normal' way of life. We had to have patience with one another — we had to have understanding." In the twenty-five years of their marriage, the Bolgers rarely have been apart. While Ray danced and entertained, Gwen packed and unpacked in one city after another. "No one can pack a bag as well as Gwen," says Ray. "One time, I went to New York for a one-week show. Gwen didn't go along. But she did pack my bag. She trunked sixty-four pounds of clothing into one overnight case. "In New York, I needed a shirt. I opened the bag, took one out, but couldn't close the lid again. I tried. I failed. I finally took all the other laundry out, sent it back to Gwen. Nothing. I still couldn't close it. I finally had to buy two more bags!" Now that the Bolgers have landed in television, they have put away the trunks. Many people think of the Bolgers as New Yorkers. But they're not, they're Californians, having had their legal residence in that state for twenty years. And, with The Ray Bolger Show signed for two years on TV, they have just bought a new home in the heart of Beverly Hills. "We had no serious intentions of moving or buying a new home," says Gwen. "But we have a sweet real estate agent who wanted to find something new for us. I told her if she wanted to look for a place in the heart of Beverly Hills, furnished, with plenty of land around it, not too small and not too large, within walking distance of Martindale's Book Store — we would 'consider it.' I never expected she'd find such a place! "But she did. I went over to see it. This was it, all right! I told her we would think it over, and went home. That night, I woke up with a vision, something like a flashing neon sign that said, Go out and buy that house! Now we have a new home — within walking distance of Martindale's." Ray has a special theory about marriage. He says that "Be prepared!" should be the motto of all married couples. "Be prepared to get up in the middle of the night to put the windows down. Be prepared to get up again and put them up! But, seriously, it's little things like that which make the marriage go." Gwen agrees. "And count on 'sympathy pains' in any successful marriage," she adds. "I remember that, in 1953, Ray had nodes on his vocal chords. When he had them scraped off, the doctor said he shouldn't talk for eight weeks. It was the most horrible time of our married life. I would sometimes speak to him without thinking that he couldn't answer. It was especially bad at night. I'd wake up and say, 'Darling, did you do this or that today?' — then lie there waiting for an answer. Poor Ray couldn't speak. I'd feel like dying, when I came fully awake and realized the uncomfortable spot I had put him in with my question. He couldn't do anything but lie there in the dark and try to make intelligent grunting sounds." In a sense, Gwen has spoiled Ray. She lets him drop clothes on the floor at night. She peels apples as dessert for him. She, prepares his favorite dishes — or, as Ray says, "fishes." Now that TV has settled them in Beverly Hills, she is spending more time in the kitchen, catering to Ray's "fish tooth." Since Ray has seldom packed a bag, he can't even hang clothes in a closet without their looking as though they were accordion-pleated. To save time, he simply drops his clothes on the floor before going to bed. "You're not neat," says Gwen. "You leave your clothes right where you get out of them." "That's neat," Ray insists. "Don't you trip over them in the same place every night?" Then he adds the clincher: "You should feel lucky — I don't smoke, I don't drink, I just drop my clothes on the floor!" After twenty-five years, the Bolgers still aren't sure of a definition for a happy marriage. "It's a changing thing, a growing thing," says Ray. "Each day is like a crystal bead on a long string. Each day brings new sunshine. It's never reflected the same way, though, for the way your marriage shines is pretty much up to you. "Marriage is romance, it's a game of love — an exciting game of love. When I come home from the studio to ray wife, I find a woman who has grown more beautiful to me, a woman more beautiful than any I have seen all day." And Gwen says, "Marriage is a thousand things. It's finnan haddie, peeled apples, trust and understanding. I remember, when we were first married, Ray told me he loved his work. It was my rival. Well, today . . ." "Today," says Ray, "Gwen is my whole life. I'd give up my work in a second, if she weren't happy." "Don't be melodramatic," Gwen replies to this. "What would we do?" "We could hire out as a couple. I've played English butlers. You could be a Swedish cook and maid. You can make a bed nobody can get out of. We'd be a great success. . . ." That's just what they've been. 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