Screenland (Nov 1935-Apr 1936)

for January 1936 63 How Hollywood Wives Handle Gossip Rumors Continued from page 13 of the high voltage love interest that is part of their husband's business. Or perhaps it is all because actors get paid for making love to other women, so no one is supposed to mind if a romantic rumor is cooked up about him out of office hours — not even his wife. It's all in the goodold game of sex appeal ! But even though the fact has' been prettywell established that the average actor's wife has to "take it," or leave him, I've been wondering just how they go about handling the delicate domestic problem of greeting Harold Hero at the door the evening of his latest rumor? Would you be ultra smart and pretend you hadn't heard it? Or would you play safe by bringing it up deliberately and laughing it off? Or would you yawn over it as just part of the actor routine? You'll look around a long time in Hollywood before you'll find a more popular wife than Mrs. Clark Gable. But this was not always the case. When Clark was first getting his' glamor wings, Mrs. Gable, in the background, was particularly resented by all the young fluffs who would have liked to annex the romantic menace for their own. But now I think it's pretty safe to say that Rhea Gable has more friends in Hollywood than her famous husband, and one of the greatest secrets of her success is the way she handles' the rumor problem. She is responsible for one of the cutest wife stories to ever go the rounds. It happened several years ago when Hollywood was so busy romancing Clark Gable and Joan Crawford that the busybodies could hardly get their own pictures' turned out on schedule. Apparently everyone in town had heard the "hot" rumor, but Clark. Joan was terribly upset about it and even went so far as to give out fan stories denying the whole thing as absurd. But Clark, apparently, didn't read fan stories. Anyway, after it had been going on for about six weeks, Clark blew into the publicity department one day, so excited he was nearly exploding. "I hear I'm head over heels in love with Joan," he glowered, indignantly, "and what's more Rhea says that the next time I fall in love with Joan someone ought to tell me while its going on — because it's all over now! The morning gossip column says so !" On another occasion, Clark was at the breakfast table reading the latest figures on the income tax, and Mrs. Gable, as is the feminine custom in Hollywood, was reading aloud from the chatter columns. She began, in parrot fashion: "Who is the male star who has so completely overcome his once violent dislike for a certain blonde star that he just can't let her out of his sight on their new picture?" "Who is it?" inquired Clark in that preoccupied politeness which husbands' lend to their wife's early morning "repeats." "That's you and " (naming his current co-star). "You don't say!" "Uh-huh," replied Mrs. Gable, turning the page. "Look here, it says that Southern California has lost their star quarterback for the season. Now aren't you sorry you bet on them?" And that's the way the rumor problem is handled in the Gable menage, just as little items of interest along with the other local happenings. Mrs. Robert Montgomery is one who thoroughly believes in the humor treatment for rumors. When Bob's supposed infatuation with "Miss X" was not only the chief topic of conversation in Hollywood, but was being blared in almost every Hollywood periodical in the country, Betty Montgomery called him one day at the studio. "Hello," she said with a giggle in her voice, "this is Mrs. M." "Well, doggone !" said Bob, "and here I was expecting it would be Miss X !" When Bob and Betty went to parties they'd give a duet on the finer points of his "romance." Bob would start to tell the story but it was Betty who would supply the details. Bob would say: "So one night my car broke down right in front of Miss X's house and what did I do but go right up to the door and let myself in with a key—" "It wasn't that way at all," Betty would correct. "Don't you remember, your car broke down, and then the maid stuck her head out the window and yelled, 'Is that you, Mr. Montgomery?' and threw down the key to you?" "And the next thing you knew we were down in Palm Springs together — " "Santa Barbara," from Betty. "All right," from Bob, "you tell it!" And Betty would tell it, and the way she told it did more to laugh this rumor into the discard than any hot and indignant denial from Bob could ever have done. Since Gary Cooper keeps Sandra Cooper as aloof from interviewers as Garbo keeps herself, it is impossible to get a direct reaction in Sandra's own words as to how she would handle "rumor trouble." But if you can believe the Los Angeles' newspaper reporters, Sandra never reads a newspaper or a gossip column, so she never has any rumors to handle. Not so long ago when Gary and his ex-girl friend, Lupe, accidentally and unfortunately got booked on the same plane for passage East, the papers were full of Snow falls on Anita Louise, but the blonde beauty is ready for it and smiles a cheery welcome. a little drama which took place at an Eastern airport. The photographers had rallied 'round to ask Lupe if she would pose in a picture with Gary. "Sure," said Lupe, who is always game for anything. But Gary would have none of it. And did Lupe burn? The reporters got so much fun out of the scrap that they called Mrs. Cooper and asked her whether she thought Gary should, or should not have refused to have his picture taken with Lupe? "You saw the story in the evening paper?" they prodded, gently. "Sorry," came the cool, society tones of Mrs. Cooper, "I never read the papers." "But this is what happened : Gary and Lupe got off this plane — " Suddenly the reporter realized he was talking into blank space. If Mrs. Cooper doesn't read the papers, she apparently isn't going to "listen" to them, either. Dixie Lee Crosby is the only Hollywood wife I have encountered who will come right out and admit that rumors' "burn" her. In fact, Dixie fairly sizzled when the columnists turned on the heat and went out of their way to rumor that all was not well in the Crosby menage. "Of course I don't get angry with Bing," she explained. "Why should I? Bing and I knew better than anyone else how we are getting along. But it certainly burns me to be made the victim of a senseless rumor just because things are a little slow in Hollywood and the gossips have to have something to mull over. No, I don't ignore rumors ! Bing and I were in New York when we first got wind that the Los Angeles papers were rumoring our separation. And I got on the long distance phone right away to deny it. Why should happily married people ignore dangerous rumors ? I believe in denials, loud ones, too ! It's dangerous not to stop them. The first thing you know people really begin to believe them. Even your friends hesitate to call you up because they've read 'where you and Bing are having trouble.' " If Dixie is' the "fightingest" lady about rumors, Mrs. John Boles may go to the head of the class as the wife who is the most genuinely pleased about them ! "To be perfectly frank," laughed Marcelite, "Johnny doesn't supply enough rumors around Hollywood ! I know when we first came here, I really had to hound him to play more ardent love scenes with his leading ladies. Maybe it is because I've always' been a matinee idol hero-worshipper, myself, that I like to see my screen heroes play their love scenes as though they really meant them. Actors should have romantic reputations. It's part of their business. And I don't care what they say, I think any woman in the world would be bored with a man that didn't interest other women." The first time Marcelite ever read a rumor about John, it wasn't as daring as she might have hoped, but it served its purpose. The chatter writers had noticed John Boles lunching in the studio commissary with his leading lady ! When John came home that night, Marcelite met him at the door with the item outlined in red pencil, in her hand. "Why, Mr. Boles, you devil !" she kidded. "If you don't cut that out," warned Mr. Boles, sheepishly, "I'll clunk you over the head with a rolling pin !" Which is certainly . the reverse of the funny paper technique !