Screenland (May-Oct 1941)

Just to be sure I -was right about this I checked with the fan mail department at the Twentieth Century studio and learned from genial Bill Gallagher that Ty's fan mail has actually increased since his marriage (oh boy, just wait until "Blood and Sand" is generally released, and watch it then ! ) and that a great part of it lately has come from women, from fourteen to forty, who are apologizing for having written him bitter letters after his marriage to Annabella. Seems that quite a few of his fans took his marriage pretty hard — but during this past year they have all been coming back, with apologies. In 1938, before he married, Ty was tenth on the Motion Picture Herald's popularity-at-the-box-ofnce list. In 1940, after he married, he was fifth. This year, it's rumored, he will ease Monsieur Rooney right out of that enviable Number One position. Strangely enough, men who usually can't bear the stars who offer them competition (and get their revenge by calling them "pretty boy" and "silly jerk") like Tyrone Power. Why? I asked several guys I know who gather at the stables on Sunday morning. "He's no sissy," said one, "he's got something on the ball." Said the other, "Well, most of those celluloid cuties are just plain ham. But Power's whammy, without being hammy, if you know what I mean." When Ty Power married in April, 1939, the producers' groans could be heard from here to the Stork Club. They had to be revived with smelling salts and double brandies. "Well," Hollywood said around the oyster bar at the old Trocadero, "there's another promising career shot to hell. The girls won't go for him if he's married. Look what happened to I" Ty has defied all the accepted conventions. He didn't do any of the things that young actors do who get married against their studio's wishes. He did not hide "the little woman" in the background. He took her every place, proud as a peacock. When the photographers gathered around them at night clubs and previews with their candid cameras, Ty didn't snarl and order them away (it has been done.) Unlike the Gables and the Taylors he had the lens boys come right into his new home (none of that "my home is private" bunk) and take pictures for the newspapers and magazines of the Powers romping all over the place. The studio didn't approve. But that didn't stop Ty. He loved Annabella, and he wanted everybody else to love her. He freely gave interviews about Annabella, and encouraged Annabella to give them about him. Very unlike the Gables and the Taylors, who still refuse to talk about each other. The studio publicity departments did not "arrange" these interviews for Ty and Annabella — Ty arranged them himself. He was very pleased to be married to Annabella — and nuts to studio policies. Though it looked on in disapproving silence when Ty first married, Twentieth CenturyFox gradually learned that marriage wasn't hurting their romantic young leading man at all. They think it is perfectly all right now for Ty and Annabella to discuss their marriage, in fact they're rather delighted about it. And several months ago some beautiful kodachromes taken of Ty and Annabella shortly after their marriage, and then suppressed, were pulled out of a drawer and released to the magazines — with the blessings of Twentieth CenturyFox. "Well, if by some bit of luck his marriage doesn't hurt his career," the sourpusses said, "his pictures certainly will. He goes right from one to another. The public will get awfully tired of seeing him." But on the contrary. Ty Power has been in pictures for five years, and has made the startling number of twenty pictures. But he's more popular today than ever. Yes, he's defied every accepted convention in Hollywood — and he's still the most romantically exciting guy on the screen. Why? The answer, I decided, might be found by questioning the stars he has worked with. If the glamor girls who work with him week in and week out, under the most nerve-wracking and provoking conditions, still think he has romantic appeal, after marriage, then he really must have it, but good. At the hairdresser's I saw Dottie Lamour getting herself all prettied up to attend a Variety Convention at Atlantic City. "Tyrone?" she shrieked under the dryer, "why, he has the most wonderful disposition in the world. I felt so fortunate to be able to appear with him in 'Johnny Apollo' [one of Dottie's best performances, "Blood and Sand" has given Ty Power a new romantic lease on the screen. Is it marriage that has given him a "new depth?" Anyway, here he is with his lovely Annabella. Flying Cadet Don E. Brown, serious-minded son of comedian Joe E. Brown, has almost completed his Air Corps flight training. by the way] for he has a knack for getting everyone around him in a good mood. So often on the set there will be some one who causes friction — and you know who I mean — but with Ty around harmony always prevails. He has the most charming personality, and — well, I wish I had met him before he met Annabella ! But mind you, I like Annabella. I think she's swell." On the Twentieth Century-Fox lot I ran into Rita Hayworth who plays the "heavy" in "Blood and Sand," and does a little burning of the celluloid herself. Rita had nothing but raves for Mr. Power. "It is amazing how competent he is. You always think of Tyrone as a very young man and want to make allowances for his acting, but when you see him work out a role you realize that he has deep understanding. He is one of the most politely curious men I have ever met. As you know, I am rather shy, but he kept talking to me and suddenly I found myself confiding in him and telling him all my problems. He w;as very helpful about solving some of them. He seemed very pleased when Annabella came on the set. I met her for the first time and found her very ■ fascinating. His pride in her is one of the nicest things I've seen in the film business. I didn't know him before he married, but he certainly has plenty of romantic appeal now . . ." and Rita sighed, just as you and I sigh when we think of Ty Power. But don't tell Eddie Judson, Rita's husband. No wonder he spent so much time on the set of "Blood and Sand." I found cute Miss Betty Grable tearing a steak and potatoes in a corner of the commissary. Since going with George Raft Betty passes up salads in favor of steaks. Before I could say anything she said, "I've bought another bowling team. Tyrone sold it to me. (The money goes to British War Relief.) I've got more bowling teams now than I know what to do with, but when Tyrone came to me — well, you just can't resist Tyrone." Betty is in his new picture, "A Yank in the R.A.F.," and thinks it's the best thing that has happened to her in Hollywood. "Just imagine !" she said dreamily, "playing in a picture with Tyrone Power." The best authority on Tyrone Power among the stars is little Linda Darnell, who has played in four pictures with him. "I first met him," said Linda in her dressing room, "at the broadcasting station 68