Silver Screen (Jun-Oct 1940)

74 Silver Screen for October 1940 Lamour and the Stagedoor Johnnies of Hollywood! [Continued from page 23] freely with everyone on my pictures. And why shouldn't I? Just because I've had a break and some success doesn't fundamentally make me different from any other girl. ;'This boy was working in the picture, playing a small part. On the set one day he suggested we have dinner that night. I accepted. When he called for me, he brought along a huge corsage of gardenias. He was frankly dismayed to find me in a sports suit. He was wearing a dinner jacket. Well, anything to please. I hurried and changed to a formal dress. When he helped me on with my wrap, he mentioned he'd seen pictures of me wearing a full length white fox coat and wondered if I wouldn't wear it. "I began to think something was very, very funny. Goodness knows, we weren't going to a premiere. But I gave in and put on the white fox which seemed to dazzle him. Now you know if a couple's going out for an evening they'll usually go to one nice place and enjoy themselves. But not this Hollywood Johnnie! "First we go to Ciro's. Before we order dinner, he tells the waiter we'll only have a cocktail. Then he drags me onto the dance floor and stops, and not by accident, at a table where a gossip columnist is sitting — turns on his personality and says, 'Of course, you know Miss Lamour.' It looked pretty obvious. "After he waltzes me around, he says, let's go to the Grove — maybe there'll be more people there. As we leave, he all but beckons the photographers to step right up please and snap our picture. "I begin to say to myself, 'Hey, what is this anyway?' And then we're walking into the Grove. The same thing happens all over again. We make a sweeping entrance. He turns on a Robert Taylor gaze on me for the photographers' sake and begins to drag me out to the next place. We'd have visited every place in Hollywood, only I planked my foot down and said, 'Enough of this is enough!' I insisted on him taking me home. "Every morning since, you see, the columns have it that I've been out with him the night before. It's just such men as these that make stay-at-homes of Hollywood actresses. And if you don't think it's a let-down to your pride when you suddenly realize you're being 'used,' you're mistaken! It's not because you're a reasonably attractive girl who's good company that you're being taken out, but merely because you're a figurehead for someone to use to get his name in the papers! "That is probably why Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn and so many of the stars have become almost recluses. You rarely ever see them out at night clubs. They've been put through the mill of Hollywood's Stagedoor Johnnies and from way back. "Nowadays when I meet someone it doesn't take long for me to determine if he likes me for who I am or for myself. When I was in Honolulu, Mr. and Mrs. George Vanderbilt were very gracious. They took me about with them so I'd avoid all of the publicity seekers. "Even so, when I reached home I read in the columns where a young aviator was supposed to be 'my new heart.' I was supposed to be wearing his 'wings' with the same significance attached to fraternity pins — a mutual understanding. An engagement. None of it is true. "I've had to learn to differentiate between the 'what-can-you-do-for-me-men,' and 'the publicity seeking-romeos' and the worthwhile, genuine men with ideals of what constitutes a gentleman," Dorothy continued. "I've had to learn to make sure of a person's reputation as a person before I can accept friendly overtures. "During a personal appearance this year on Broadway, many M. C.'s, orchestra leaders and some cafe owners, who'd known me, but never had thought of inviting me out, called up my agent and suggested, 'Arrange me a date with Dottie — it will be good publicity for me.' "My real friends avoid publicity in regard to personal friendship as much as I do. For publicity can twist and distort and take away the finer qualities and relationship between friends. These publicity romances you read about — seldom ever last, if you notice. Goodness knows, I've had my share of those, too. It seems as though whenever the studio has wanted to build an actor I've been worked in on a new studio publicity romance. "Do you really think New York men are so much different than those you meet in Hollywood?" I interrupted. "Not men in general," answered Dorothy. "But there is a big difference in the type that date actresses. "Broadway still has its wealthy New York playboys who call at the stagedoor for stars and principals of the shows. They're such men as Rudy Vallee, George Jean Nathan, Maury Paul, Lucius Beebe, Shipwreck Kelly, Jack Kriendler and other well known New Yorkers. They're seen with screen, radio and stage stars at '21,' The Stork and El Morocco. "But dates with, them concern no thought of personal benefit or gain in a monetary or business sense on either side. Most of these men are already successful. They're not worrying about keeping the wolf from the door, nor thinking every minute how they can better their careers by yours. The next day if your name's mentioned with one, it is done in comparative good taste. There's no sudden announcement that you're ready to be married after the second date. "When I first came to New York, one of my first important friends was Rudy Vallee. I was very thrilled at his invitations to dinner, and his flowers. When he heard me sing, he went out and secured me auditions so that I would get a good engagement. Through him, I began singing at the Stork Club. I couldn't sing without a microphone. So what did Rudy do but send me his own favorite 'mike.' Then he'd come over to hear me and introduce me to the well-knowns of Broadway. "I didn't have diamond bracelets and limousines showered on me. But I en joyed going about with the men-abouttown of Broadway. "It was soon after my Stork Club engagement that I had a contract with N.B.C. on a sustaining radio program. Of course, all of my life I'd wanted to be on the stage. But I made many detours getting there. "You know, I can almost remember the last World War," Dorothy said softly. "When I was three down in New Orleans, where I was born, my mother used to dress me up in a little red cross uniform, and I'd sing war songs and sell thrift stamps on war relief programs. That was the beginning of my becoming an actress. From then on I was always playing stage and imagining myself a great singer." Dorothy's parents separated when she was very young. She and her mother made their own way in the world from then on. In 1931, she won a beauty contest and the title of "Miss New Orleans." That led to Chicago, where first she was an elevator girl and then a model. Then came her tryout as a singer on celebrity night at a Chicago hotel. Subsequently, she became featured soloist with Herbie Kaye's orchestra. Later Herbie and Dorothy married. But Dorothy's career sent her to Hollywood and Herbie's traveling with his band. The continued separation ended in divorce. "Please don't let's talk about that," Dorothy always says, for she and Herbie are still such good friends. Dorothy was deeply hurt, but careers and circumstances made it inevitable. "I've been through a lot in three years — a terrible lot. A lot that's been good for me, wonderful for me. And a lot that has been bad — that has hurt me," admitted Dorothy. "But now I'm happy. Honestly, I'm very happy. It seems that everything has come my way for a change. I'm grateful, too. I own my own home which has always been my life's dream. And I've been to Honolulu and I'm going right back there. Another lifelong ambition, I guess," she said wistfully. "If you wish and hope long enough the things you want most will come." But getting back to these Broadway and Hollywood Stagedoor Johnnies, who both plague and glamourize the lives of actresses and show girls. "So many of these Hollywood boys struggling with careers, believe they must be seen with a name that'll make print and help their own in becoming known," Dorothy explained. "They're the men who expect and accept. They want to always be on the receiving end — not on the giving. Now I'm not talking about all men in Hollywood. For there're charming ones, too. But I mean the Stagedoor Johnnies who pursue actresses. "For instance, one time I decided to take a few tennis lessons. I visited a pro and took exactly three lessons. And the first thing, I saw his name in the paper with mine saying that I was taking lessons because of a romantic interest. Six months later he came to the studio — got in, some way, to my dressing room, [Continued on page 87]