ACTRESS GETS DIVORCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1920, Page 3

ACTRESS GETS DIVORCE.

MARY PICKFORD'S CASE. NOT LIVING WITH HUSBAND, Vancouver, March 14 # A message from Los Angelos states that ra a small and dingy courtroom at Minden, near Reno, .Nevada, Mrs. Gladys Mary Moore wept real tears as she pleaded with Judge Langan for a divorce. The divorce was given, the tears dried, and the fair divorcee was speeding homeward again before the enterprising Los Angeles reporters discovered that Mary Piekford had scored in a real human interest film, with her husband as a "fadeout." Rumors of Mary's possible divorce from Owen Moore had been aired for a long time. It was known in many quarters that the popular actress was not living with her husbandIt took the best part of the day to establish Mary's identity. The judge was prepared apparently to deny he had ever heard of the name of Piekford, but when the name of Mrs. Gladys Mary Owen was searched for he was obliged to admit that it was she. Desertion and incompatability were Mary's pleas. Tearfully she told the judge that Owen Moore was "a perfect gentleman and a devoted husiband." But theirs was a boy and girl marriage, and she could not get along happily? They had been apart for many months already, so why keep up the farce, she demanded. Owen Moore was not present in court, but the attorneys representing him were actually assisting the proceedings rather than placing any obstacle in Mary's way. His attitude was acute sorrow, but he was not willing to deny his wife's slightest wish, even including a divorce. Moore admitted technical desertion. In order to make certain that she would pass unnoticed, Mary had arrived in court quite shabbily attired, accompanied by two small, children, not her own. She told the judge that she had established a residence in Douglas County, Nevada, in January. "Sh e made no request to resume her maiden name, and she did not ask me for an alimony order." said Judge Langan, as an afterthought. BESIEGED BY PHOTOGRAPHERS. If Mary wa? successful in arriving at the court without publicity, she cer- | tainly was not allowed to return home that way. The newspapers set out nearly their entire stall's, and a dozen ehorts were made to interview her, and Mary was literally flung into the centre of the screen. Bravely she faced the downpour of rain for the dash for the platform towards the San Francisco ferries, but here uhe had no more luck than in her famous new picture, "Pollvana." To interview her aboard the train next, morning c.ne hold reporter pushed his way into the train stateroom where Mary haughtily ordered him to begone. She was ill, ami had nothing to say, she said. In her new picture, the audience applaud when ~!>» the Oakland puddle inches deep. In this real Oakland exit, she hurried tt'Oßg under her mother's protective, shoulder, and with veiled face, futtv Inc.den, was defying a score of newspaper photographers, when suddenly' she supped to the pavement and sprawled in the and water. She burst, into tears again, and the reporters even took pity and desisted from their efforts to interview her until she regained heir composure. WILL NOT MARRY FAIRBANKS. Tvro days lfiter her manager issued a dignified statement, which said, "Miss Pickfqrd secured.au uncontested divorce, became she was unable tn continue incompatible relations with her former husband. She feels exceedingly hurt, at the unkind suggestion that she' got a divorce to place her in a position to marry Douglas hairbanks. She has no intention of marrying Fairbanks or anyone else. Miss Piekford will conscientiously devote the remainder p? her life to moving picture art, and that alone. She will not marry anybody."- ' The very .vehemence of Mary's denial of any intention to marry Fairbanks is taken •by many newspaper writers to mean that the question is lalready uppermost in her mind-