HERE ARE HOLLYWOOD'S ONE-MAN WOMEN.

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 31, 13 January 1939, Page 23

HERE ARE HOLLYWOOD'S ONE-MAN WOMEN.

THE usual Hollywood cocktail is one part love, three of marriage and four dashes to the divorce courts! There are many marriages out in Los Angeles that start with the Very Best Intentions-as they do everywhere. What is often neglected, as the couples trip gaily down the middle aisle with their "something new and something blue" (and how blue it’s apt to get at the end of the long, long frail!) is that little thing called love. Love, like genius, happens rarely. Yet it does happen! And (surprise!), even in Hollywood one-man women, glamorous enough to be feminine King Solomons, go so completely into reverse as to make him look, practically, like Lonesome Luke! For Exhibit A, let‘s have a look in at the Hornblows. , oie een ‘ i

HE little woman at this house is none other than one-man Myrna Loy! Myrna’s one-track mind, as far as men go, leads straight to Arthur Hornblow, fin--and no detours! When she rst became camera-conscious, she left the uplands of Montana for the badlands of the West. She didn’t take Hollywood by storm. She merely worked hard at being ‘xotic, which never got her farther than half-caste parts midway up the ladder of success. At their second meeting, a year and a half after their first, at a party held by Samuel Goldwyn, Hornublow had a serious talk with Myrna-about her work. He told her she should play modern women, since.she had a strong sense of humour found in rare combination with a generous share of poise. He imbuea her with the courage to fight for the kind of part with which she has now become so completely identied. Her reaction was immediate and sure. She had an immense respect for this young executive who, in addition to possessing a law degree, had been both editor and playwright; but, more especially, she admired his quick, unerring decisions and his alert mind. At that time gossip haa it she might marry Ramon Navarro or Bill -Powell. Myrna said nothing. Apparently she was too busy fighting her ctudio for a chance to do the sort of thing she wanted. And so hardly anyone was prepared for the quiet marriage which took place over a year ago in Ensenada, Mexico. Lost Perspective "THE trouble with women,"’’ she dares to expound, ‘‘is that they lose their perspective and do not have enough confidence in themselves.. They begin to doubt their own power of attraction as soon as they feel the sting of Cupid’s dart. Competition is inescapable. "Luckily, women are beginning to realise the battle is not over when the altar is reached. That is only the beginning of both competition and romance. "Because | am a happy wife and | find it easy to smile and overlook small details like a late meal, that does not mean anything in the real business of loving and living, for love is much too precious to treat lightly once you’ve found it!" And Myrna never has.

So there’s one -of. Hollywood’s one-man women who wouldn’t. be a husband-trader if she lived in the Aretic Circle and Arthur were a travelling salesman for gumdrops! The one-man women of Hollywood are not so select a group as you might have imagined-al--though strong in numbers, they simply don’t make the pink editions so, shall we say, conspicuously. Dixie Lee THE Crosbys epitomise one of the epic romances of Hollywood, with Dixie Lee (Mrs. Crosby and mother of four small boys), a charming young blonde who graces the sereen just as often as Bing can spare her, Dixie is a charter member of the One-Man Women Club and its most spirited cheer leader. She remains one of the growing number who doesn’t think parenthood is something in the way of being a public outrage. And just to prove how being 2 one-man woman can sort of creep up on you, it was Dixie who said, "Of course I don’t mean that married lovers should be in their own company so, continuously that they get on each other’s nerves. But they should work to make a success of their marriage as hard as they do to make a success of their careers. "Even when we have company, Bing frequently excuses himself at nine-thirty or ten and goes up to bed, when he’s working on a picture, because he can’t keep late hours and do justice to his work. Ill confess it used to ‘get? me when we were first married when I didn’t happen to be working, too. "J thought Bing was mean to leave the whole burden of entertaining to me. But I know him well enough and I love him deeply enough to have thought it all out and to come to realise that his work is my job, too, and that I have the responsibility of keeping my own end up." The Jolsons GUPPOSE we visit the Jolsons. Here was a marriage practically foredoomed to failure. There were more differences between Al and Ruby Keeler than Al and Walter Winchell-if possible. There was age and religion and Ruby’s_ professional eareer. Al wanted a wife and then tempted Fate by proposing to Ruby, a dancer. Just to make the

plot more complicated, Ruby accepted. But Fate overlooked the little fact that Ruby is a one-man woman-yes, she’s one of the girls -and proved it to her own and her man’s conclusive satisfaction. It was when Ruby had signed for a Ziegfeld production and gone out-of-town with the company on the usual try-out before coming to Broadway. For several years since their marriage, Ruby had practically retired from show business and was therefore free to be with ‘Al whether he was in New York on the stage or in Hollywood doing a picture. This was their first real separation and. it was a hardship for both of them. In the middle of the engagement Ruby received a_ telegram from Al. It was short and very much to the point. He wanted Ruby to leave the show and meet him in New York. Need I tell you what Ruby did? Some Others [RENE DUNNE is one of the marriedest persons in all the

Sierra. Nevadas, her husband the lucky Dr. Griffin. And then there is Frances Dee and Hollywood’s man-most-about-town, Joel McCrea-that is, until he saw Frances. Then he was most about Frances. .And, I might add, has been ever since. Frances, in addition, has two lovely sons. Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond are still another. Jeanette’s one-man-mindedness is legion, for the one-man woman knows exactly what she wantsand gets it Of course, there are, many one-maty women among the non-

professional wives, but their matrimonial lives don’t offer the problems that beset the actresses. Pat O’Brien and his pretty wife, Eloise; Jimmy Cagney and his "Bill"; the Frank McHughsthere are any number of Hollywood women who are content to devote all their wifely energies to the men they love. A Hollywood cocktail, one must eonfess, is a powerful potion. But if you take your marriage straight-there or elsewhereyou’re bound to be spared a lot of headaches!