All Natalie Wood Talks About Is Pots And Pans And Robert Wagner

It doesn’t seem as though a whole year has gone by, but here it is, Natalie’s first wedding anniversary. I’ll never forget Nat’s wedding. It was the most beautiful day of my life, that December 28, 1957. Nat looked so beautiful standing at the altar and RJ looked so handsome and I felt all warm inside. Mother told me to try not to cry during the ceremony and I said I wouldn’t. I couldn’t understand why people would want to cry anyway. But when I saw Nat standing there and I heard some other people sniffling, including Mother, I couldn’t help it. The tears started streaming down my cheeks. I don’t know why, it was such a funny feeling. After the ceremony, when Nat and RJ walked down the aisle. I tried not to let her see me crying, but she did. Nat let go of RJ’s hand and she came over and kissed me and hugged me and we just looked at each other. I saw she had tears, too, so I didn’t feel so bad crying myself.

At the reception I had my first sip of champagne. I didn’t really like it because the bubbles made me sneeze. But I tried to act grownup so I took two sips and then ditched the almost full glass in back of the wedding cake.

Afterwards, I went up with Natalie when she changed from her wedding dress to her going-away suit. I wasn’t going to go into her room because I thought I might bother her. She had so many things on her mind, packing and stuff. But she asked me to come with her. I sat on the edge of the bed while she changed.

Then she walked over to me and she combed my hair because it was kind of tangled up in my wedding hat. It wasn’t really too messed up but I think Nat was trying to say something when she came over and started combing my hair. It was as if she was saying, “Don’t worry, Lana, I’m still your big sister. Nothing’s changed.” Right before they left Nat and RJ gave all the bridal party gifts. They’d already given me a makeup case and now they gave me a gold angel medallion engraved, “To Lana-December 28-57. Love Nat and RJ.” I always wear it everyplace, even in the bathtub!

A lot of people ask me if I think Nat’s changed much since she married RJ. I honestly don’t think so; not much anyway. It’s true that when she lived at home she was mainly interested in her career, going out to parties, clothes, things like that. Now most of her conversation is about her husband and her home. Nat and RJ only live about a mile from us and we see them all the time. They come over to our house or we go to theirs and in between we talk on the phone, sometimes five times a day. So you see it’s not like Nat moved far away or anything. We still go shopping and have lunch and talk and she and RJ take me lots of places with them. About the only thing I miss is having Nat home every evening so she can help me with homework. She’s a real brain and if she were living home I’d pile my work on her. But I guess that really wouldn’t be fair even if she were available!

RJ has brought a lot more laughs into our family. The day that Nat told us she and RJ were in love we were all so thrilled because we’d never seen her look quite so beaming. The next night RJ came over to our house and formally asked for permission to marry Nat. I can’t tell you how pleased the folks were. My mother says boys don’t do this very often nowadays. I sure hope when I fall in love the boy will ask my father, like RJ did.

It’s a standing joke in our family that Natalie can’t even boil water but really we just say that to tease her. She didn’t do much around the house before she got married and although she still doesn’t go into the kitchen very often, she’s a great cook when she wants to be. When Nat and RJ first got back from their honeymoon she gave a small dinner party. We were all curious to see how she would be as a hostess. Even Mother was surprised. When we got there the apartment was so neat and there were flowers all over—the first few months they lived in RJ’s bachelor apartment until they moved into their home, but the apartment was quite large and Nat had everything under control. Before dinner the grownups had cocktails and Natalie made delicious hors d’oeuvres; they tasted great with my Coke! Then we sat at the table and she helped serve the dinner. It was prime ribs of beef and some plain vegetables, like stringbeans, but Nat had fixed them so fancy that they tasted real exotic! And we had a gooey dessert—I don’t think she made that—and everyone really stuffed themselves. She was so at ease, all dressed up pretty and yet we knew Nat had spent most of the day preparing things. RJ sat at the head of the table.

Nat entertains just as well informally, too. A while back she and RJ invited RJ’s parents and all of us to spend the day on their boat, which is named My Other Lady. Mother asked if she could bring anything and Nat said no, that we should all come and have fun and she was doing all the preparing. There were ten of us on the boat. It’s not so easy cooking there because there isn’t a very big kitchen to work in. Nat didn’t seem to notice. She has a few little portable hibachi ovens that she uses to cook meat on.

She made a very good salad and then served hamburgers and vegetables, warm rolls, and cookies and ice cream. She wouldn’t let anybody do anything, except RJ, who was in charge of seeing that the hamburgers didn’t burn. They were the most delicious burgers I’ve ever tasted. Nat says it’s a secret recipe she dreamed up with some special seasoning. She wouldn’t even give Mommy the recipe. I don’t blame her; anyone that can make a plain hamburger taste like that should keep it a secret!

I don’t know exactly what to write about RJ. There is so much to say about him. Since we never had any boys in our family I didn’t know what it was like to have a brother until Nat married RJ. Of course, our oldest sister, Olga, is married and her husband is a wonderful brother, too, but I don’t have a chance to be with him as much as I do with RJ, since they live in San Francisco. I’m trying to think of ways to tell you about RJ but I guess it’s easier just to say he has everything.

He has a way of getting a point across without getting angry. Like Nat’s being late when he used to come and pick her up. He never came right out and said anything, but one night he was supposed to pick her up at eight and he didn’t come until quarter of nine. When he finally arrived Nat was dressed and waiting and I think she was a little upset that RJ was so late. When he came into the living room he acted very cool, as if he weren’t late. Nat frowned and he just grinned and said, “Are you ready so soon, honey? Take your time, we’ve only missed the first half of the movie.” Nat started to say something and then she realized the message that RJ was trying to get across. She started to laugh. After they left the house, Mother told me RJ knew just exactly how to handle Natalie. She was so right; after that night, Nat was never more than five minutes late when RJ came over and that, believe me, was a real record for my sister!

He’s very understanding, too. Last Christmas, as a surprise, Nat knitted an afghan for RJ’s boat. She isn’t a very fast knitter and it took her days and days to finish it. She made it in black and red, only by the time it was finished those colors didn’t match the interior because RJ had traded in his boat and gotten a different one. But when he saw the work and time she’d put into making the afghan he had the whole boat redecorated on the inside just so it would match Nat’s knitting. He said it was the most expensive gift he’d ever received but he was just teasing Nat. Still, there aren’t many husbands who would go to all that trouble just so their wives wouldn’t be upset about their knitting!

RJ’s got about the best sense of humor of anyone I’ve ever known. He’s always playing some practical joke—never anything to hurt anyone but just something funny enough so everyone gets a kick out of it. One of his pet tricks is disguising his voice or doing imitations of movie stars like Jimmy Cagney and Clark Gable. He’s a panic.

I remember one night when RJ and Nat were going to a premiere; they’d stopped by the house on their way out and had dinner with us. About fifteen minutes after they left the phone rang. Mother answered it and the man on the other end said he was a reporter for a New York paper and that he’d flown three thousand miles to do a story on Nat and RJ. He said he didn’t have too much time and would Mother mind giving him some information over the phone.

Then for the next thirty minutes he asked her all sorts of questions about Natalie, just like a regular interviewer. All of a sudden he lowered his voice and sort of whispered, “Now tell me, Mrs. Wood, what’s Robert Wagner really like? You can tell me and of course I’ll only print what’s flattering.” At first mother was shocked and then she started laughing and she said, “RJ stop teasing me, I know it’s you.” He was a little sheepish over the phone and he said, “How come you finally recognized me.” Mother said, “Because no real reporter would come out and ask me point blank what Robert Wagner was like; a real reporter would beat around the bush and be much more subtle.” That cured him, for the moment. A week later he called again, used another voice and this time it took Mother only fifteen minutes to find out she was giving an interview to her own son-in-law.

I think the thing about RJ that’s so great is he knows when to be funny and when to be serious. He’s someone you can talk to. You can ask him anything and he’ll always know the right thing to do and say.

And Im especially grateful for the way he treats my girlfriends. Whenever Nat and RJ come over, my friends immediately get either shy or very silly. Nat treats them swell and RJ does imitations for them and before long my friends don’t feel embarrassed any more. You know how some young couples can act so, so superior that it makes people my age feel like dropping into the nearest hole in the ground? Nat and RJ understand this and it makes life a whole lot easier for me. You see, a lot of kids, when they first meet me, automatically think I’ll be stuck-up because Nat’s my sister and she’s married to Bob Wagner. Then when they get to know me and meet Nat and RJ, they realize it’s foolish to think I’d be stuck-up. What would I have to be putting on airs about when Nat and RJ act so darn nice! They’re the celebrities in the family.

Incidentally, I forgot to tell you one sort of funny experience Nat and I had together. It happened back in 1955, way before she and RJ were married. I guess it isn’t good to suddenly go backwards when you’re writing a story, but I’m not really a professional writer so I hope you won’t mind. You see, I want to be an actress and right now I’m doing some TV shows and also pictures when there are parts for me. I never wanted to act when I was little. I wanted to be a writer. That’s funny because now I’m an actress and here I am writing a story. My first picture role was playing Natalie as a child, in a movie called “The Searchers.” It was very exciting since we went away to Arizona on location. Nat and I shared a room which was over a real authentic Indian trading post.

Nat is always so much fun to be with. That time she made up a whole story about how the Indians were raiding the village, and every night after work we’d get into our pajamas and pretend we were being raided. Since Natalie made up the story it was only natural she cast herself in the role of the heroine who rescued me and the rest of the town from being scalped.

One afternoon, we were having lunch at the cafe where the cast and crew ate all their meals. It was about a block from our rooms at the trading post. Suddenly, a dust storm blew up and we were marooned in the restaurant for nearly two hours. There were a few other kids there and Nat was about the oldest. She could see that we were all scared so she took charge. She explained our Indian game to everyone and we all got organized and pretended we were being raided by Indians. Before we knew it the storm blew over and we were able to walk home. I was so proud of Nat for helping all of us not to worry. When we got to our room I looked at her and she was green and she got sick. I guess she really wasn’t so brave after all, but at least she pretended to be until it was safe for her to act scared.

When Natalie lived at home, before she got married, she always found time to play with me, take me shopping, fix my hair and give me advice. Nat loved to sleep late when she wasn’t working but she was never too sleepy to roll out of bed and fix my hair before I went to school. Of course, when I was really little, Mother used to comb my hair, but when Nat started changing her own hair styles every week I decided I wanted her to fix my hair like hers, and she always obliged. One time she’d braid it; then she’d cut it into bangs like hers; once, she even made me a French knot in the back. That really looked a little too grownup for the fifth grade, but it came out when I played at recess, anyway.

When Natalie first started dating I used to think to myself that soon she’d get married and move away.“It made me sad, because she’s such fun to have around all the time that I worried about what it would be like when she got married and went away from home. That was sort of silly of me. Knowing Nat, I should have realized that getting married wouldn’t change her relationship with me and the rest of the family.

All of the boys that Natalie dated were very nice to me, but sometimes I used to think they liked me only because I was Nat’s little sister and they thought they should! With RJ it was different. He liked me right off, for real, I could tell. It’s funny, but a year ago last July, when Nat told Mother and me she was going to date Robert Wagner, I didn’t get too excited, at first. I’d never met him. I’d only seen his pictures in magazines and maybe I couldn’t believe that he was really coming to our house.

But that first night when he came to the house to pick Nat up, it was really something! I had a friend over to dinner. We were just about through, when the doorbell rang. My girlfriend and I went to the door and opened it. It was RJ! Both of us took one look and we flipped. He was so good-looking, even more handsome than his pictures. RJ could see that we were embarrassed but he made us feel at ease right away. Nat was still getting dressed when he came in—she used to keep her dates waiting till RJ changed that! RJ came into the living room and sat and talked with Mother and Father and my friend and me. He was so relaxed and natural that we all liked him right away. He has a wonderful sense of humor. Even when Touché, our poodle, jumped on his lap and left white hairs all over his dark suit, he didn’t mind at all. From that very first night I could tell he really liked me, and as for me I thought he was the nicest boy Nat had ever brought home.

Mother says I have a crush on RJ, but I don’t, not really. Crushes are for kids! I was thirteen on March 1st and I’m in the eighth grade at Van Nuys High School, in San Fernando Valley, and I don’t get crushes anymore, but I do sort of have his pictures pasted up all over my bedroom mirror! Natalie used to get crushes on movie stars, too.

I remember once when Nat was about fifteen. She had just gotten her Thunderbird and invited a friend and me to go driving with her. On the way home, Nat spotted Kirk Douglas in a car ahead of us. She had a crush on him and so she tried to catch up with his car. My friend and I were giggling, but we were just as eager! Finally we caught up with Mr. Douglas at a red light and we all shouted hello. He was so nice; he told us to pull up to the curb. Then he got out of his car and came and talked to us. When we ran out of things to say, we asked for his autograph. We looked all over the car and in Nat’s purse but we couldn’t find a piece of paper. Mr. Douglas just laughed, took out his pen and signed his name on Nat’s leather jacket. Nat was so happy with his signature that she didn’t take the jacket off for weeks. I still have it in the closet and now it’s all full of movie stars’ signatures.

My parents never believed in hiring baby-sitters so occasionally, when they had to leave me, Nat stayed with me. She was super. She’d read to me, or we’d watch TV or listen to records. She never made me go to bed too early. One time I remember my folks had to go out at the last minute and asked Nat to stay with She had a date that night but she just said, “Okay I’ll take Lana with me.” How many big sisters do you know who would do that?

The three of us went to a drive-in movie. I sat in the back seat. It was one of the first times Nat had been out on a date and I don’t think she was too relaxed. In the middle of the picture, the boy sort of casually put his arm around Nat’s shoulder. Then she moved way across the seat in front of me and I couldn’t see the picture and I was sleepy so I started to cry. I don’t remember this event and I can’t imagine myself being so silly, but it’s one of Nat’s favorite stories. Anyway, when I started crying, Nat told the boy she thought they’d better take me home. He did and I guess Nat was quite relieved. All I know is whenever she tells this story she says, “I started out to baby-sit with Lana and she wound up chaperoning me!” She told Mother that I had cried right on cue because she’d wanted to come home and yet she’d felt it wouldn’t have been polite to her date—so I guess I really did rescue her that time!

Nat and RJ are always giving us so many presents. When RJ was first dating Natalie and then went to Japan to make a picture, he brought us back lots of things. He brought me a huge oriental jewel box—when you wind it up and open the bottom drawer a geisha girl does a dance to some tinkling music. And he gave me a clock, too. It has a girl hanging from a swing and she moves back and forth to tell the time. Nat and RJ are like year-round Santa Clauses. they always come over loaded with gifts. When Nat went up to Monterey while RJ was making “In Love and War,” they brought me back a load of stuffed animals. My favorite is a mother kangaroo with a baby in her pouch. Touché found the baby kangaroo and now the mother is childless!

Our whole family is poodle crazy. When Nat got married, she left Touché at home with us and she and RJ got another poodle for themselves. Then just before they went to New York in October, they came over to say goodbye. Nat had a blanket in her arms and she handed it to me. Out popped a tiny black poodle, all my own. Her name is Coquette du Bois but we call her Qui-Qui (pronounced Key-Key) for short.

Even though Natalie’s busy being married, she still has time to do special things for me. A few months ago, I was invited to a party given by James Mason’s daughter Portland. The invitation said “formal.” I didn’t have a fancy long dress and they’re so expensive and impractical that I really hated to ask Mother to get me one. I didn’t even know that Natalie knew about the party, but a few days after I got the invitation Nat called and asked me to go to lunch with her. While we were eating she said she hoped I wouldn’t mind, but she had some shopping to do before we went home. We went to Saks and Nat headed directly for the junior department. Before I knew what was happening, she’d bought me a white chiffon dress, gloves with little pearls on them, white satin pumps, an evening bag with sequins that change colors and even a wrap for my shoulders. She spent hours getting me everything for the party and she didn’t get one thing for herself.

I really didn’t think I would be able to write so many pages as this story. It’s easier to do an essay for school on “What I Did Last Summer . . .” than it is to put into words how you feel about people you love. Besides, though Natalie Wood has been a movie star for as long as I can remember, she’s always been just my sister Nat for as long as I can remember, too.

THE END

BY LANA LISA WOOD (Natalie’s kid sister)

BOB IS IN “SAY ONE FOR ME,” FOR 20TH.

 

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 1959