Exclusively Yours

To Thine Own Self: Right after Marlon Brando’s surprise marriage to Anna Kashfi, I talked to a close friend of the bride, who told me, “Anna should be a perfect wife for Marlon. She has the European approach to marriage that American women don’t have, which means that she will be an understanding, tolerant and acquiescent wife—and need I add that being married to Marlon demands all these virtues and more! That’s why the only other serious romances in Marlon’s life were of foreign background, too—Movita of Mexico and Josie Beranger of France.

“Annie isn’t madly career-conscious, either, and would be perfectly happy settling for home and babies. But, of course, now that she’s Mrs. Brando, her new name is boxoffice dynamite, a fact not overlooked by a discerning producer named Arthur Freed, who promptly signed her to star in a remake of ‘White Shadows of the Sea,’ with Marlon as her co-star. Whether the Brando household will be big enough to hold two careers in one family remains to be seen. If it isn’t, I’ll wager you my new Xmas bonnet that Annie will give up her M-G-M contract faster than you can say Joanna O’Callaghan!”

Anna’s gigantic hoax about her “Indian parentage” is a big laugh to everyone who knows Marlon’s antagonism towards the press. After successfully eluding any leakage of his secret marriage, it was his bride’s “secret” that unleashed a torrent of publicity on them both! There is still speculation whether Marlon was in on the hoax before the wedding. Even though, when Annie had to quit her role in “Don’t Go Near The Water.” because of a tubercular condition, Marlon was a frequent bedside visitor at the hospital where she was registered under her real name—Joanna O’Callaghan.

Mind you, it’s an accepted custom in show business for an actress to exchange the name given her at birth, for one that looks more spectacular in electric lights. But what is unusual in Anna Kashfi’s case is her determination to stick to the legend of her “Indian heritage” in the face of the contradictory statements of her Welsh-Irish parents. Why does she want to reject her mother and father in this cruel way? Why did she put them through the humiliation of having to read about her marriage in the papers, instead of telling them about it herself?

Annie, obviously, has her own answer to these baffling questions. But by her silence, she is not only breaking the Fifth Commandment, “Honor Thy Father and Mother,” but also disavowing another respected credo: “To thine own self be true.”

Power-ful Man: After Ty Power’s divorce from Linda Christian, when his name was constantly being linked with Swedish actress Mai Zetterling, I kept denying the persistent rumors that their romance would wind up at the altar. And although I hate I-told-you-sos, time proved me right: Ty has switched to another “fair lady.”

Her name is Debbie Minardos, but she isn’t Greek, as has been generally reported. A divorcée, she acquired her deceiving last name from her Greek husband, the father of her seven-year-old daughter. Debbie’s real name is Smith and she hails from Memphis, Tenn., but she doesn’t even have a southern accent! For Ty, whose accent on love in the past has been a veritable League of Nations—France, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Hungary—this all-American girl from below the Mason-Dixon line is a unique change. So is the fact that she isn’t an actress, and has no desire to become one. She does, however, aspire to become Mrs. Tyrone Power. And in this respect, she is definitely not unique!

Manhunt: Now that Anna Kashfi has romped off with one of the few remaining eligible bachelors left in Hollywood, it’s interesting to observe that the girls from abroad are beating “les girls” American in marriage to our hometown heroes. Last year, a “bundle from Britain,” Dana Wynter, astounded everyone in filmdom by leading Greg Bautzer to the altar—a miracle glamour queens like Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers and Jane Wyman had hoped to achieve, without success. Another captivating Continental, Audrey Hepburn, took ubiquitous Mel Ferrer out of circulation.

In gay Paree, a young news reporter of Polish-Russian origin named Veronique Passani, found her dream prince, Greg Peck, newly separated from his Finnish wife, Greta. Anne Buydens of Belgium caught up with Kirk Douglas in Rome, and “zing went the strings of his heart”—right from Italian import, Pier Angeli, to Mlle. Anne. A location trip to Rome found Henry Fonda his bride, Baroness Franchetti, whose friends now wonder if she can keep up with the moody temperament which Hank’s three American wives were unable to cope with.

Not a home product, but a Berlin fraulein named Ursula Thiess introduced Bob Taylor to the strains of “Lohengrin”—a wedding march she had been attuned to since childhood. After all, what good German isn’t teethed on Wagner?

Some American movie maidens, set for revenge, found happiness, others heartbreak. Divorce was in store for Rita Hayworth, who snared Ali Khan’s affections; for Ginger Rogers and Jacques Bergerac, and for Liz Taylor and Britisher Mike Wilding. Princess Grace and Rainier found happiness and so did Olivia de Havilland and her charming Pierre Galante. So the score’s about fifty-fifty.

But, for Swedish-born Ingrid Bergman, who sacrificed Hollywood, her husband and her daughter for the Italian Roberto Rossellini, a tragic end to a seven-year idyll has come with the signing of a separation decree behind the closed doors of a Roman court. Only a few days before, a joyous Ingrid had greeted Roberto with kisses in Paris. But with Sonali Das Gupta secreted in France, reporters were skeptical. They were right.

THE END

—BY RADIE HARRIS

 

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE JANUARY 1958