Happy The Bride—Lana Turner & Lex Barker
According to one of the persons who was with Lana Turner in Italy and in London during the production of The Flame And The Flesh, “MODERN SCREEN is probably more responsible for Lana Turner’s marriage to Lex Barker than any other single factor.
“Your magazine,” this informant reports, “ran a story about Lex and Lana (our August, 1953 issue) entitled, They Called Them Shocking, with a cover blurb that read, ‘Lana and Lex: They Scandalized Europe.’
“When Lana read that story, she blew her top. I mean really blew it. She was mad. She said that she was living her own life. It was her business. No one was going to tell her what to do, and especially not MODERN SCREEN. If she wanted to go around with Lex Barker, she was going to do it, and she didn’t care what anyone wrote about it.
“She was furious. She said she had heard nothing about a scandal. No magazine was going to run her life. If she wanted to kiss Lex Barker off, she’d do it. If she wanted to marry him, she’d do that, too. Who was MODERN SCREEN to tell her what to do?
“Immediately, I bought a copy and read the article. It seemed fair enough to me, because it is true that when Lex and Lana arrived in Europe, many people thought they must be married. When they learned that they weren’t, there was a great deal of talk. That’s what the article said, and it was correct.
“Lana knew before she left the States that if she wandered all over Europe with Lex there would be plenty of gossip. Her studio warned her against it. Her agent warned her against it. Publicity men told her it wouldn’t look good. Schemes were worked out. Maybe Lex should travel under an assumed name. Maybe it should be said that he was going to Europe to organize an independent film company.
“Responsible executives knew that Lana and Lex could not travel together with impunity. But Lana has defied advice all her life. Characteristically, she insisted upon touring Europe with Lex.
“When MODERN SCREEN broke the story of their journey and its effect on movie fans overseas, Lana must have known in her heart that she shouldn’t have scoffed at her advisers.
“In the meantime, she started work on The Flame And The Flesh in London, while Lex went to work on a picture in Italy. Now, make no mistake about Lex. He always wanted to marry Lana, and he always said so. I guess he called long distance every day from Italy. Certainly he must have investigated all the legal angles concerning marriage there.
Lana and Lex took Lex’ son Alexander, daughter Lynn, Lana’s mother and daughter, Cheryl, along on Paris honeymoon.
“A funny thing. While Lex was pressuring for marriage, Lana kept telling newspapermen in London that she and Lex were just good friends, that she did not contemplate marriage in the near future. Now, I honestly think she meant that. I don’t think she intended to marry Lex. I think the one thing that crystallized her plans was that article in MODERN SCREEN.
“She would marry Lex, and then where would MODERN SCREEN be? I think the magazine helped her resolve the decision. Of course, Lex flew in one weekend and met her in Maidenhead, and I guess that’s when they really decided. But I honestly feel that if she hadn’t read that story, these two would not be married.
“Maybe I’m crazy but I know Lana fairly well. She’s a creature of moods and quick decisions.”
How much or how little MODERN SCREEN had to do with Lana Turner’s decision to marry Lex Barker in Turin, Italy, on September 7, no one will ever know. But after denying for months that she planned to get married, Lana went ahead and did it for the fifth time. She certainly didn’t do it to spite this magazine. She did it for love and because she is afraid of loneliness and always has been.
Like her fourth wedding ceremony to Henry “Bob” Topping in 1948, this one was distinguished by confusion. It was supposed to be a secret. It turned out to be as secret as the Alps.
On a Friday, Lex and Lana visited the State Attorney’s office in Turin and applied for a marriage license. This move was tantamount to buying spot announcements on every radio network in the world.
It gave the clerks the entire weekend in which to tell their friends that the American film stars planned to get married.
As soon as that license was filed, the news was flashed everywhere. News associations wired their offices in Italy to send reporters and photographers to the City Hall in Turin. They knew the lovers would have a civil ceremony, since Italy is a Catholic country, and the Catholic Church does not recognize divorce.
Incredible as it may sound, Lana and Lex imagined that when they slipped into the City Hall on Monday, the only witnesses to their wedding would be their two lawyers, Luciano Salza and Guido Abrasino, and the man who was performing the ceremony, Municipal Assessor Emilio Bachi.
In fact, they had left their three children (by previous marriages) at the Villa Prima Sole, in order not to attract too much attention.
Lana even covered her face with a handkerchief as she slipped into the City Hall with Lex not far behind. Surprise of surprises! The City Hall was jammed with eager, waiting, clamoring photographers.
Lex raged at the photographers. Lana screamed, “Get out. We don’t want any photographers. All of you get out.” The photographers merely grinned and began shooting. “If the photographers don’t get out of here,” she threatened, “I just won’t get married.” The men bore down on Lana. They ganged up so close to her that she flung herself at an open window to get a breath of fresh air. The Italian lensmen refused to be denied. They began to wave copies of the Italian legal code which permits them “picture rights.”
Finally Lana agreed to pose for pictures, and the brief ceremony got under way. Emilio Bachi, who officiated, wore a green, white, and red sash—the colors of Italy—and translated the proceedings into English.
Showing very little emotion, Lex and Lana exchanged shield-shaped gold rings. Instead of placing them on the third finger of the left hand, they slipped the rings on the little fingers. They seemed anxious io get the whole thing done.
Lana, who has dyed her hair back to its original brunette, wore a pearl grey dress, a ribbon of the same color tied around her hair, a long, orange topcoat, black, lacquered sandals, and a double strand of pearls.
Lex wore a blue summer suit and a black tie. At one point in the ceremony when Lana said, “I will,” she grasped Lex by the wrist and pressed her handkerchief to her mouth. That was the only unusual bit of action in the proceedings.
Lana gave her age as thirty-two and Lex gave his as thirty-four.
After the ceremony, the couple kissed, then hurried into their car, and were driven to the Villa Prima Sole (First Daylight) some fifteen miles outside Turin where Lana’s ten-year-old daughter, Cheryl, was playing around a fishpond with Barker’s two children, Lynn, also ten, and Alexander, six. The villa is owned by a wealthy Italian textile manufacturer who turned it over to the newlyweds.
They spent their wedding night there, but they were disturbed by telephoning newspapermen. Lex answered the phone.
The following day the United States Consulate in Turin absolved itself of all legal responsibility for the Barker-Turner marriage. It is customary for United States citizens abroad to inform the consulate when they decide to take such a step as marriage. But Lex and Lana, of course, are not customary people.
In fact, several Italian officials are still wondering how Lex got anyone to marry him and Lana in Turin. According to article 89 of the Italian Civil Code, 300 days must elapse before a woman’s divorce becomes final and she is entitled to marry again. Lana received her Nevada divorce on December 15, 1952. She was married to Barker on September 7, 1953, two months earlier than Italian law permits.
One Italian lawyer explains that “the law in Italy, particularly as interpreted by the courts in Turin, is extremely elastic. Don’t forget that it was in Turin that Roberto Rossellini cleared his way to marry Ingrid Bergman. Besides, Mr. and Mrs. Barker are American citizens, and their lawyers requested an exemption from the statute in ‘question, and it was granted. There is no doubt about it. For better or for worse, these two people are legally married.”
All of Lana’s fans, and she has millions, certainly hope that the legality of her fifth marriage is never questioned. The legality of her second marriage was. Lawyers discovered that she was married to a man who already had a wife. Steve Crane had told Lana that he was divorced. He wasn’t. After legally ridding herself of Steve, Lana married him again in Tijuana.
Lana has been impetuous all her life. This readiness to obey impulse, this constant putting of heart before mind, is, the reason for so much marital disaster. But perhaps with Lex, her luck has turned.
Certainly, they enjoyed a good honeymoon. After one night at Villa Prima Sole they put their children on the train to Paris while they drove.
It is rather difficult to have a honeymoon and look after your children properly at the same time. In Paris, Lana had a talk with her mother, Mildred Turner.
Mildred had brought Cheryl over to London and had stayed at the Dorchester with the child. When Lana went off to Turin for her marriage, Mildred had remained behind in Lana’s Paris apartment.
“I had a very bad cold,” she explained “and my doctor wouldn’t let me go to the wedding. But when Lex and Lana got to Paris, we talked things over, and we decided that it would be best if I flew home with the children. For a while, Lana had thought she would put Cheryl in school in Switzerland, but you know how plans change.
“I took the three children and we left Paris one Saturday. Sunday, we were back in Beverly Hills. I turned the two Barker children over to their mother, and Chery had dinner with her father in his new Luau restaurant. By Monday all three kids were in school.
“Lex and Lana were very happy when I left them in Paris. I don’t know how long their honeymoon was, because there were conferences about her new picture the one she’s making with Gable, The True And The Brave.
“Anyway, she has a lovely apartment. It’s a new one, and new apartments are rare in Paris. I certainly hope they’re going to be happy. All brides should be happy.”
In Hollywood, as usual, everyone is asking how long Lana’s fifth marriage will last. One columnist says that disenchantment has set in, already. This particular newspaperwoman believes that Lana married Lex because she couldn’t get out of it. She, too, believes that the aforementioned MODERN SCREEN story, plus several others, made Lana realize that she could not flout public opinion. She attributes the marriage to expediency, not to love.
This, of course, is the pessimistic view. Some observers believe that the marriage will last as long as three or four years.
No one—and this is a sorry observation—expects that this will be Lana’s last marriage. In fact, one week after the lovers arrived in Paris, Sheilah Graham said in her column: “Lex Barker hired a press agent in Paris to keep his marriage on an even keel. Because, believe it or not, there are rumors already.”
At Lana’s studio, the official reaction to her marriage was, “No comment.”
Arlene Dahl, Lex’s second wife, was a bit more talkative. She said, “I’m sure they’re going to be very happy. They are exactly right for each other.”
One of the basic truths about Lex and Lana is that they are faithful, constant lovers. In each of her marriages, Lana has played fair. She has never flirted, never suffered from a marital disease, known as “the roving eye.” The same is true of Barker. With his first wife, Connie Thurlow, he was the epitome of fidelity. Ditto with Arlene Dahl.
Why then, do these two people count five divorces and one annulment between them?
The sad answer is that Lana never tired of her husbands. With the exception of Steve Crane, they tired of her.
Lex’s two wives felt much the same way about him. Arlene Dahl, in fact, claims that she never wanted to marry Lex in the first place, but that she finally and regretfully succumbed to external pressures.
Since Lex and Lana are extremely well attuned to each other, and since they have learned a great deal from experience, it may well be that their marriage will last much longer than anyone expects.
“The key,” according to one of Hollywood’s leading agents, “may lie in the success or failure of Barker’s acting career. Lana, of course, is a big success and has been for years. It is almost impossible for two acting careers to thrive, side by side, in the same household. The rate of progress varies with individuals. And after twenty-five years in Hollywood, I’ve come to one conclusion; the most dangerous occupation known to man is marrying a successful motion picture star. Look at the men who have tried it. These guys couldn’t make a go of it. Is Lex Barker better than any of these, more tolerant, more understanding, more knowing?
“With all my heart, I hope he is. In my mind, however, I know he ain’t.”
In short, everyone in Hollywood wishes Lex and Lana loads of good luck, and this is not an idle platitude. If ever two people deserved and needed luck, these are the handsome, charming, wonderful two.
THE END
—BY IMOCGENE COLLINS
(Lex Barker can now be seen in Warner’s Thunder Over The Plains.)
It is a quote. MODERN SCREEN MAGAZINE DECEMBER 1953