Louella Parsons’ Good News

Who but Hedy Lamarr would take three small children along on a honeymoon? I mean outside of a movie plot?

In typical fashion, Hedy packed her three youngsters and their two pups in the back seat, and with bridegroom Ted Stauffer at the wheel, took off for her Carmel honeymoon.

“I promised the children a trip up the Coast before Ted and I made up our minds to get married,” said Hedy as though that explained everything.

Of all the surprise happenings of the season, Hedy’s sudden marriage to Stauffer ranks No. 1. So sudden was their decision to take the big leap that they awakened the marriage license clerk in Santa Monica and asked her to open the office at 11:00 o’clock at night!

Stauffer is not entirely new to movie fans. At one time, just prior to her meeting Aly Khan, he was Rita Hayworth’s most persistent beau. He was once married to Faith Domergue. He was also a very successful orchestra leader before taking over the management of one of the most successful resorts in Mexico.

Ted has made a lot of money in Acapulco with Don Carlos Berard. They bought an old hotel and made it over into one of the most fashionable resorts south of the border It was while Hedy was vacationing there seven years ago that she met her bridegroom.

I had the tip that their romance was more serious than anyone realized and announced on my radio show that they had plans to wed. But no one thought it would happen so soon.

I must say that Hedy is starting out her marriage to Ted with a clean slate.

She turned over everything she owns—furniture, silver, clothing, books, records and paintings—to an auctioneer telling him to get rid of all of it.

Sonja Henie and Winthrop Gardiner’s dinner-dance—the first of filmland’s summer social events—was a dazzler in all departments, including the wonderful jewels worn by the women, and the brilliant moon hung out by Mother Nature as though just to illuminate the gorgeous gardens, and the gay balloons.

When little “Skatie,” as the people who love Sonja call her, gives a party—it is a party, my friends.

She has the gift for creating such a wonderful setting that all the women guests seem to be more beautiful, and the men more handsome than ever. I’ve never seen our beauties look more radiant than at Sonja and Winnie’s party.

The hostess wore white lace and exquisite emeralds. She was the picture of elegance.

Barbara Stanwyck and Nancy Sinatra arrived together without escorts and, laughing, said they were each other’s “dates.” But they hadn’t been there two minutes before they were surrounded by all the eligible bachelors.

Dan Dailey, particularly, seemed to be moon-struck by Barbara who looked wonderful in a bouffant gown with her famed gardenia-diamond necklace adding to her sparkle. Barbara and Dan twirled around the floor dance after dance.

It was the first chance Tyrone Power and Linda Christian had to greet many of their old pals, and it was like a welcome-home convention to them. Linda, who is expecting a baby, confided to me that she was disobeying doctor’s orders by coming—“But I so much wanted to see all our friends again,” she confessed.

Ann Sheridan’s red hair blazed brightly over a silver-cloth sheath, the shortest evening gown of all.

Evelyn Keyes, who was with Greg Bautzer, looked very smart with her new short haircut and an eyelet evening gown.

Janie Powell, with her Geary Steffen, looked cute as a button in a gold maternity coat. Jane made two trips back to the laden buffet tables. “I know I shouldn’t do it,” she whispered, “but I’m hungry all the time.”

Loretta Young’s gown was an Adrian—bouffant and decorated on skirt and bodice with pastel organdy flowers. Her best fella, Tom Lewis, was in New York.

Mrs. Louis B. Mayer was a vision in an Orry Kelly creation, wearing her fabulous diamond necklace.

Marion Davies’ blonde beauty was set off by a black gown with a white lace top that would cause any style-conscious woman’s heart to miss a beat. She wore gorgeous rubies worth a king’s ransom.

William Powell and “Mousey,” his cute wife, drove up from Palm Springs, and I thought I had never seen Bill look so well. He has put on a few pounds which are very becoming, and he is very suntanned from all the outdoor desert living.

I saw Mildred and Harold Lloyd among those dancing every dance to the strains of the lovely, haunting Hawaiian music that went on and on into the wee hours of the morning. No one wants to leave little “Skatie’s” parties early.

Nicky Hilton was dining with his favorite date, Mona Knox, at the Tallyho when a reporter tracked him down to ask what he thought about Montgomery Clift meeting Liz Taylor at the plane in New York on her way to Europe.

“I don’t think anything about it,” said Nick. “Should I?”

I’m inclined to share Nick’s nonchalance about this much publicized meeting between Elizabeth and her co-star in A Place in the Sun.

My spy in New York (who knows Monty) says Clift was at the airport seeing off another friend when he accidentally ran into Liz’s brother and her mother and father out to meet her plane from the Coast.

So Monty just stayed on to say, “Hello,” as any old friend might do.

It strikes me funny that their meeting attracted so much attention. All the time they were making the picture together at Paramount, Monty went out of his way not to become involved in a “publicity romance” with lovely Elizabeth.

He flatly refused to escort her to a premiere because, he said, “it would stir up a lot of fuss about nothing,”—and Elizabeth agreed.

Rita Hayworth is going to have plenty of trouble getting $3,000,000 or any amount of money out of Prince Aly Khan for a couple of good reasons. One, the Prince is quite short on cash. Two, his wealthy father, the Aga Khan, isn’t going to kick in with a cent.

The “inside” on why pappa, who likes Rita, won’t help, is because Rita and the Begum, the Aga’s current wife, never hit it off and she will see to it that the Aga keeps his purse closed. I might add that Aly and the Begum aren’t any too friendly, either.

I don’t put a dime’s worth of stock in the gossip that lovely, blonde Joan Fontaine is Aly’s new heart interest or vice versa. The Prince is trés charming and he has always paid attention to glamorous women.

But I can’t see Joan marrying Aly—or he her.

Clark Gable, who planked out $350,000 to get his freedom from Rea Gable, can relax. Sylvia wants not a cent from him—nor any part of his property. She sent word to me from Honolulu where she had fled after the bitterness of their parting. “Why should I ask for part of his 20-acre ranch in Encino when I own 4,000 acres in Del Mar?” Sylvia asked.

Although Clark remains as mum as an oyster, he told a mutual friend that he has never spent as much money in his life as he did during the year-and-a-half he was married to the former Lady Ashley. He says he built a studio and made all sorts of improvements on the ranch at her insistence, plus redecorating the whole house. As for clothes—well, Sylvia is a gal wot likes to dress.

Maybe Clark has been a bachelor too long to get used to paying a lady’s bills—especially when the lady has a million dollars of her own.

No visitor to Hollywood in years created so much social furor as Perle Mesta, Minister to Luxemburg, famed as the Washington “hostess with the mostest.”

Theda Bara, vamp of the silent screen, was the first to honor Madame Minister with a cocktail and dinner party.

At socialite Dolly Walker’s party the next night in Perle’s honor, Mal and Ray Milland disclosed that they have bought part of Dolly’s Beverly Hills estate, and are going to build their new home there.

I sat next to Gene Markey and whispered in his ear that the paper had just telephoned me that his ex-wife, Myrna Loy, had remarried in Virginia.

“Why doesn’t she tell me these things,” said Gene, who is always witty and composed.

One day last month I grabbed my portable typewriter in one hand and my secretary by the other and took off over the hills to Warner Brothers studio to emote in Starlift. Yes, I am turning actress in this musical based on Travis Air Field where our fighting boys take off and return from Korea.

Many Hollywood stars entertain there and several months ago I took up a troupe including Shirley Temple, Pat O’Brien and Margaret Whiting to the base near San Francisco. When they got around to making the picture, Jack Warner asked me if I would play myself.

By golly, I may not win an Oscar playing Louella Parsons, but I ought to be natural!

Frankly, however, it isn’t easy for a nonprofessional to stand in the spotlight and “emote” even when just called upon to play one’s self.

It was so pleasant to find such welcoming friends on the set as Doris Day, Ruth Roman, and Janice Rule. The girls presented me with a gold-topped rabbit’s foot for good luck, and the attached card read, “So very nice to have you with us.”

I’ll be happy if they feel that way when I have completed my scenes. I’ve studied my “lines” and tried to be up on the script so the visiting lady columnist won’t hold up the scenes.

When you realize from first hand experience what hard work movie acting is—well, I wonder if Critic Louella Parsons will ever again have the heart to “pan” any acting performance?

Celeste Holm tells me that the big thrill of her singing engagement at La Vie En Rose in New York is when she peered past the spotlight into the audience and saw General Douglas MacArthur sitting ringside.

She was even more delighted when, after her stint, she was invited to the table to meet the General and his charming wife.

“I told the General that Jack Benny had invited me to go with his show to Korea,” said Celeste. “His eyes twinkled for a minute, and then he said:

“I don’t think you will like it there, Miss Holm.”

Jane Russell has a wonderfully placid disposition and so has her husband, Bob Waterfield.

But Jane came close to blowing her top because Bob admitted they have plans to adopt a baby. She had so hoped to keep it a big secret until the baby had been in their home three or four months.

So it is true that the Waterfields will soon have a little stranger in their home, but everybody is helping Bob keep mum by not telling when he or she arrives.

The Letter Box: Shirley Newman, age 12, of Norwood, Ohio, wants Shirley Temple to keep on writing to her even if her “dearest, darling favorite” has retired. Are you listening, Mrs. Charles Black, now busy being a Navy wife in Washington, D.C.? (Many, many letters asking about Shirley in this month’s mail. Her fans certainly have not forgotten. Nor have any of us here in Hollywood.)

Answering D.V. of Saint Louis, Missouri: Yes, Tyrone Power and Linda Christian are expecting a baby. He is very glad to be back in Hollywood again but he would be “gladder” if he weren’t on suspension at 20th—he told me so.

Lots of letters wishing the best of luck and health to Dan Dailey. He is much admired for his frank and sensible outlook on his recent illness.

A clever Japanese boy in Tokyo who can write English tells me: “We see American, English, French, Italian, and Russian movies—and we like best the American. A recent poll here in famous Japanese movie magazine voted Little Women most popular American movie here, with Letter To Three Wives and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs second and third.” Very interesting, my Tokyo friend—write again.

That’s all for this month. See you again!

THE END

—BY LOUELLA PARSONS

 

It is a quote. MODERN SCREEN MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 1951