LURE OF THE UGLY MAM

Evening Star, Issue 20328, 9 November 1929, Page 29

LURE OF THE UGLY MAM

BEAUTY’S SURBEMDEB TO THE BEAST

What is the lure of .the ugly man? What is that “it” which he possesses which leads women— supposedly such beauty worshippers—to succumb to nis charm, magnetism, personality, or wliatever you like to call it? That ugly men have an extraordinary fascination for women —a fascination far greater than that of the matinee idol type with classically moulded features and ripply hair—is demonstrated on all sides in everyday life (writes Adelaide Foster,., in the ‘Sunday Chronicle’). . , . A walk through the streets or any great city will convince the sceptic that it is the plain and homely, if not the forthright ugly man who captures the prettiest woman. . Some of the loveliest women in the world have married men with lopsided features and ungainly figures, while one reads almost daily or the incredible stories of women who have fallen beneath the spell of some adventurer who is as ugly as he is ruthless.

STRANGE LURE OF MURDERERS. Not long ago in London there was produced a play called * Beauty, in which an ugly man won the favours ot a beautiful woman, who preferred him to the dashing and handsome suitor who also laid siege to her chsirms.; It is a situation which is repeating itself in real life every day. . o „ n What is the explanation? Why do so many women remain indifferent to the appeal of an attractive man, yet fall for an ugly one? Ugly men are supposed to possess hearts of gold and tempers as serene as a summer’s sky. But that cannot be the secret of their strange lure. Landru, the French Bluebeard, was a man of surly disposition and vile , temper, yet he made far more feminine conquests than any Adonis.

CHARLES PEACE’S CONQUESTS. Bearded, ugly, lacking in .personal charm, he treated women with ferocious cruelty. Every one who came under his spell he led a life of misery until, finally, he butchered her. But Landru never lacked a mistress throughout his bizarre career Wherever he went there were always women, who, fascinated by. his ugliness, were ready to throw themselves at his feet. What uglier man is it possible to imagine than Charles Peace? In most people’s eyes his bulging forehead, ms piercing stare, and his sunken cheeks alone make him a repellent monster. But the women of his time did not think so. Peace, in fact, was almost ns big a success as a beguiler of women as he was as a master criminal. At one period of his chequered career he even had a wife and two mistresses living together in the same house. Another who possessed that strange “something” of the ugly man was Jerome Pratt, the second French Landru as he was termed. Old, uncouth in appearance, and shabbily dressed, he exercised a remarkable domination over women. Three of his sweethearts he strangled with his ugly gnarled hands, and buried them beneath the cement of his fireplace. Altogether he was alleged to have murdered fifteen women before the law claimed him, and letters from scores of other dupes were found in his rooms when they were searched. All these men were repulsively ugly, and all of them possessed that inexplicable attraction for women, an attraction so overwhelming as to bring ruin, misery, and even death to their victims. AN IRRESISTIBLE FORGE. Probably the most outstanding example in recent memory of the victory ► of sheer personality over an intensely unprepossessing exterior is to be found in Rasputin, the infamous monk of Russia. His was a personality which stood for all that was evil and bad, yet which captivated the devotion—and even adoration—of all the women, and not a few men, who were unfortunate enough to come in contact with him. Great ladies of gentle birth—even the tragic Empress of all the Russias—women of culture and refinement all fell beneath the dominant and sinister spell of this remarkable man, who had not even the redeeming feature of cleanliness. Why? Simply because there was some tremendous force emanating from the man—a force so powerful and irresistible that it made his victims obey his commands in blind subjection. ' \ll ugly men, of course, are not scoundrels, murderers, and despoilers. But they nearly all possess the same strange lure for women. REMARRIED THREE TIMES. Willard Mack, the film star and actor, is far from prepossessing, yet he has had no fewer than four wives. Beautiful Pauline Frederick, whom Harrison Fisher, the famous artist, described as the “ purest type of American beauty,” was one of them, her predecessor being Marjorie Rambeau, another lovely woman of the American stage. But it falls to the lot of Kid M'Coy, famous pugilist and ladies’ man. to have the distinction of breaking the record in the matrimonial market. He has a list of nine marriages to his credit, three of them to the same wife. It is nuzzling even to .attempt to define the fascination this intensely ugly man had for the opposite sex. Certainly it did not depend on any. monetary considerations he may have acquired" in the course of his prizefighting career, for he was married for five years to a millionairess, a Mrs Estelle Ellis. After that he became the husband of another woman, also a millionairess. Even when on trial for murder Kid M‘Coy—grown old-looking—held the jury spell-bound. There were nine women on the jury and three men. But so great was his extraordinary appeal that the women of the jury caught their breath as ho talked. He got off on a verdict of manslaughter, brought in _ after a seventy-eight hours’ deliberation. The jury were ten to two in favour of this verdict, and I wonder whether nine of the ten were women. D’ANNUNZIO THE LOVER. Quite another type of man, but one which nevertheless illustrates the lure of the ugly man, is D’Annunzio, the great Italian poet and lover, who has been called “ the man with the hundred loves.” Throughout his life D’Annunzio has swayed the hearts of many women, some of them extremely beautiful. Eleanora Duse for a long time considered her love affair with him the greatest tragedy of her life. After breaking with him she solemnly vowed never again to see him, never again to appear in any of his plays. But when, after serious financial reverses, she was forced to return to the stage in her declining years, the only play in which she could feel absolutely sure of herself was one written by the man who had east her Jove aside. Then—to everyone’s amazement—the broken romance was renewed, and the great tragedienne once more took her place in D’Annunzio’s capacious heart.

HANDSOME MEN INSIPID.

There seems to bo only one explanation in this lure' of the ugly man. Ho knows that he must make up for his ugliness by cultivating something else —charm of manner, wit, or an abundance of clever conversation. All the men I have mentioned are or were renowned for their winning speech. Women very often find .that the handsome, romantic-looking man is dull and uninteresting. Merely because he, haying been brought up on the admiration of women, takes no trouble to please them in any other way. They therefore turn with relief to the ugly man who has taken infinite pains to make himself attractive by qualities of character rather than by outward appearance. We women love beauty, and admire virile, manly grace, but we love better sublety and adoration. And we do liko to see ourselves —even the least clever of us—as something jvorth talking with—rather than as a looking glass for the handsome man’s vanity.