THOSE BROKEN ROMANCES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22670, 6 March 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

THOSE BROKEN ROMANCES

Why Hollywood Marriages Often Fail "NO ACTRESS SHOULD WED UNTIL SHE IS * READY TO QUIT HER CAREER "

By GLENDA FARRELL,

in an Exclusive Interview with Hal Hall (Copyricht)

CC "TV /TOST of Hollywood's ' marital fizzles' would never happen if the women would devote their time to being wives instead of trying to hold a man with, one hand and scramble up the ladder to that thing called success with the other." There in a nutshell is the reason for most of Hollywood's unhappy marriages, as advanced by one of the film colony's most personable actresses, Glenda Farrell. She has been doing a lot' of thinking lately because she is very deeply in love, but, she says, that love is not going to develop into marriage for a long time because she wants to continue with her picture work. " Don't Let Them Kid You " " And you cannot expect to hold your' husband and your screen job, tod," she says. " Therefore 1 am going to postpone the wedding bells and wait until I am ready to quit pictures before I marry again. As I see it,, no actress should ever marry until she is ready to quit her career and give all her' time to the business of being a wife; ... " Being a successful wife is a business,- and don't let anyone kid you into thinking differently; especially out here in Hollywood where the wives havo so much competition from the most beautiful women in the world — many of whom are heartless enough to stoop, to anything to advance themselves on the screen. " Out here a wife has to be ' on her toes ' every minute or she is likely to find herself wondering just what she has or has not done to keep the love of her husband. Sho has no time for screen acting. She has too much acting j to do at home to keep her husband, anxious to rush home when his work is done. I look around me and see how some of the women play up to the men they feel can help them —well it positively scares me pink. ■ " "A Thing Called Duty "

" Lova is a'peculiar thing anyway. After all it is really just a habit like smoking or going to the fights on Friday nights. At first there is that delicious thrill inspired by the opposite sex.'But after a whilo it is just a habit. You get in the habit of having your sweetheart call you at seven o'clock.

You get in the habit of listening for his step at eight. Also you get into the habit of seeing no one else.

" Now, after you are . married you have something else added to that habit. It is a thing called duty. It may sound awful, but that is just what love develops into. The things you did for your husband before marriage now become marital duties, where once you did then» for love.

" Such a Thrill " " The same goes for him. When you were first married you rushed to the door to greet him because it thrilled you so. He rushed home because he wanted to take you in his arms and tell>you how madly he loved you. After a while he comes home because it is his duty. You meet him because it is j-our duty. • " Terrible, isn't it? But true. "/.So perhaps you can see why I say a woman must devote all her time to being a wife, and hasn t time for gcreen work. Remember your husband working in Dictures sees beautiful women all the time. He sees them only when they arc looking their best and are' most' attractive. Comparisons are always odious, but he cannot help comparing those women with his wife. "Therefore you must always be looking your best when he is around. You mustn't go to breakfast looking bedraggled and sloppy. You must get that make-up and put that smile on and bo bright and very cheerful, even though you have a frightful headache. You must send him to the studio thinking what a lovely creature he has for a wife. If you do that he will not notice the temptations tossed in his path. Home Forgotten "If you are working yourself you cannot do that. \ou have to rush about to get to the studio yourself. Your home is forgotten. Your husband is forgotten. You aro worried about your work. Your farewell kiss is just a hurried peck, and perhaps your hair still, done up in a lot of wires.

'' When evening comes and ho gets home lie finds only the cook and tlie maid to welcome him. He may have had a terrible day with a vile tempered director. He may be aching to pour "out his troubles to vou. But you are still at the studio, perhaps cursing under your breath at your ill-man-nered director.

" And then near midnight you come trailing in, worn to a frazzle. He has

SAVED FROM FIRE

spent the evening alone. He is cross and irritable. So are you. There you havo a setting for a first-class argument. Both of you are highly strung. You say things you do not mean, and the next night you are detained at the studio again. Friend husband gets i tired of sitting at home and at last starts thinking of the blonde who has J always been so sweet to him at the | studio. Men Only Human | " Men are only human after all and !it is not such a strange thing that ! eventually they are likely to turn to | that blonde if only to have someone to I talk to. When he does, it is usually | 'curtain ' for his married life." | "Is it really as bad as that?" I I asked. "Surely there must be some husbands who stay faithful?" " Name them for me," snapped Glenda. "Just name them. I mean the men whose wives also work in pictures. I can tell you the reason for practically every divorce in Hollywood. It s simply because the women havo not been able to do their screen work and keep ahead of the competition of the other women who do not care what homo they wreck so long as they get their feet one rung higher on the screen ladder of success. "That is why I say a woman must make a business of being a wife and work as hard at it as she has ever worked at her screen profession. She has to outshine nil compatitiou lit least until the first ten years of married life are past. " After all that is quite as it should be. Our entire social scheme has been built on the idea that the man should work and earn the living. The woman should care for the home and the children. And when the man comes homo he has the right to expect and demand that his wife\ be on her job. A Regular Wife

When I marry again I want my husband to earn the living. 1 want the thrill of being supported and I want to do my part. That is being a regular wife; riot a temperamental actress selfishlv thinking of my career to the extent that I cannot be a pleasant companion to the man I have chosen as my mate. " So marriage for me will have to wait a while. I am not ready to quit working. I have been married once. It ended in the divorce court. I do not intend to have my next marriage end in the same place. 1 know it will if I continue working. " I come homo some nights so nervous that I even snap at my pet cats. Imagine what I woula do to a husband who might want to tell me what a ' so-and-so ' a certain director is."

MOTHER'S PRESENCE OF MIND Six members of a family were rescued unharmed from their burning home at Sheffield recently through bedroom windows by means of a ladder.

After a party they all went to bed at about two o'clock in the morning. Mrs. Nellie Wright, the occupier of the house, situated in Romsdal Road, Crookes, was awakened by the mewing of a cat.

Opening her bedroom door, she was driven back by clouds of dense smoke. She had the presence of mind to close the door, and called for help from the bedroom window. All six people were then brought out "safely. A room downstairs in which the party had been held was gutted, but firemen succeeded in confining the damage to that room.

The fire brigade chief, Superintendent T. Breaks, afterward stated that Mrs. Wright's act in closing the door saved the six lives and the rest of tho house from being burned down.