MAURICE’S “NO!”

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18874, 18 February 1933, Page 16 (Supplement)

MAURICE’S “NO!”

TALK OF ENGAGEMENT. By Transatlantic Telephone. A Daily Mail reporter asked Maurice Chevalier at Hollywood by Transatlantic telephone about the report of his engagement to Miss Jeanette MaoDonald. "No, no, No, please; I am not engaged ito Miss MaoDonal'd I" said tho famous film star in tones of considerable distress. "It is utterly untrue. How oan it be that I am engaged to her? She is already engaged to her manager, who is with her and her mother at this very moment!” “Ah, it Is distressful. These rumours, xxho starts them, eh? One moment they are not, and then—voiiai they are here. So quick, like that. A Christmas Visit. “■This one came about simply because, when I met Miss MacDonald in Chicago, I invited her -and her mother and her fiance to -stay at my house at Cannes for 'Christmas, as they intended to go across to France. “What is there in that, plea'se? Can I not ask my friends to stay at my house? "Is that an engagement? No, Miss MacDonald is my very good friend, and so is her fiance. I havo known them both l'or a very long time, and I tell you that to my knowledge they have been engaged for three years.

“It is so silly to say these things. But there, you ask .Maurice Chevalie-; ‘Are you to become engaged in ..Miss Jeanette MacDonald?’ and T tell you, ‘No, I am not.’ 1 tell you what I have told all the other people xvlio ask me that question. That is enough? “I have not hoard how Miss MacDonald spent tier Christmas or whether site and her party went to my house. Whatever they did, i hope, since they are my friends, that they enjoyed themselves. “A Little Jollity." “Frr myself, I spent -my Christmas here in Hollywood very quietly. Some .(Continued In next column,).

few friends oame round to see me, and we had a little jollity. Was 'Miss MacDonald mentioned? Maybe, maybe. Why do you a i sk that? I think, perhaps, you, too, believe this engagement 6tory. “Gan I assure you again that it Is not true? My friend, listen. There are people who say that Miss MacDonald and her manager are actually married. Now I If it Is true, I do not know. No one knows. That is enough, I think. “I-t is too late to wish you a Merry Christmas/, as you have alretidy-—-I pope—had it, but I wish you a Good New Year." With which delightful expression of sentimont the effervescent Maurice “faded away" on the Transatlantic line .that had brought his vivid personality sweeping across 'from a sunny Hollywood to a cold and foggy London.