Under Hedda's Hat - August 1963
Ginger Rogers was the belle of the ball at the party in Greenwich,
Connecticut, for all those celebrities who went to New York for the fortieth anniversary
of Time. You had to be on the cover before you were invited. When the music
began, Gen. Mark Clark tapped Ginger on the shoulder and asked her to dance. “Wait
until I tell my son I danced with Ginger Rogers,” he said. After that every man
in the place had a whirl with her. She didn’t sit down all night. Tired as she was,
she didn’t mind. “What it does for one’s ego is beyond belief,” she told me.
Talk of two continents is the snub Richard Burton got from the
British Embassy when he and Liz Taylor appeared at the Paris premiere of Lawrence
of Arabia. Liz didn’t win any friends when she arrived ten minutes before the
intermission. She stole the spotlight during the breather, then departed
shortly after the picture resumed. At the very proper party, given by the British
Embassy after the film, she was not seated to the right of the Ambassador.
That seat of honor was occupied by actor Jack Hawkins’ wife.
Liz’ place was way down the table, and at Burton’s place, which was next to Liz’,
the card read: “Miss Taylor’s Escort”!
Three Fondas in one photo is a rare treat. The alert cameraman
caught this one when Papa Henry and his son Peter visited daughter Jane on her location
(in the middle of busy Forty-Second Street) for her new film, Sunday In New
York. I hear everything is peaches and cream between Jane and her father now
that her romance with Andreas Voutsinas is almost over. Peter, who’s in Tammy
and the Doctor with Sandy Dee, is married, and is the quietest Fonda. But he’s
young—and maybe he needs a little time to catch up with the rest!
Joan Crawford’s brother, Hal LeSueur, died in obscurity in Los
Angeles. Few people knew of his death until twenty-four hours after his burial.
He had been working as a motel clerk, living quietly, and refusing to discuss his
relationship with Joan. The people close to him knew that he was Joan’s brother,
but that was all. For a while Hal worked as a makeup man at MGM, but gave it up.
Somewhere he has a daughter, Joan Crawford LeSueur, who would be around thirty now,
but no one seems to know where she is.
If Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty aren’t married by time you read
this, I’ll bet my best hat they never will be.
Prince Philip personally handed Leslie Caron the British equivalent
to our Oscar for L-Shaped Room. I’m sure Leslie was as thrilled with the
presenter as she was with the prize.
One thing for sure, Sybil Burton’s going to have plenty of
room in her new home. That New York apartment (Burton signed the lease) has fifteen
rooms. Sybil refused to be photographed with Eddie Fisher when the two ran into
each other at a New York night club. She didn’t snub Eddie though, she extended
her hand, kissed him on both cheeks, and told the cameramen to hit the road.
Ann Sothern was the saddest girl in town when she vacated her beautiful Bel Air mansion, stored all her possessions and moved into a hotel. “I feel absolutely unwanted,” she said. Last I heard, she was considering an offer to be the Ray Millands’ house guest. When she took the part of a blowsy dame in Lady in a Cage, she was out to change her image, and from what I hear she sure succeeded. Nobody on the set recognized her in a dark auburn wig and dress right out of skid row.
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From the August 1963 issue of Photoplay
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