Detroit evening times., October 14, 1945, FINAL, THE AMERICAN WEEKLY, Page 11, Image 69

About Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
¥ Happiness"
-
M
J : m 2L > B
11% J
Bp JV' Be- lfmM| . »
iatf rot t^ogl
Sir Philip Astley
“We llad to Fall in
Love With Each
Other."
session, but never anyone
who was mill or stuffy.”
Gertrude never would forget
that night when Elsa Maxwell
was playing the piano at one of
Mrs. Walter Gulness’ parties and
her hostess escorted her across
the gleaming parquet floor of
the music loom, whispering “Gertrude, I want
you to meet the handsomest man in London
He was ("apt. Philip Astley of the Guards,
impeccable as to family, position and appear
ance, “everything," Gertrude recalled, “that a
knight in armor should be."
“We had to fall in love with each other,” she
wrote. “It was as natural and instinctive to us
both as it was for us to breathe. There could be
no thought of marriage for us. I was still mar
ried, and any question of involvement in divorce
proceedings would have ruined Philip’s career.’
THEY remained “good staunch companions” for
■La long time, and when Gertrude came down
double pneumonia in Toronto, after she and
Hea Lillie had wowed New York with an Ameri
can edition of Chariot’s Revue in the winter sea
son of 1921-25, Philip came over and took her to
stay with mutual friends on the Riviera.
“As soon as I was able," she recalled, “we
motored atxiut the Riviera and over the border
into Italy and far into Sicily. We went sight see
ing in mellow old temples, and we lived where the*
garden walls were hung with wistaria and amid
lemon and orange and olive blossoms the most
romantic stage drop I ever played against.”
Rut she returned to New York, and .there,
while she was starring in 1927 in “Oh. Kay.” she
met Bert Taylor, son of the president of the New
York Stock Exchange, a multimillionaire in his
own right, brother of Countess di Fraxso. Bert
got just as high a billing in her memojrs as Philip.
“This tall, dark-haired, stunning looking Amer
ican was like someone one only reads about.
With a snap of his finger, a glance, a quiet word,
he had the j>ower to tiring about miracles. He
literally knocked me off my feet. From the
moment of his entry into my life I began to live
in a storytiook world.”
It was a very exciting storyb<*»k world for a
while Gertrude wrote Philip that she was see
ing quite a Hit of this young American she felt
that she had to tell him because he would be
sure to hear it anyhow from someone else.
Early in 1928 Bert, whose full name was
Bertrand L. Taylor, Jr., announced that they would
Ik* married, probably in June as soon as Gert
trude’s divorce became final. That was the first
intimation that, under the anonymity of her legal
name, Gertrude had already won a divorce.
Philip had made another trip across the At
lantic to see her and had proposed this time in
spite of the potential damage to his career.
Gertrude had said “No, darling," although, she
says in her book, “if lie had done so two years
before I am sure I would have said ‘yes.’."
When the crash of ’29 came, Gertrude offered
to marry Bert at once, “just to prove that I loved
him and not his money,” but he said:
“No, Pi i must fight dll', thing alone*
Scan t afford to marry now."
So she and Noel Coward proceeded to set new
records with “Private Lives,” a play which Noel
wrote csperially for her, and then they took it to
London. She thought she might have stayed in
England too long, because when she returned she
THE AMIHItW WEEKLY
v Zmvii
- I wßr'
.Madeleine Carroll Tin>k
One of the Men Whom
Gertie Loved.
overheard two wo
men at a party
talking about Bert
Taylor’s other girl
friend He admit
ted that there was
someone else,
“someone I noticed
first because, in a
way, she reminded
me of you.”
They called it
quits, and Gertrude
choked back the
tears.
“I must not cry.
Not over a man
w ho had decided he
did not w ant me.”
A mer ic a was
palling on Gertrude
now and she sailed
back to England,
vowing this time to
stay. She was look
ing forward eager
ly lo fleeing Philip*
out of the army
now and a big London real estate broker. He
was going to meet her at Southampton, but he
didn’t, and when she had dinner with him he was
very reserved. She learned the reason—Made
leine Carroll.
“I’ve asked her to marry me. We announced
our engagement day before yesterday.” Then he
added, pensively: “Perhaps if you had come back
sooner. Dormouse. You were away so long.”
Familiar words.
“That was what Bert had said. And now
Philip. Would I always tx* too late for happiness,
I thought desperately.”
Maybe Gertrude would have found her happi
ness with Philip and maybe not. Madeleine Car
roll didn’t. In a divorce suit in 1939 she said he
was very pleasant for a while and then, for no
reason, his attitude changed and he remained cold
and aloof. She was granted her deoreee and mar
ried Sterling Hayden, her erstwhile leading man.
After Bert and Philip, men flitt«*d in and out
of Gertrude’s life the Earl of Dudley, William
Rhinelander Stewart, Ivor Guest but the one
that stayed the longest was Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
She dismisses young Doug very lightly in her
book. About the only time he was mentioned was
in a description of the crowd outside Buckingham
Palace mourning the death of King George.
“I held on very tight to Douglas’ arm and he to
mine. We were rumon-d as being engaged, but
just then personal relationships didn’t count."
However Gertrude may have felt about Doug,
he made no secret of the fact that lie was in
love with her. When she was going through bank
ruptcy proceedings in 193 G trying to pay $125,*
MBL it-
HI
*BB f &
wsmjßj
Jr jmmmi i/#/<*l
By > \ l \ 7r r
m\ \ \ a mJm la ra
I % 1 % vY
iwcai kr Pntch+r4
Life Wasn’t Always a Bowl of Footlight
Cherries for British-Born Gertrude Lawrence.
000 worth of debts with $9,000 worth of assets—
he was quoted in news dispatches as saying:
“I have often offered repayment of Gertie's
claims. My offers have been refused because of
legal reasons. I would gladly help, but the
British Government says ‘No.’”
QUT like her other romances, something hap
** pened to this one, too perhaps something so
poignant that she didn't even want to think about
it when she was pouring out her heart on paper.
As every nice little book should. Gertrude’s
autobiography ends on a happy note, in spite of
all the vicissitude's in between. When she went
to Cape Cod in 1939 to play summer stock, she
was met at the train by the producer, Richard
Aldrich, to whom she had been introduced in Lon
don several years before.
Richard was “Boston and Harvard, and had
been a banker, but above all he loved the theatre
He w’as the first man who really understood me.”
They were married a few minutes after mid
night on July 4, 1910 Gertrude’s 39th birth
day. Along came Pearl Harbor and once more
Gertrude was forsaken. Richard joined the
Navy, became a lieutenant commander, was
awarded the Navy Commendation Ribbon for
“outstanding executive ability and initiative” in
the invasion of France.
And so, between transoceanic hops to enter
tain soldiers, Gertrude had time to write a book
about a very exciting but a very lonely life.
11