Jennifer Jones - So She Married The Boss

Jennifer Jones has a habit, even in the midst of conversation, of falling into a silence while she thinks through a problem that has come up. Finally, after a spell of brooding, she will announce her decision. Jennifer followed this pattern in reaching her decision to marry David Selznick -- the man who was caught so deeply by her dark beauty himself while bringing her to the attention of the world.

For more than a year before their recent wedding aboard a yacht off the Italian Riviera, there were recurrent reports of stress in their relationship. Only a few weeks ago, their conferences at various European resorts were being described as tempestuous and inconclusive. It was known that Jennifer was having the utmost
difficulty in making up her mind.

Only by examining what led up to the tangled love affair can anyone get as much as a partial understanding of what these two were up against. Jennifer and David were caught in deep problems of the heart and soul that individuals do not ordinarily solve easily...

It was no half-hearted Jennifer who fought at Bob Walker's side when they invaded Hollywood and, together, achieved outstanding stardom. That's a story hard to forget -- especially if you were one of the partners. Bob Walker has shown that it isn't easy to forget, as far as he is concerned. Was the air of dilemma that hung over Jennifer in her relations with Selznick an indication that she, too, could not forget and go on to other things?

Many who have wondered about Jennifer, and have studied her, feel that she would deny she was so affected. Yet the heart has reasons which the mind doesn't know. Jennifer had been fiercly loyal to Bob and an undoubtedly devoted wife. Did that Jennifer refuse, for a long time, to be submerged?

There are other aspects of that Jennifer which may have counted importantly in her struggle while deciding to seek a new life with David. When she met Bob Walker, she was a Catholic and had been convent-reared in her formative years at Monte Cassini Junior College in Tulsa. Bob was a Protestant. When love came to them it overcame this difference, but not completely. Jennifer could think of marriage only within her church. Bob agreed to the usual arrangement in such cases -- he signed a promise that their children would be brought up as Catholics. The ceremony took place at Christ The King Church in Tulsa and, as far as Jennifer was concerned, it was a marriage in accordance with the teaching given her by the Benedictine Sisters of Monte Cassini -- that there could not be a dissolution of the marriage except for one of four stated reasons.

None of these four was given by Jennifer when she divorced Bob seven years later in Los Angeles. She charged cruelty and, as a matter of fact, had some difficulty proving it.

The Jennifer of today, in wishing to marry again, faced a situation that, certainly, the Jennifer of then could not have overcome. She could not again be married in the church. In the eyes of the church, as she well knows, her first marriage is still valid.

Jennifer and Bob Walker came to Hollywood soon after their marriage. Robert, Junior, had been born on April 14, 1940, Michael on March 17, 1941. Jennifer was signed by David Selznick for 'Song of Bernadette'. Bob was seen by an MGM talent scout and given an important part in 'Bataan'. In a few weeks the Walkers were established in a little white house in the Hollywood hills. Their future looked bright, their hearts seemed gay -- and yet, it was the beginning of the end for them as a family. You'll find the fundamental reasons for this presented, for the first time, in the
story on page 37 of this issue of Modern Screen. In the end, Bob left the little white house to live alone.

While 'Song of Bernadette' was being shown to the public, David Selznick was producing 'Since You Went Away', with Jennifer and Bob as the sweethearts. It had barely gone before the cameras when Jennifer made the formal announcement that she and Bob were separating. Worried about its effect on this picture, Selznick sent for her.

Hollywood knew there was already a strong bond of sympathy between them. For some time, Jennifer had been referring to him familiarly in her interviews and discussions on pictures generally. "David says this," or "David says that," was a phrase she had been uttering often. Professionally, he was her complete mentor. Now she had an opportunity to do something for him.

"This thing between Bob and myself won't make any difference in our acting," she told Selznick. "Our personal affairs have nothing to do with our work." She and Bob played their love scenes perfectly.

For Jennifer and David Selznick, a basis for a stronger interest in each other than just their association as producer and star may have been formed at this time. Jennifer did more than act in the film. She made numerous trips around the country as assure successful openings. But as important as her appearances were to Selznick, and as intensely as he is known to drive himself and all who work with him at such times, his solicitude for her was such that he would instantly cancel any appearance if there were a chance that it would be unduly tiring for her. This became quite noticeable, and was
commented on.

David Selznick is unlike a great many Hollywood producers in that he is almost completely creative in film art; he creates not only the picture, but very often the stars who are in it and quite often the screenplay that is to be told. His last few years of production work have been probably the most intensely busy in his career. A good
portion of this time was devoted to starring Jennifer in 'Duel in the Sun'.

It was after the completion of this film that David and Irene Mayer Selznick, daughter of Louis B. Mayer, ended their 18-year-old marriage. Part of her testimony at the divorce trial was that he had time only for his work, neglecting her and his home almost completely. The decree was granted in January, 1948 -- and from that time on, everyone fully expected he would marry Jennifer. Yet, until it was broken at the recent, sudden wedding, there had been only silence from Jennifer on the subject.

Last March, following her completion of 'Madame Bovary', Jennifer flew to Europe. Dodging reporters through the simple device of going under her old married name of Phylis Walker, she bicycled in Switzerland, loafed through Venice, Capri and Pompeii, and then in April was joined on the French Riviera by David.

It was in Cannes, after David's arrival, that Jennifer's identity was discovered. This came about when her trail crossed the press-dogged tracks of Rita Hayworth. A hundred or more American reporters and photographers had descended on Cannes to cover Rita's wedding. One of them spotted Jennifer walking through the lobby of the swank Carlton Hotel.

That did it. Jennifer soon found herself cornered in her room, with the din outside the door more resembling that of a gang of vigilantes than inquiring reporters.

That night, without having made a statement, she and David beat a hasty retreat across the Italian border to San Remo. When reporters learned of this, Jennifer left town in such a hurry that one of the maids at her hotel suggested that she and David had had a spat.

Soon David joined her in Zurich, Switzerland. For three weeks, they had comparative peace and quiet. Some evenings, they would have dinner by candlelight on the balcony of Jennifer's suite, overlooking Lake Zurich. Hotel attendants said that Jennifer seemed very calm and composed. Her French dresses, many of them in yellow, her favorite color, made her seem more slender and beautiful than ever. That's how David saw her as they looked out over the clear, beautiful waters of the lake, shimmering with moonlight. Perhaps it was in this setting that Jennifer at last gave consent to David.

They they came to Paris, where Jennifer received the French equivalent of an Academy Award as best foreign actress of 1948. The presentation was made by the Minister of Commerce and Industry. Jennifer was lovely in gray organdy. It was her first public appearance since coming to Europe. "I'm as thrilled as can be about this," she said, "but all these reporters frighten me. I hate being interviewed. I never know what to say."

When pressed for informion about her impending marriage, all she would say was, "I'd rather not talk about that. I'm too busy thinking about my next picture." (This will be 'Gone to Earth', which Selznick is now producing in England.)

David also refused to go on record one way or the other. "It's up to Jennifer to say," he declared. "I do think the announcement should come from her.

As it turned out, no announcement was made at all. With no preliminary fanfare, Jennifer and David were married at 8:30 the morning of July 13, aboard a rented yacht off Portofino, Genoa. The witnesses were stage producer Leland Hayward and his wife and Louis Jourdan and and his wife, Arabella Le Maitre -- whom he calls "Quique." The vows were said before the British skipper. That afternoon, when a question arose as to his authority to perform a marriage in Italian waters, the ceremony was repeated at the city hall in Genoa, before an Italian civil official."

"Thus Jennifer Jones, after so many months of tears and doubt, turned her back on the heartbreak and burning memories of the past."

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