Hollywood Classics By Oplinger

06/28/2024

Charles Boyer was known as "The Great Lover", a moniker that annoyed him to no end because throughout his life he was deeply devoted to only one woman- his wife Pat Paterson. They were married for 44 years and he never once stepped out on her. A true record for Hollywood.

Boyer met Pat at a party in 1934. The British actress was wrapping up "Charlie Chan in Egypt" and Boyers pal Maurice Chevalier introduced the two to one another. For Boyer it was love at first sight. He proposed two weeks later and they were married on Valentine's Day in Yuma, Arizona a mere two months after meeting.

While Boyers career took off, Pat decided to give hers up in order to raise their only child,Michael, born in 1943. The trio was happy and very close. During the 1940s, Boyer made some of his greatest films such as "Gaslight" and "The Constant Nymph". He then moved to Broadway, winning a Tony for "Don Juan in Hell", before forming 4 Star Playhouse with Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell.

On Sept 23, 1965 the Boyers faced the greatest tragedy of their lives. Their 21 year old son, Michael, died. According to witnesses, his girlfriend told him that she wanted to break up. Michael replied that he could not live without her and called himself a "loser". He then went into the den and a single gunshot was heard. Subsequent news reports said that earlier, Michael had shot out a window in his home while playing Russian roulette, thus raising the possibility that his death was an accident. Boyer and his wife never fully recovered from the death of their son and lived increasingly isolated lives. However, the tragedies continued.
Pat was diagnosed with cancer and died on August 24, 1978. Boyer, unable to face life without his great love by his side, took an overdose of Seconal. He was 2 days shy of his 79th birthday. He was laid to rest beside his beloved wife and son in Culver City.
Boyer was more than just a great lover onscreen- he was a truly passionate man offscreen.

06/27/2024

David Niven was a fine supporting actor and a marvelous racaunter having written two great books about Hollywood, "The Moons a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses". He was also a man who felt such guilt over the death of his first wife, that he punished himself by living through hell with his second wife.
He had lived with Errol Flynn when he first came to Hollywood at a beach house they jokingly called "Cirrhosis by the Sea" due to all the drinking, drugs, and partying that went on. Niven enjoyed being a party boy, but when he met Primula Rolla in 1940 in London, it was love at first sight. Primmie, as she was called was an assistant section officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Niven was besottwd by this proper English girl and in Septembwr 1940, they were married. During the war, they stayed in a cottage outside of London. When Clark Gable was stationed in England after Carole Lombards death, he visited with the Nivens. According to Niven, one day he found Gable sitting on Primmie's lap sobbing, his tears having soaked through her dress, over Carole. Gable never forgot Primmie's kindness and was always grateful to her for not blabbing about his tears to anyone.
Primmie and David had two boys then returned to Hollywood after the war. All seemed to be going well. David's career was picking up and he found himself surrounded by beautiful women. He soon began cheating on Primmie, as he felt it was a man's right to have affairs while his wife stayed home to mind the children.
On May 19, 1946 Tyrone Power had a group of friends over to his house for dinner and games. Of all things, they decided to play hide and go seek, aka sardines Primmie loved playing this game and set off for the best hiding place as she was chosen to be "it". All the lights were turned off and she made her way around in the dark to find a hiding spot. She found a door, opened it, and stepped in. Unfortunately, she didn't know that the door led to basement steps. She tumbled straight down them. Everyone rushed to the scene. A doctor was called and she was taken away in an ambulance. At 9pm, Primmie was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. By the evening of Monday 20th, she seemed to be on the road to recovery but instead took a turn for the worse and died following surgery at 1.30am on Tuesday 21st.
Niven was devastated. His wife was so young- she was only 28. What would he do without her? How would he explain her death to their two young sons? Clark Gable was around, taking him on walks daily for weeks. He had gone through the same misery three years prior. And he had been fond of Primmie.
Niven was racked with guilt over his many affairs during his first marriage. He regretted each moment he was in another woman's arms instead of Primmie's. He decided that he was somehow responsible for Primmies death.
In 1948 he met Swedish model Hjördis Genberg, a cool and aloof beauty who spent more time in front of a mirror than interacting with other people. Niven, however, was smitten. They were married later that same year. It was a mistake. Though they adopted 2 girls, Hjordis spent most of her time away from Niven. She jet-setted everywhere, taking lovers, spending Nivens money, and focusing her energies on various anti-againg techniques. When friends tried to encourage Niven to leave her, he remarked that it was deserved punishment for how he had treated Primmie. As he was dying of ALS, a disease that robbed him of speech and muscle control, Hjordis would spend most of her time in other countries visiting him only when she had to. And when she did visit, she would cruelly tease him about being impotent. And she would later show up at his funeral drunk.
Before he died, Niven had told his friend Robert Wagner that he was looking forward to seeing Primmie again. I like to think that they were reunited in the Great Beyond.

06/26/2024

William Wellman once said of Clark Gable that he was the most tragic figure in Hollywood history. He was right.
Gable, known as "The King", had no problem finding women. In fact, he had to fight them off. He had been married and divorced twice, had a long affair with Joan Crawford, and had a baby out of wedlock with Loretta Young by the time he married his third wife and greatest love, Carole Lombard.
He first met Carole when they made "No Man of Her Own" in 1932. She was married, at the time, to William Powell while Gable was married to Ria Langham and having an affair with Joan Crawford. During the filming, there were no sparks between the actors. However, there was plenty of teasing as Carole gifted him with a ham that had his picture on it.
By the time they met again in 1936, she had divorced Powell and Gable was basically separated from his wife. They were at a party and acarole wanted to knock him down a notch so she challenged him to a game of tennis. Mind you, she was dressed in a full evening gown and heels, while he was in a tux. She still beat him. He was furious and stormed away. The next day, a note arrived from Carole that said, "How about it?"
They began dating and were soon living together. The studio began pressuring them to get married to avoid scandal. After paying off Gables wife, Ria, a quick divorce was granted and the happy couple wed in 1939.
When WW2 broke out, Carole immediately took on the task of raising war bonds. Shortly after completing "To Be or Not To Be", Carole and her mom took off on a cross country tour to raise more war bonds. Fearing that Gable was fooling around with Lana Turner, Carole decided to take an airplane home. Alas, it would never arrive. It crashed into the side of Potosi Mountain just outside of Las Vegas. Everyone on board was killed.
When he found out, Clark rushed to Vegas to try and help with search and rescue. Adela Rogers St John, who was with him, told him not to go up to the crash site because "Carole wouldn't want you to see her that way". He stayed below waiting for the bodies to be brought down the mountain.
Clark never recovered from her death. Though he married twice more and did find happiness with last wife Kay Spreckles, he never stopped carrying the torch for Carole Lombard. Kay even buried him next to his true love.

06/25/2024

Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald remain the top Hollywood singing duo of all time. Onscreen, they created absolute magic; offscreen, they created tragedy and heartbreak.
They first worked together in 1935s "Naughty Marietta ". Watch it and you can see them falling in love right before your eyes. The film was a huge hit upon release and MGM quickly moved them into "Rose Marie".
Louis B Mayer had the hots for Jeanette and was perturbed that she preferred the handsome baritone over him. When reports got back to him from the "Rose Marie" set that Jeanette had become pregnant by Nelson, Mayer set about breaking them up. First, he reminded her that she was a huge star and to have a child would derail that.when she told Nelson she planned to abort the baby, he flew into a rage. He wanted her to retire and become his wife. They argued. Ironically, before she could get the abortion, she tripped and fell on her stomach, losing the baby. Nelson didn't believe her accident story and dumped her. Mayer saw his advantage.
He had a gay actor under contract named Gene Raymond. Mayer decided to kill two birds with one stone. He would set Gene and Jeanette up on a series of accidental "meet cutes" and then would pressure them into marriage. It worked. Jeanette, tired of Nelson's rages married Gene in 1937. She hoped for peace. Instead, she found herself married to a man who preferred sleeping with other men and who would, especially as they aged, become physically and emotionally abusive towards her.
Nelson, meanwhile, heartbroken at Jeanettes betrayal, was set up by the studio with the much older ex-wife of director Syndey Franklin, Ann Franklin. She seemed like a sweet and kindhearted friend to Nelson. She accompanied him to Las Vegas, helped him get completely drunk, then married him in 1939.
Now married to other people, Jeanette and Nelson were forced to continue working together in film after film. Eventually, they would fall back into each other's arms. Jeanette would get pregnant 7 more times by Nelson, each one ending in a miscarriage. Throughout their careers they kept trying to get divorces from their spouses to marry one another but it all boiled down to one huge problem: if America's Sweethearts had been found out as adulterers, their public would turn on them and their careers would be over.
Thus, the singing duo never married their true love. They would each spend the rest of their lives living in regret and agony with their phony spouses while pining for the real thing.
Only in Hollywood...

06/23/2024

Robert Walker, best known as psychotic killer Bruno Antony in Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train", has been described by his various leading ladies as "sweet", "tormented", "depressed", and "tragic." He was one of Hollywoods most tragic figures.

He was born in Salt Lake City in 1918. In 1937, he applied to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York city. While there, he met Phylis Isley who would later take the stage name of Jennifer Jones. They were young (21 and 20), broke, in love and full of ambition when they married in 1939 and headed to Hollywood where they both picked up parts here and there. Their first son, Robert Walker Jr was born in 1940 and Michael in 1941. While Robert's career took off at MGM, initially Jennifer's stalled so much that she went back to NY. However, after David O Selznick of "Gone With the Wind" fame saw her screen test, he cast her as St. Bernadette in "The Song of Bernadette", which garnered her an Oscar. Coincidentally, she also began an affair with the powerful Selznick and did nothing to hide it.
Robert was popular as a romantic lead at MGM and was hopeful that his success would keep Jennifer with him at home. Wasn't to be.
Selnick borrowed Robert for Jennifer's love interest in "Since You Went Away", a sentimental war time story about a family waiting for their father to come home starring Claudette Colbert and a teenage Shirley Temple. Jennifer plays the eldest daughter, Jane, who falls in love with Robert's character, Corporal Bill Smollett, who eventually goes off to war where he is killed in action. It is a wonderful film, but jr contains a really dark moment. The big love scene between their 2 characters takes place in a hay bail machine. Selznick, who was producing the film, was on the set that day making them do the kissing part over and over and over again. Then he would whisk Jennifer away, rubbing it in Roberta face that Jennifer was going to divorce him to marry Selznick. Robert fell apart.
According to Ava Gardener, during the filming of "One Touch of Venus," Robert went on a drinking jag so badly one night that he ended up passed out at Ava's house crying into his pillow "Jennifer, why did you do this to me" Judy Garland told a similar story while filming "The Clock" of having to troll local bars one night until she found him sobbing into his cups about Jennifer. June Allyson also had similar stories to tell.

After stints at the Menninger Clinic and a brief second marriage to John Fords daughter, Barbara, Robert seemed to be trying to put his life back together again. With his role in "Strangers on a Train," he got rave reviews and a new career seemed destined for him.
However, on August 28, 1951 his housekeeper found him in a drunken and extremely emotional state
She called his psychiatrist, Dr. Frederick Hacker, who administered amobarbital to try and sedate him. Instead, it caused him to lose consciousness and stop breathing. He was dead at the age of 32.
Did he die of an overdose or a broken heart?

06/22/2024

This week we take a look at classic Hollywood leading men who were desperately in love with one special woman in their life .... but it wasn't meant to be.

09/29/2023

Does it get any bigger than this?

This segment was part of the original Night of 100 Stars in 1982. James Cagney and Bette Davis brought down the house when they came out at the end. Quite a ...

07/01/2023

Alan Arkin was one of the best actors of all time. He could make me laugh (Freebie and the Bean)- then cry and laugh some more (Kominski Method)-then tremble in fear (Wait Until Dark).

God bless he and his family.

Michael pays touching tribute to 'wonderful' late co-star Alan https://mol.im/a/12252113 via https://dailym.ai/android

Michael hailed Alan as 'a wonderful actor whose intelligence, sense of comedy and consummate professionalism over the past 70 years has left an indelible mark on our industry.'

06/28/2023

06/28/2023

POLL TIME:
Alright ladies, based on your feedback, I have another poll of hunks for you to peruse. Please choose the hunk you'd most like to have an affair with!

Remember- one vote per person!

The top three spots of this poll will compete with the top 3 from the last poll for the ultimate hunk duel next week!!

06/28/2023

POLL RESULTS for Best Hollywood Blonde Bombshell:

Tied for 3rd place were Carole Lombard and Grace Kelly, in 2nd place was Ginger Rogers, and (no shock) in 1st place was Marilyn Monroe!!!!

06/27/2023

I couldn't agree more. I miss the good old days with Robert Osborne

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is in the process of financially gutting Turner Classic Movies (TCM), and I can't say that I care.