Don't You Want Me to Be Happy?

The fear that "Lippy" Durocher had been rendered speechless by love began to haunt deepest Brooklyn. Out in California, 3,000 miles away, the man with the built-in snarl had been turning away reporters' questions with a soft "No comment!" To Mother Brooklyn, that attitude became Durocher like a hole in the head.

Dodger fans understood that Leo had been frustrated almost to distraction in his attempts to marry Movie Star Laraine Day. First, he had to wait for the California courts to grant her a divorce from her first husband (who had as good as called Leo a snake in the grass). When Miss Day's interlocutory decree came through last week, it was with the usual California stipulation that she would have to wait a year before remarrying.

Nobody in Flatbush blamed Leo and Laraine for flying to Juarez, Mexico, to get her a second divorce with no strings attached, or for driving back to El Paso to be married. But Los Angeles' Superior Judge George A. Dockweiler, who had granted Miss Day's first divorce plea, had a big objection. Together, the judge and the Durochers fought through the jungle of U.S. divorce laws.

The Taffy Look. Judge Dockweiler said very bluntly that if Leo tried to live with Miss Day in California she would be charged with bigamy. He also said that Miss Day would have to show cause why her interlocutory decree should not be set aside for having been obtained in bad faith. "Movie actresses," he added with some irrelevancy, "must serve as an example to young people."

Miss Day, who is 26, Mormon-bred, and does not smoke or drink, had an appropriate answer for that one. "Judge, why do you crucify me?" she asked. "Don't you want me to be happy?" The judge looked stern. "We did it on the spur of the moment," seconded 39-year-old Leo, hopefully. But Judge Dockweiler, apparently, had never seen the Dodgers play.

While Miss Day's attorneys prepared her case, and Leo moved into a hotel, Laraine began work on a new picture for RKO. Leo followed her to the set. Between takes, they played gin rummy or held hands. When she was called to the camera, the look between Laraine and Leo stretched like buttered taffy. "I'll be waiting, sweetheart," said Leo, somewhat in the manner of a wife seeing her husband off to jail.

Brooklyn was baffled--all except Manager Mack Shapiro of the Berkshire Theater. He confidently put up new lettering on his marquee: GARY GRANT AND MRS. LEO DUROCHER IN MR. LUCKY. The other half of the double bill: THEY KNEW WHAT

THEY WANTED.

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