Bachelor Girl

MANNERS & MORALS

Suzy Parker, 25 or thereabouts, was a rising Hollywood star. She was tall, and had what Brooklyn-bred Hollywood folks call a good built. Her soft auburn hair and her cool, beautiful face decorated fashion magazine covers in the days when she was earning a reported $100,000 a year as a model. More than that. Suzy was a smart girl with a fondness for the kind of glib crack that sends fan magazine writers fluttering to their typewriters, and she even had a small flair for acting (Ten North Frederick--TIME, May 26).

Gay, sophisticated Suzy Parker loved to give reporters a hard time. She would open an interview by pointing out that the initials of her real name, Cecilia Rene Ann Parker, form an earthy word that has sometimes been used to describe Suzy's way with the truth. ("I always tell the truth, but today's truth might not be tomorrow's.") She regaled newsmen with the information that she was born in Texas (of a poor family), in Virginia (of a first family), or in Florida (of a bourgeois family). Best of all. Suzy was always known in Hollywood and New York as a confirmed bachelor girl. "I think you can love a man more when you aren't married to him." she said thoughtfully. "I've seen the little things that were precious become the big things that destroy. I doubt if I shall ever marry."

Showfolk took Suzy at her word. They noted that she shared a Manhattan apartment with a freelance writer named Pierre de la Salle. They noted that she took long trips with Pierre de la Salle. In short, there seemed ample proof that Suzy was not married.

Fortnight ago in Florida, an auto accident leveled tragedy on Suzy's life. Her father was killed; Suzy's arms were broken. At the hospital, where she thought she might be dying, Suzy gave her name as Mrs. Pierre de la Salle. From Manhattan, Pierre de la Salle. 28 or thereabouts, raced to Florida. When newsmen caught up with him, he repeatedly denied that he was married to Suzy, although he of course conceded that she is a "dear friend" with whom he shares an apartment. "A tremendous apartment," he explained simply. But newsmen pressed on, uncovered the record of a marriage performed in New York in 1955. They also found that as a teenager. Suzy had married, and then in 1953 got a divorce. Relenting last week, unlucky Pierre confessed that it was all true, declared that he and Suzy had been advised by a Hollywood press-agent to keep their marriage secret because there is something more glamorous about a Hollywood star who is single. "I am a Frenchman," Pierre said superfluously, "and I have difficulty understanding how this should be so."

At week's end Suzy and Pierre were relieved that the pretense was gone. But Hollywood was dumbstruck. Now, a lot of folks wondered whether it really would be right for the happy married couple to continue sharing the same apartment. People talk.

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