A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups (The Princess and the Goblin): Dick Powell, Mary Martin, Jean Arthur

Researchers at a British university found that men with higher IQs place greater value on monogamy and sexual exclusivity than their less intelligent peers. But the connection between conventional sexual morality and intelligence is not mirrored in women, it seems. The researchers could find no evidence that clever women are more likely than the general population to remain faithful. The patterns were uncovered by Dr Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Political Science in a paper published in the March edition of the journal Social Psychology Quarterly. He concluded: "As the empirical analysis shows, more intelligent men are more likely to value monogamy and sexual exclusivity than less intelligent men." Dr Kanazawa claims that the correlation between intelligence and monogamy in men has its origins in evolutionary development. Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

"I've had all the fun," F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "but in my heart I can't stand this casual business. With a woman, I have to be emotionally in it up to my eyebrows, or it's nothing. When I love, I love. It has to be my life." -"F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald" (1984) by James R. Mellow

James Stewart: “I loved being in pictures. Right away. All that stuff ya hear ’bout how the big studio was nothing but an enormous factory—this just isn’t true… it was wonderful.” His nonsexual on-screen persona had by now led Mayer to wonder if, in fact, there was something “wrong” with him. Whereas other MGM names had to be literally pried loose from the bevy of starlets they were bedding, despite the fact most stars were all married—such as Clark Gable; Franchot Tone, whose suavity had led him into the arms of some of Hollywood’s most fabulous beauties; Spencer Tracy, a known womanizer from the moment he first stepped on a sound stage — Jimmy kept himself away from all of that, preferring the company of one steady woman. 

June Allyson and Jimmy Stewart’s on-screen chemistry was real. They had known each other before either of them was married to their current spouses—Jimmy Stewart to Gloria Hatrick, June Allyson to actor Dick Powell. Jimmy and Allyson had dated in 1940, and at one point they maybe considered marriage. Allyson recollected, “I knew Jimmy before he married Gloria. With my cooking, it’s a good thing he didn’t marry me. The poor dear weighed only 154 pounds before he was married and he was all of 6 feet 2 or 3 inches tall. Jimmy seldom took his dates to nightclubs. Instead, he fed them steak that he grilled himself in his own backyard. If they didn’t like that and wanted the limelight, they were not for him. Gloria was the perfect choice. They were both so suited to each other—both slim and dignified and both with the same sense of humor.” Without question, on screen at least, the key to the successful pairing of Jimmy and June lay in their wholesomeness rather than any sexual chemistry. "USA Today" wrote: "It's hard to believe that anyone as famous as James Stewart could get by so scandal-free. Just try to scrape off any dust, let alone dirt, from this devout Presbyterian and conservative republican." 

The ongoing screen “affair” between Stewart and Allyson became something of a joke in both the Dick Powell/June Allyson and Jimmy Stewart/Gloria Stewart households, a joke, that is, with a slight pinch. This is how Allyson recalled that period: “When Richard [Powell] and I got together with our friends Jimmy and Gloria Stewart, Richard kidded Jimmy and me about the string of hit movies that had made us the reigning romantic team in Hollywood. As Gloria put it, jokingly, but with just a bit of an edge, ‘June is Jimmy’s perfect wife in movies and I’m his imperfect wife.’ And one time Richard at a banquet said in front of our whole table, ‘June here must be a good wife. Jimmy Stewart has married her three times.’” 

Stewart did not marry until his forties, which attracted a significant amount of contemporary media attention; gossip columnist Hedda Hopper called him the "Great American Bachelor". Regardless, he had many romantic relationships. Stewart and Ginger Rogers had a relationship in 1935 while Henry Fonda was dating Rogers' good friend Lucille Ball. During production of The Shopworn Angel (1938), Stewart dated actresses Norma Shearer and Loretta Young. While filming Destry Rides Again (1939), Stewart had an affair with his co-star Marlene Dietrich, who barely mentioned him in her memoir and waved him off as a one-time affair. Stewart's first interaction with his future wife, Gloria Hatrick McLean, was at Keenan Wynn's Christmas party in 1947. A year later, Gary Cooper and his wife Veronica, invited Hatrick and Stewart to a dinner party, and the two began dating. A former model, Hatrick was divorced with two children. Stewart and Hatrick were married at Brentwood Presbyterian Church in 1949. After the death of his stepson Ronald in Vietnam in 1969, Stewart brooded constantly and when he did go out, it was mostly to play golf with Fred MacMurray, Dick Powell, and sometimes with President Richard Nixon. Jimmy Stewart, Fred MacMurray and Dick Powell were Republican, all three had conformed to their 'nice guy' archetype, they weren't particularly cozy with the press, they had taken risky shifts in their film careers (especially Powell), and had played opposite some of the most gorgeous leading ladies of their era. Some examples:

Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colber in "The Gilded Lily" (1935) directed by Wesley Ruggles

James Stewart and Claudette Colbert in "It's a Wonderful World" (1939) directed by W.S. Van Dyke

After filming The Secret Heart (1946) together, Claudette Colbert and co-star, June Allyson, became great friends. Colbert became godmother to Allyson's daughter, Pamela Powell in 1949.

James Stewart and Jean Arthur in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) directed by Frank Capra

Fred MacMurray and Jean Arthur in "Too Many Husbands" (1940) directed by Wesley Ruggles

Dick Powell and Mary Martin (doppelganger and alleged lover of Jean Arthur) in "True to Life" (1943) directed by George Marshall

Producer Paul Gregory (The Night of the Hunter) called Mary Martin "a very difficult woman, an angel with lots of demons" who constantly bickered with her husband Richard Halliday. Paul Gregory, Janet Gaynor's last husband, disliked Mary Martin so much (for quite complicated reasons), he wouldn't even tell her where Gaynor had been buried after a car accident in San Francisco. In "Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing" (2002) by James Kirkwood. Although warned that she was a prize they might do better not to win, Kirkwood and his associates not only got Martin for the Legends Broadway tour, they got much more than they bargained for. Although noted for her cheerful stage presence, Mary Martin proved to be one tough cookie, making--and getting--a host of demands that few companies would tolerate. 

Her demands also extended to the script, casually tossing lines she didn't like, and demanding re-writes. Martin also had significant difficulty in learning her lines, and throughout the rehearsal and preview process frequently errupted in tears and threats to quit. Channing also felt (with some justification) that everyone from the writer to the director to the producer was babying Martin to her own expense, a circumstance that led to repeated blow outs. Eventually Channing bonded with Martin by refusing to continue the tour without Martin, rejecting her possible replacement for Ann Miller. 

One night, sharing a dressing room, James Kirkwood listened to Mary Martin confessing to Carol Channing the ways she felt she was "different", and how favored a certain kind of man who was a good listener. Channing talked about her second husband Alexander Carson, a private detective. Martin said she had been smitten with Dick Powell (her co-star in Happy Go Lucky and True to Life). Martin reportedly said: "Dick was going to marry Mary Brian, but Joan played her cards well. Mike Todd gifted her  a mink coat and she went to New York. I think Joan broke his heart. We were good friends for years. One night Dick invited me to his apartment. He was great in bed and all, but I couldn't leave Richard [Halliday]." 

Were Jean Arthur and Mary Martin lovers? It was a hot topic of Hollywood speculation for years. Mary Martin, despite not being considered a sex-symbol, was in fact disconcertingly pretty with great legs. Martin’s personality gave warmth and demanded it in return. She was emotionally more suited to success in the theater than Hollywood. Mary Martin had accidentally won a singing contest, and eventually ended up on Broadway singing Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs To Daddy". Legend has it that Mary was then so prudish and inexperienced, she did not understand the bawdy nature of Porter's lyrics. Later in life, Martin told her grand-daughter she never understood them! Several years in Hollywood proved fruitless and left Martin disoriented. But much of David Kaufman's biography is devoted to Mary's strange, complex, and co-dependent relationship with her second husband Richard Halliday. Mary Martin was hiding an important aspect of herself, although her lesbian inclinations were well known in Broadway circles. True to its fairy-tale title this book by Paul Rosner takes as its subject matter the most unreal place that has ever existed: Hollywood. What the book really examines is the notion of "star quality": what is it, where does it come from, what are its components, can you fake it? The two central female characters are actresses, one a "bubbling, cottonheaded southern belle, a personality actress with no personality"; the other a sophisticated, successful diva with a vulnerability that has become her on-screen trademark. The heart of the plot is the relationship that develops between them, and the notion that it might be possible for one woman to don the personality of another and carry it further than the first is capable to take it herself. Rosner, one feels, wants to create monsters but cannot: even his minor characters when they are behaving at their most petty and egocentric, soar above stereotype and take hold of our sympathies. Little wonder that this has been hailed as one of the best novels about Hollywood that has ever been written. I believe the book stands along other great novels like "The Day of the Locust" and "What Makes Sammy Run?" —"A Fairy-Tale for Grown-ups" (2001) by David Potter 

Written by first-time novelist Paul Rosner, the book was a thinly-veiled treatment of the alleged lesbian relationship between Jean Arthur and Mary Martin, and it became an instant source of underground conversation within the entertainment world. It tells the story of two women, Maureen Covillion and Josie Miller. Maureen (like Mary Martin) gains notice as a singer in New York revues, comes to Hollywood in the late thirties and returns to New York in the late-forties to become the queen of the Broadway musical. While in Hollywood, Maureen falls in love with her female idol, Josie Miller, an enigmatic and publicity-shy star whose odd, cracked voice and deft comic talent playing secretaries and shopgirls have made her one of the world's top female film stars. Maureen achieves a similar level of stardom by borrowing and eventually usurping Josie's personality as her own. Meanwhile, Josie suffers an emotional breakdown as a result of their relationship and divorces her husband, a movie producer and her erstwhile career manager. After her divorce, Josie flees Hollywood to live out her life as a recluse by the ocean, making only a fleeting and abortive comeback attempt in the theater. 

To people such as Hollywood writer George Eells, the book appeared to confirm the stories he had been hearing for years. Eells was a close friend of Martin's but never knew if the rumors about her and Arthur were true; when the book came out, Hollywood's insiders told each other that it validated what they'd been saying all along. An avid fan of Arthur's films, Rosner created the Josie Miller character based on his conception of what Jean Arthur was really like, while his inspiration for Maureen Covillion came from his observation that Mary Martin borrowed much of Arthur's personality in the course of building her own career. "I'd always wanted to do a book about one person assuming another person's identity and improving on it," Rosner said, and when he saw Mary Martin on Broadway as Peter Pan, it suddenly dawned on him how much she looked and acted like Jean Arthur. —Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew (1999) by John Oller