回复：【长篇阅读】公子的传记

Ruth commented, over her knitting, that she had overheard him calling “that German woman,” but that she never returned his calls and why was he chasing her?
Taylor replied that to chase a woman properly was expensive: money for flowers, jewelry and nightclubs. If he spent too much money, he would probably go broke, and if he went broke . . . “Well, you know where we’d end up?”
Ruth asked, “Where, son, back in Nebraska?”
Taylor laughed, kissed her forehead and said teasingly, “No, Mother, your favorite place—the poorhouse!”

Before Taylor left for Egypt to make Valley of the Kings, he called Ursula to tell her he was leaving. She said, “That’s nice. Good bye!” and hung up.
Eleanor Parker was Bob’s co-star in Valley of the Kings and still very much infatuated with him. She was obvious about her strong feelings for Taylor, and though he had Ursula in his blood, he returned Miss Parker’s affection.
All of his letters to Ursula went unanswered.
While in Egypt there was an article about him in the newspapers there that was also was printed in the United States:
CAIRO JANUARY 2, 1954 EGYPTIAN EDITOR
TUT-TUTS GALS FOR DROOLING OVER
BOB TAYLOR

“Columnist Mamoud Abdel Moneim in the newspaper AL Misri complained Saturday that Egyptian women have been acting strangely since American actor Robert Taylor arrived here.
“They have found excuses to knock at his door. They reserve restaurant tables next to his, they pretend they are journalists to attend his news conferences. They have been observed making provocative gestures with cigarettes, dropping them from their lips, trying by any means to attract his attention.
“WHAT WILL BOBERT TAYLOR THINK?”
“WILL HE THINK THERE ARE ONLY FIGHTY WOMEN IN EGYPT?”
“Are there no men to keep them in check?” (New York Daily Mirror, January 3, 1954.)

When the film was completed, Taylor left Egypt, his romance with EleanorParker in limbo. The day he arrived back in Hollywood he called Ursula, but she refused to see him.
He was so frustrated, he went out and purchased a star-studded engagement ring, but was afraid to give it to her. He wrote to Tom Purvis—what should he do? Tom replied, “I’m the last guy to tell you what to do, Dilly.”
Taylor held on to the ring and applied himself to his role in Rogue Cop with Janet Leigh. He handled the tough-guy role with ease and never sneered more broadly or hit harder than necessary. Perhaps his cold determination as the crooked cop was a result of his dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems in his personal life.
On the set he was approached by a reporter who had seen Taylor at a party with Barbara Stanwyck and wanted to know if there was a chance of a reconciliation.

Taylor hissed. “I wasn’t with her. I just dropped by for a few minutes and she happened to be there. That’s all. Why don’t you bug off, for Christ’s sake?”
However, the reporter wasn’t so easily dismissed. “Whatever happened to Ursula whatever her name is?”
“I don’t give a good God damn, really. She’s a nice girl . . . ”
“Man to man, Taylor, she’s a beautiful woman—and available. Is she seeing anyone else?”
“How the hell should I know?”
Taylor walked back to his place on the set of Rogue Cop with a scowl on his face. It never occurred to him that Ursula might be going out with other men.

He went home and looked at the engagement ring again, but put it back in the drawer. At this point he feared rejection and if Ursula refused him he could only blame himself. He picked up the phone and dialed her number.
“Can I see you tonight?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Just for a few minutes. I have something I’d like to show you.”
“Sorry, I have guests for dinner.”
“A man?”
“No, a couple of friends.”
“It will only take a minute.”

Ursula agreed, but insisted he was to stay for just a little while. Later Ursula said, “You might say I played a little trick on Bob. I took a big chance, I know, but since he didn’t appear to have serious intentions, I had made up my mind to ignore his calls until he proposed. I can assure you, this was the only trick I ever played on him!”
Taylor arrived at her house but refused dinner. He sat and pouted, tapping his shoe nervously. Ursula was a charming hostess to her friends and took her time serving dinner, ignoring Bob in general.
He fiddled with a cup of coffee, smoked a pack of cigarettes and chewed on his bottom lip. Just about the time he began to turn green, the other guests took the hint and said they had to leave. By the time they reached home, their telephone was ringing.
It was Ursula. “I’ve accepted a ring from Bob. We’re engaged!”

The announcement was made on April 30,1954. Taylor told the press again to pronounce Ursula’s last name correctly and said they had no marriage plans.
His close friends laughed. “Who does he think he’s kidding? He’s building a house in Pacific Palisades big enough for a family and he says the place will be his bachelor quarters. Taylor never could tell a convincing lie.”
Ruth was overwrought. “You can’t marry a woman with two children. You’ll be ruined for sure this time and you’ll drag us all down with you. What am I going to do?”
As with Barbara when he married her, Bob assured his mother that he would continue to support her and nothing would change, but Ruth told him this was different and that Ursula’s two children would be a heavy burden on him financially.

“Maybe I’ll marry John,” she said.
John was a man Ruth had been seeing for several months, but Bob had been paying for their dates—dinners, the theatre,cab fare, etc. When she announced her plans, Taylor said he thought it was a fine idea, but made it clear if she married John, he would not support him, too.
Ruth was positive her son would go bankrupt and assured him that John had proposed many times but now she had no choice but to accept. It was her last chance, and if Bob would not be able to take care of her, then John would!
However, when she approached John about it—telling him that Bob was apparently going to get married and would not be able to support her anymore—he left her and she never saw him again!
Ruth continued to brag about the many marriage proposals she had gotten from John, but she could never explain his sudden disappearance.
Taylor wrote to Tom again asking for advice about whether or not he should “go all the way” with Ursula. And again Tom said he’d rather stay out of it.
But Tom said he wasn’t surprised when Bob called him one evening. “I’m gettin’ married, ol bud. Headin’ out in the morning. Keep it under yer hat till you hear from me!”

MGM personnel had one problem—Eleanor Parker. She was to appear in the movie with Taylor and had just arrived in Cloverdale, apparently unaware that Bob had gotten married. No one knew for sure, however, and there was a serious discussion as to who should invite Eleanor to the party. Some brave soul volunteered and approached her about attending the “wedding celebration” for Bob and Ursula Taylor.
Miss Parker’s pleasant expression faded and she remained in a state of shock during the festivities, looking pale and close to tears for several days.
Bob told a friend years later just how close Eleanor came to breaking up his marriage that was only a few weeks old. Exactly what he meant is not known.
Under the circumstances it is surprising that Many River to Cross was successful: Eleanor Parker was with Bob daily while he was honeymooning with Ursula.
But this picture also proved Taylor’s flair for comedy.

His tramping around like a Kentucky trapper, who could care less about his shotgun bride trailing him through the backwoods, was quite funny.
Many River to Cross was “slapstick in buckskin” and everyone had to chuckle during the last scene when “Bushrod” Taylor struggled with an Indian and “Mary Stuar” Parker kept getting in the way.
Unfortunately for the public this was the last movie Taylor made with Eleanor Parker. Of all his leading ladies, everyone agreed that she complimented him the most on the screen.

Chapter Ⅺ
Not only did Eleanor Parker show her disappointment, but the Taylor-Thiess marriage was quite a blow to Barbara Stanwyck also. She said publicly that she has been carrying a torch for Bob all along. She repeated once again, “There will be no other man in my life!”
Many people said they thought Bob had been confused for some time as to whether he should reconcile with Barbara or marry Ursula.
Taylor’s unusual concern about his image as a motion picture personality was astounding. This was the strongest force in his life. He wanted to make the public think of his as a clean-living guy and not the typical Hollywood gadabout. There would be no scandal, no stories of his getting drunk and cursing waiters, no indication that he was runnig around with women, no elaborate houses that made good publicity photos in Modern Screen, no speeding automobiles and traffic tickets, no expensive cars that could be recognized as belonging to a movie star—and never any derogatory reference to anyone.

But divorce was a mark against him—a sign of weakness and failure. He had been accused of adultery and his wife had wept on the witness stand that he wanted to be free with no restrictions. His so-called mistress had made her statement to the world-wide press that “Bob was tired of Barbara”—a cruel thing to do to someone as admired as Miss Barbara Stanwyck.
He wanted the world to see that he respected her, and in no way wished to hurt her. She glowed with happiness when they were together after the divorce and if it meant he could have erased the bitterness he would have gone back to Barbara to prove he was a decent human being who had not been touched by the usual temptations of Hollywood.
For five sour years before Barbara divorced him, he tried to hold on, and when she made it apparent that for once in her life she was willing to forget an injustice, Taylor brought forth every emotion he could muster—moonlight and roses, wine and music, but all were ineffective.
The fact that he met and fell in love with Ursula had nothing to do with his situation involving Barbara. He had almost married Eleanor Parker but was able to walk away from it. She had remarried, but Barbara was alone now that Dion was in school and she had not dated anyone.

His guilt was the strongest threat to his happiness during his courtship with Ursula. He refused to give in to the fact that he was human after all. Being a perfectionist, he worked for perfection and expected everyone else to do likewise. He had no pity for those who gave up easily. “If you find at the beginning of any undertaking that you cannot be one of the best, then don’t get involved!” He loved golf, but was never good at it, so he gave it up.
Taylor’s impulse to marry Ursula three weeks after their engagement was not unusual for him. The decision to give her the ring after keeping it for such a long time was. Asking Tom for advice was only his way of getting assurance to do something he knew he was going to do anyway. Why wait for the inevitable?
There were a few similarities between Ursula and Barbara—lonely and emotional childhoods, poverty during their early lives, strength, and divorce, but their differences were innumerable.