回复：【长篇阅读】公子的传记

Chapter 3
Reporters were waiting for him when hearrived back in Hollywood.Once asked Taylor what he thought was the driving force behind his performance in Magnificent Obsession.
His reply was rather like that of a college sophomore: “A screen metamorphosis is more psychology than histrionics. The thing is to analyze the character you are playing and then the various stages of self-development become a logical outgrowth of that individual finding himself.”
The reporter looked at Taylor: “Would you mind repeating that?”
“Yea, sure. You see, a screen . . .”
“Never mind, Bob. I was never good at spelling!”
L. B. Mayer called Taylor to his office after the interview hit the press. “Did you actually say that, son?”
“Yes, sir, I did. Anything wrong?”
“Yes, you sounded like your jockstrap wason too tight! For the time being, keep your mouth shut.”

Louella Parsons said she thought Taylor was the most promising actor of the day and the progress he had made in one year was unusual.
Magnificent Obsession was thrilling thousands of women in 1936. Even the blind wrote letters to him. “I go to the movies, mostly musicals, of course, but I can appreciate Robert Taylor even though I can not see him. His voice is musical and deep. He has a symphonic voice.”
Bob showed the letter to Ruth, who sighed, “I know. You have assimilated the vibrations of the cello.”
Taylor was beginning to find his mother a little depressing. He missed the privacy that he had enjoyed when he was in college and in Hollywood before his father’s death. He found his days at the studio tiring enough. Then the reporters were always waiting for him as he left at night. To come home to Ruth, who treated him like a little boy who had just won a beauty contest, was too much. She kept an unusually close eye on him, still calling him Arly or Buddy.
Another change that Ruth underwent since coming to Hollywood was that she was becoming a religious fanatic, a strict Methodist who hated Catholics, Germans and Democrats. Her philosophy was that sex was evil and girls were little devils in disguise. Every time she thought Arly was straying,she used her old tricks and pretended to need him: “I don’t feel well, I’m weak. Take me to bed.”

There were many times when she even made him sleep with her and keep his hand over her left breast to make sure her heart was still beating.
It was difficult for Bob the day he came home to tell Ruth he was moving into his own house on the outskirts of town. “It’s only a short drive from here, Mother, and you know how much I love the country. I can even keep some horses there.”
Ruth froze for a moment, then walked very slowly over to the couch and Bob sat down beside her. He’d get her a companionor a nurse, and during the week he’d spend a night or two with her.
“But can’t you borrow a horse from the studio on your lunch hour? Besides, animals have an awful odor even if they are kept away from the house!”
Bob stood up, trying to avoid her demanding eyes and said firmly that he had already sighed the lease and that was that.
“You can’t afford two houses, Arly. We’ll end up in the poorhouse!”

As he was leaving he said he would check with a reliable agency about getting someone to stay with her, adding, “And don’ tworry, Mother, I’ll make sure she isn’t anyone but a white Protestant.”
He moved into a moderate-sized white New England house overlooking the San Fernando Valley, and bought a cocker spaniel that he called Rumba, a tiger cat, several kittens and two riding horses, Garbo and Speed. There was a garage, barn and corral. A barbeque pit in the backyard was one of the first things he made sure was ready before he moved in.
Though Taylor was always a do-it-yourself person, he hired a man to take care of the place when he wasn’t there. Harold had little to do since Taylor took personal care of his horses, loved to do the gardening and was meticulous about his clothes.

The house itself was informal. The large living room overhung the valley; the dining room was done in deep blue and white; the kitchen was a bright yellow; in the back was the sunroom and hidden bar. His bedroom was actually a suit, complete with a large dressing room and bath all done in brown and cream.
The guest room was used by Ruth, for her quilting frame which was too big for her tiny place.
She told him she hoped he would not “get too wild” now that he had his own dwellings: “Keep yourself clean, son.”
And that’s exactly what Taylor did. After his affair with Virginia Bruce, he did not date. He did, however, frequent the “cat houses” near the MGM lot, as did many of the other male stars.
He joked about these visits during his later life. He intimated that L. B. Mayer had arranged for these women to be available for his famous employees saying, “L. B. probably hand-picked each one and made sure they were clean. I wouldn’t doubt if they were studio rejects butI do know one thing—they made more money than I did!”

Though Taylor was still boyish and shy, he was known for being a cocksman. He wasn’t known as the great lover in his personal life as yet, but that would come later.
Throughout his life, he was extremely discreet when it came to women. There was no doubt that he “got around,” but with whom and when, no one ever knew. He could have had any of the cute little starlets tripping around the lot, but it is doubtful he did his playing that close to home.
His personality was still “prairie style.”He lacked sophistication, but was well-liked and though hardly a good actor, he was admired for his punctuality and for always knowing his lines.
Easily influenced, he was impressed with Janet Gaynor, his new co-star in Small Town Girl. She always made it a practice of falling in love with her leading men, claiming she gave a better performance that way.

While they were filming she tried to changeTaylor’s way of dressing, urging him to wear conservative suits. She told him, “Your looks make it unnecessary for you to dress conspicuously.”
One day he showed up on the set wearing a banker’s gray, double-breasted hard-worsted suit with faint chalk stripes, dark colored tie, cordovan wing-tipped shoes and a gray snap-brim hat. The other members of the cast were a bit more than surprised because they were used to seeing him in odd-colored slacks and sweaters. Rumors about Taylor and Gaynor swept the gossip columns and movie magazines and the MGM publicity department built up a romance between the two.
When the picture was completed, Miss Gaynor followed her usual pattern and immediately fell out of love with her leadingman. Taylor went back to sports clothes.

Quite unnoticed on the set of Small Town Girl was an attractive young girl who was an extra in the film—Pat Ryan—today known as Mrs. Richard Nixon. She said, “I had an awful crush on Bob Taylor. You might say I had my eye on him. We had quite a laugh when I told him about it thirty years later.” (Winzola McLendon, “TheNixons Nobody Knows,” McCalls, May, 1971, p.116)
On Taylor’s first trip to New York he felt the personal sting of the press. They seemed to have a private war going with him, calling him their “popular headache” at the office as well as at home.
The day after he arrived the New York newspapers waved this bulletin: “TAYLOR SAYS HE’S REDBLOODED.”
In case you care,Robert Taylor of the movies has hair on his chest, regards himself as a red-blooded man and resents people calling him beautiful! As he came into Grand Central Station yesterday where hundreds of screaming women were waiting, the curly-haired screen star was asked point blank, “Do you think you are beautiful?”
He smiled and said he thinks people are belittling him when they refer to him as beautiful.Pressed for an answer he said, “Well, I am a red-blooded man and I resent people calling me pretty—and for your information, I’VE GOT HAIR ON MY CHEST!!!!!”

It was a youthful outburst, but the expression “hair on my chest” caught on and was included in every article about Taylor from then on for a long time. The press was dissatisfied with Taylor’s answers about his beauty and manliness of his chest.
The whole situation was degrading to him and led to untruths. Men were growing that theirwomen were idolizing a homosexual. They labeled him once and for all “Pretty Boy.” They asked their wives, girl friends, sisters, daughters, mistresses and grandmothers what they saw in this male American beauty.
Their replies were, “Just because he’s so good-looking.” “He would treat me like aprincess.” “That widow’s peak gets me.” “He’s all American, if you ask me!” “His voice makes my ears tingle.”

Taylor,always the gentleman, tried hard to contain his anger. He told of having a persistent dream: “I’m trying to fight somebody and I can’t get my arm up. They never hurt me and I never hurt them, so I can’t call it a nightmare . . . ”
As much as he tried to respect the press, later he was finding it more and more difficult to say anything sensible. He remarked about this period, “I think my innocence was showing.”
MGM did much of his talking for him, but there were few places he could hide.
He was driving down Sunset Boulevard one day and stopped for a red light. Someone ranover to his car and said, “Hey, Bob, what is your definition of love?”
“What? Oh, love. Guess admiration and respect.”
“No sex?”
“The light’s changing . . .”
“What about the physical side of love?”
“Oh, that’s different!” Taylor stepped on the gas and found himself having been interviewed in the morning paper.

By 1936, Taylor was receiving 3,000 fan letters a week. It had only been two years before that Mayer raised his salary from ＄35 a week to ＄50 because Taylor needed a secretaryto handle his mail. The years proved that he would have little trouble increasing his wages. As his popularity grew so did his income.
Getting a new contract, which meant more money, was almost unheard of in those days. The only star whose rise was as sensational as Taylor’s was Shirley Temple.
The usual procedure was rather simple but discouraging. An unknown actor would usually be put under a seven-year contract with a beginning salary of ＄50 to ＄75 a week, with gradual increases to the seventh year when his salary would be ＄1500 more or less.
The studio retained the right to drop the player at the termination of certain intervals. The actor, however, had no such privileges. He had to stay with a studio until the end of the seven years.
Most of the players did not become a success, but those who did found themselves making thousands for their studio and just a few dollars for themselves.

There were many stories about Robert Taylor and Louis B. Mayer and the best was concerning money. It was the one and only time Taylor asked for a raise and his agent said, “See him yourself, Bob. He likes you, but he would surely battle with me.”
Mayer listened to Taylor and said, “Sit down, Bob, let me talk to you. You know, God gave me two lovely daughters and they are a great joy to me. But for reasons,in His infinite wisdom, He never saw fit to give me a son.
“But if I had a son, Bob—if He had blessed me with such a wonderful gift—I can’t think of anything I would have wanted than that son to be exactly like you.
“And if that son came to me and said, ‘Dad, I am working for a wonderful company,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and for a good man, the head of the company, who has my best interests at heart. But he is not paying me much money, Dad. Do you think I should ask him for a raise?’
“Do you know what I would have said to my son, Bob? I’d say, ‘Son, it is a very good company and it will do great things for you. It will make you a star and give you an exceptional career. Why, you’ll be famous. Now, that’s much more important than a few extra dollars. Don’t ask him for a raise right now, son.”
Taylor’s agent was waiting for him outside: “Did you get a raise?”
Taylor replied, “No, but I got a father!”

The studio also made another decision for him—far more dramatic than the one about money . . .
Irene Hervey was a contract player at MGM when she met Robert Taylor. It was love at first sight, but their romance was doomed from the beginning. Although they became engaged to be married, the persisting rumors that Taylor was still involved with Janet Gaynor embarrassed them. MGM continued to print items linking the two stars for months after Small Town Girl was released.
One evening Irene and Bob were dining out. Several reporters approached their table and asked Taylor about Miss Gaynor. They ignored Irene completely. Bob laughed it off saying he admired Janet, etc. , but that he and Irene were officially engaged. Yet the following day there was no word in the paper of his answer—rather an item about Gaynor and Taylor.
Irene and Bob ignored it, planning marriage, until MGM intervened. It was made clear to Taylor that single and available, he was a good investment; married and possessed, he would not be swooned over by women.
Taylor was crushed, Ruth, of course, was delighted. Irene was depressed. When he accepted the studio’s decision, she became more and more critical of Bob. Why didn’t he stand up to MGM? Why was he always talking about Nebraska and how—if it hadn’t been for Mayer—he would be a soda jerk back in Beatrice? Why didn’t he grow up?

After almost two years of waiting for marriage, Irene, too, gave in to the studio’s demands. She broke her engagement to Taylor and began seeing the young tenor Allan Jones.
After that , Taylor dated Ginger Rogers, though not seriously, because she and Jimmy Stewart were involved.
Today Irene Hervey recalls: “Bob was a very sensitive young man. I do believe that during the years we shared our beginnings in the motion picture business, his career moved so fast he needed—as everyone does—a good shoulder to cry on, God knows, but whatever, I believe I was that shoulder.
“By the time the studio came through with permission for us to marry, I had about become convinced that he should not marry at that time of his career.
“I had met Allan Jones and I really wanted to be married. So did he.”
It took Robert Taylor quite some time to get over Irene. She was his first serious loveand it hurt him to see her with Jones even after their marriage. But being a gentleman, he made a point of going out of his way in a night club to go over to their table and say “Hello.”

Rather than retaliate and nurse his wounds by dating other women, he stayed by himself or went to parties alone. He had no desire to be involved for a long time . . .until, that is, he met “The Queen.”
It was atthe old Trocadero in Hollywood late in 1936 when Marion and Zeppo Marx invited Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor to dinner. He arrived right on time and when she came in they sat down. Every time the door opened, she would look around. She seemed to be preoccupied and did little talking.
“Would you like to dance?” he asked.
“No, Zeppo wants me to meet someone—a Mr. Artique.”
“Never heard of him. What’s his first name?”
“I don’t know. The Marxes want me to meet a Mr. Artique.”
“Artique. . .Artique . . . that’s a peculiar name.”
Suddenly it hit Taylor and he yelped like a puppy! “Artique is R.T.—R.T.—don’t ya see? That’s me!”
Though Barbara was downhearted over her impending divorce from Frank Fay, and Taylor was still carrying a torch for Irene Hervey, one would never have known watching them on the dance floor that night . . .