回复：【长篇阅读】公子的传记

One weary Hollywood correspondent was glad to see Taylor out of the country. “Now I can take a vacation,” he said. “I’m going to paste alarge picture of Robert Taylor on the side of my car, drive out into the country and when someone says, ‘Who’s he?’ ,that’s where I’m stopping.”
The news of Taylor’s arrival preceded him when an English newspaper had a girl telephone Taylor from their office “ship-to-shore.”
Sitting by her side was a prominent Harley Street physician who took her temperature, pulse rate and blood count and found them all normal. But immediately after her conversation with Bob, the doctor discovered that all three had risen! A complete chart of the girl’s reaction was published in the paper.
Though the majority of people who mobbed Taylor consisted of fans who truly wanted to get a glimpse of him, MGM could certainly take the blame or credit for the “excess.”
They had built up Robert Taylor as the greatest romantic hero of the thirties and his popularity as “Pretty Boy” had gotten out of hand. They had a top star who had practically been turned into a freak!

However, now they were attempting to accomplish a difficult transformation. They were out to prove that Robert Taylor was a man, and A Yank at Oxford was their method of succeeding.
He had been heckled and insulted, adoredand praised, but MGM was getting the public steamed up for a bigger and more startling campaign. The enormous budget they were allotted to spend on Taylor’s trip to England was well worth it—they were paid back a thousand times over.
They preceeded him on his trip toEnglandand it didn’t take too much advance publicity to create another stampede there.
When the Berengaria docked in Southampton, 3,000 people were on hand to greet the ship.By the time Taylor was to disembark, the Bobbies estimated 5,000 had gathered to welcome him and he had to be smuggled out in a “goods lift.” He settled down in the Claridge Hotel.

To prepare himself for the rigors of the cold weather and the outdoor racing scenes, Taylor started each day with a cold bath filled with ice. The river work, in fact, turned out to be an endurance contest between him and the hired professional crew to see who could stick it out the longest.
As Lee Sheridan he surprised his fellow students by excelling at track and rowing in the bump races, but as Robert Taylor he shocked every male from Texas toTibet—for he had fine legs, solid arms and hair on his chest!
Paris was one of the first to announce the “hairy news.” They published a picture of Taylor in athletic trunks and shirt. Underneath his photo, dated August 28, 1937, they printed, “Mon Dieu Quel Homme!” “My god, what a man!”
The American Press announced ROBERT TAYLOR BARES CHEST TO PROVE HE-NESS!
A man’s chest became the topic of the day everywhere!

Hollywood was especially concerned and the news of other actors and their chests spread about town.
Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Charles Boyer,Andy Devine and even Buck Jones had little to offer in the way of hair on their chests. However, Gary Cooper, Joel McCrea, David Niven, Randolph Scott, Fred MacMurray, Clark Gable, Dick Powell and Edward G. Robinson were ready to match hairy chests any day.
Cary Grant needed a magnifying glass, and Douglas Fairbanks actually had to shave his chest for a movie.
Doctors wrote in medical journals (pickedup by movie magazines and other periodicals) that the amount of hair on a man’s chest had nothing to do with masculinity. Lou Gehrig, Iron Man of Baseball, did not have one hair to show, yet Roland Young had enough on his chest to share with a dozen men.
A “chest toupee” show opened in Hollywood to take care of those men who were afraid Robert Taylor’s exposure would embarrass them,especially since men’s bathing suits were passé and trunks were the style!

The colossal amount of publicity affected Taylor very little. He was relieved that the advance notices about A Yank at Oxford proved that he was as rugged as the next man. Most of all, he wanted Barbara to join him in England.
They called each other almost every day,and he never failed to ask her to take the next ship leaving for Europe. But when she met with the press in New York on her return from Canada, she said, “No, I am not going to England to see Bob. He told me yesterday that the weather was not good and the filming was being delayed because of rain and he might not be home for Christmas.
“We have no plans for marriage and I haveno intention of visiting Bob in Europe. Can you imagine what would happen if I went? It’s bad enough here alone with you reporters. We wouldn’t have a moment’s peace!”
She went on to say if it continued to rain in England—and it really rains in England!—theirsix-month separation might be extended: “Our transatlantic telephone conversations will have to do for now. Guess you think it’s silly talking about the weather, but at the moment our seeing each other depends on it . . .”

During the time production of A Yank at Oxford was halted due to weather, Taylor spoke to Barbara again about getting married. In fact, he begged her.
She confessed she was lonely, too, but her obligations to her son and to her career came first. Bob hung up “in a huff”several times.
In motherly fashion, she confided to a friend that Bob was still growing up and perhaps shouldn’t be tied down. She said she wanted Bob to experience fame and fortune. “Then he will have a better sense of values and will be capable of judging what is best for him.”
It is doubtful that MGM would have allowed Taylor to go through with the marriage at this time anyway, and though Barbara’s remarks about Bob’s being too inexperienced with life made sense, she was wise enough to know that Mayer would change Bob’s mind.
She was more career-minded than Taylor and knew what marriage would do to his image. Like Irene Hervey she realized the importance of Bob’s remaining single, but unlike Irene Hervey, Barbara was willing to wait. She simply had to make Bob think it was she who was not ready and take the blame instead of MGM or his popularity standing.

Taylor, bored with the delays because of bad weather, asked MGM for a private plane—with no advance publicity—to take him to Amsterdam for a few days.
The plane circled the field several timesand finally landed. By the time he caught sight of the gate, he saw hundreds of women waiting for him.
They broke through the police cordon and tied up traffic for hours.
“I couldn’t figure out how they knew I was coming. This same thing happened time and again—everywhere I flew somewhere in Europe. Sightseeing was impossible and once I told the pilot to turn around and go back to London.
“I spoke to the publicity men and they said they had not wired ahead or given out any releases about my traveling.
“They were right. But I was flaunting my own arrival.
“I discovered that on the belly of the plane was a huge picture of the MGM lion and my name in bold letters. The pilot confessed he had been told to fly over each city two or three times before attempting a landing.
“By the time I reached the ground the whole city was at the airport! I never did get to see Europe!”

On December 14, 1937, Taylor returned to New York on the Queen Mary. The ship pulled into New York harbor early in the morning. A few fans were there, but the press outnumbered them.
He granted a brief interview in his stateroom before leaving the ship, looking relaxed in a dressing robe and smiling throughout the conference.
“Did the great crowds in England bother you, Mr. Taylor?”
“There weren’t any great crowds. Just little ones.”
“One of our wire services said 5,000 people came to see you off.”
“Just saw a few.”
“How did the reporters treat you, Bob?”
“Polite! They didn’t grab you on the street or interrupt you while you were eating dinner. And they weren’t allowed on the set.”
“Well . . . you’re back in the United States now, Mr. Taylor.”
“Yeah, and don’t think I don’t remember reading your releases about my trip to England and how I was ‘through’ in the movies. You boys buried me! Maybe I was dying a slow death, but you coulda given me one last chance.”
“You mean A Yank at Oxford?”
“Hopefully, yes.”
“What do you think is more important, Bob—brains or beauty?”
“Why don’t you boys answer that one yourself! Thanks for coming out so early . . .”
As the reporters left Taylor’s room they saw Lionel Barrymore, who had also made the crossing on the Queen Mary. They asked him about his drinking and what his opinion of Robert Taylor was. “I haven’t had a drink in a long time. And it’s not Bob’s fault he’s so damn handsome. Good day, gentlemen!”

The reporters who were allowed on board ship were a chosen few. They had been carefully selected by the MGM publicity staff on hand to escort Taylor back to Los Angeles. While they waited to get some pictures of Taylor disembarking, one of them commented, “I think Bob is still a little bewildered by what has happened to him and inclined to be a bit sheepish over his designation as the male American Beauty.”
Newsmen were unusually conscious of Robert Taylor at this particular time to see whether his new image on the screen hadany effect on him personally. They knew he wanted to be himself with them, but were also aware of the fact that he was probably still naïve enough to believe that what the press said or thought about him could affect his popularity and career. One reporter wrote that “Taylor didn’t know what to do with his hands.Gable was the same way except he had a good reason. They were unattractive and he knew it, but Taylor didn’t know whether to stand at attention, keep his hands in his pockets, which he had been told NOT to do, wave them in the air when he was trying to make a point during an interview, or use them for a better purpose—to shove newsmen aside.”
And on this cloudy morning in December, the press waited to see if Pretty Boy had matured. The MGM publicity men waited also and wondered if their fair-haired boy would be able to handle himself on this most important day, without their intervening. One of them suggested they get Taylor off the ship quickly—no interviews—but it was decided to let him handle the press himself. “Just keep your eyes and ears alert when those other meatheads get ahold of him . . .God!”

THE PRESS AND MR. TAYLOR
Our sympathies go out to Mr. Robert Taylor,the young personable motion-picture actor, for being forced again to submit to the severe questionings, not to say heckling, on whether he regards himself as beautiful. Some months ago when he arrived here from Hollywood on his way to England to make a picture, he was asked questions several times by our enterprising journalists. Today upon his return from England he was forced to undergo a similar ordeal. One of the reporters, seeking to explain this phenomenon, said that apparently men did not like Mr. Taylor and ascribed this unfortunate state of affairs to face that Mr. Taylor is so good looking.
This is so much bosh! New York has some of the handsomest journalists to be found anywhere in the world and there is no reason why they should be jealous of Mr. Taylor’s looks. Perhaps the reason is to be found in the shifting of news values in this country.
It used to be big news when Stanley found Livingstone, when a crown Prince was born, or when a great economic or political upheaval shook the world. Apparently we are now past all that.
Today’s news is whether Mr. Taylor thinks he is beautiful and just how he feels, if at all, about Barbara Stanwyck!
When Taylorarrived in Hollywood Mayer told him he had seen the rushes on A Yank at Oxford and remarked, “Now you are a man, Bob.” He said he would publicize the movie to the hilt and from then on not to worry about concentrating on being the lover anymore.
“Nothing happens overnight, son, but you’ll see a change—not only in your fans, but in yourself.”
Taylor was satisfied with the results of A Yank at Oxford and knew Mayer would keep his promise.
What he wanted now more than anything was to see Barbara, who was waiting for him at her ranch.

Stein asked her about a check or for ＄50 that had apparently been made out to the child and signed by Taylor. The judge, however, made him withdraw the question.
There was no objection. Stein said he was trying to show that a deliberate attempt was being made to alienate this boy’s affections from his foster father.
The judge sustained the objection and said,“I don’t care how many times Mr. Taylor came to her house. This is her personal life and has nothing to do with this proceeding!”
On January 10, 1938, Barbara went back on the stand and said she demanded a psychiatric examination foe Frank Fay. She portrayed him as a man who mingled prayers with profanity. She submitted ten affidavits in her attempt to show Fay to be of “unsound mind.”
She told of his peculiar habits. “When he passed a church, Frank would remove his hands from the wheel and pray,endangering the lives of others.”
He cried “Amen,” “Lord Help us” and “Have mercy on us” while he was reading the newspapers.
He got into fist fights with the late Ted Healy, but had to stop to look for his false teeth when Healy knocked them out!

Once at the Trocadero, Miss Stanwyck said,Fay accused her of drinking too much champagne and knocked her down. “I’d only had one glass of champagne,” she told the judge.
“He is an unfit guardian for the child. He drinks too much. Why, he even fell into Dion’s crib once and fell asleep,keeping the boy awake with his snoring. As far as I’m concerned he loves his new store teeth more than his son.”
She was asked whether it was true that she owned fifty race horses and Barbara gave an affirmative answer.
“Is it true that you spent most of Christmas Day at the races instead of at home with your child?” was the next question.
Barbara lowered her head and nodded.
Two days later came the headlines—TAYLOR CITED: FIGHT IS LOST BY STANWYCK. “Robert Taylor’s name was dragged into the Frank Fay-BarbaraSatanwyck custody fight today when attorneys foe Fay attempted to cast the Number One Heart Throb of the Screen in the role of a villain in the Santa Claus suit.”
The judge ruled in favor of Fay who would be allowed to visit his son twice a week and on alternating Saturdays, provided he was completely sober and always in the company of the child’s nurse, Nellie Banner, who would report his conduct to Miss Stanwyck.
Barbara commented as she was leaving court that her ex-husband was an all-the-time-drunk and told her lawyers to appeal.
To add to her problems, she was suspendedby her studio for refusing to take a part assighed to her in a forthcoming picture.

Before Taylor had left for England he bought property next to Barbara’s in Northridge located in the far corner of the San Fernando Valley fifteen miles from the MGM studios. He built a house and stables within walking distance of the Mar-Wyck ranch. Movie magazines printed stories about Bob’s running over to Barbara’s for a swim in her pool, or Barbara hopping over to Bob’s to borrow something and usually ending their articles with “Why don’t they just live together?”
Bob raised quarter horses because they felt solid under the saddle while Barbara continued to breed thorough breds. They were seen riding together at all hours, though she was not known for her ability on horseback.
While he was in England, Barbara completed the decoration and furnishing of Bob’s place and when he returned to California it was finished. They spent most of their evenings on one another’s ranch . . . putting them in the same category as Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Paulette Goddard and Charlie Chaplin, as well as other un-married couples who lived next door to each other, shared each other’s family, food and lawn mowers.
Taylor’s three years before the camera and especially his experience with the press sent him deeper into a quest for privacy. Now his “acquaintance” with Barbara made him withdraw even more. MGM no longer felt he needed to be seen so much in public and slowly they allowed him to live his own life. Their strategy to make S. Arlington Brugh into the famous one and only Robert Taylor was one of the most expensive and biggest publicity campaigns known to Hollywood.

He was scheduled at once for The Crowd Roars, to play the ethical boxer, Killer McCoy. The public was still getting used to Taylor’s rowing and running at Oxford, then his seriousness and forcefulness in Three Comrades, but now they were going to see him as a tough boxer who used rough language and rarely combed his hair.
He was put into the hands of the studio’s physical director to obtain the “solid effect” and had a gym set up in his house.
Actually Taylor had been working out for years. When he started his career in movies, he was thinner, but MGM went out to prove that their wonder boy had developed remarkably:
1935 1938
Height 5’11 5’11 1/2
Chest 37 43
Waist 29 1/2 30
Hips 37 1/2 37
Thighs 20 23
Calf 13 1/2 15
Biceps 12 14 3/4
Forearm 10 3/4 12
Wrists 6 1/2 7
Neck 14 16

While being interviewed the two said they had been friends for three years and often sparred together. Baer held up his two broken thumbs for a laugh. Taylor had only one, but not as twisted as Baer’s—“Broke it during rehearsal . . .”
As they were leaving the restaurant, Taylor was asked about The Crown Roars:
“Bob, was that your hair on your chest?”
“It was my own.”
“Did you wear a wig?”
“The hair on my head was mine, too . . .”
“How come it was so long?”
“It grows just like your does . . .”
“What about your chest . . . was . . .?”
“Yeah, that was mine, too . . . Goooood damn!”
Ruth didn’t like her son mussed up and walked out of the theatre when she went to see the movie. She thought it was disgusting and told him so. “You could have gotten hurt, son.”
Bob quietly explained to her how movies were made and that most of the punches were faked. She wanted to know why astand-in wasn’t used, just in case, and he said there was no need for one and preferred doing all his stunts himself, but assured her the studio would not let him take any chances. “Anyhow, Mother, people better get used to the idea that I am not going to trip daintily into a room, kiss a lady’s fingertips,hand her a rose and speak softly into her ear.”