This was told to Tex Maddox, and appeared in the May 1964 issue of
Movieland and TV Land magazine
Because she knows we've been holding
good thoughts for the Darin's all along...Sandy reveals the whole
new story just for you!
"It was the first morning I didn't have to get to
the studio until eleven. Instead of setting the
alarm for six a.m., at last I could sleep later.
"At seven forty-five, Doddie was tugging me
awake. 'Mommy, I want some oatmeal!' he cried,
loud and clear.
"I answered, 'Go ask Ethel.' She was our housekeeper and now is our son's nurse.
"Next I heard his emphatic 'No!' And I want
you to do it.' Since he was two last December, no
matter what I ask him it's instant NO. I guess
Dodd thinks he's proving he has grown up.
"By eight o'clock I'd
given up my scheme for a good night's sleep. I was up
fixing him oatmeal."
Sandra Dee looked smooth as satin when
she told me how she dares to love today. I found her in her
long, lavish trailer dressing room on a sound stage at Universal;
where she was playing the wealthiest girl in the world
in
"I'd Rather Be Rich". In a stunning gold colored cocktail
dress that hugged her ever so subtly, with her soft blonde
hair intrically coiffed , she was never prettier.
"After this week's opening breakfast bit, Dodd decided to
kiss his father fondly. He knew Bobby was sleeping, but
obviously he's inherited his firmness and my implusiveness. For
him it was the ideal moment to be tender.
"When his 'daddy' didn't wake Bobby, I was speechless myself.
I could hear Dodd suddenly switch to my tone of voice. To my utter amazement,
he was imitating me , saying "Bobby" exactly as I do. Well, it worked.
Yes, his parents ate their oatmeal with his second helping!
" Everything has happened to me on this picture," she said with a
happy sigh. "Really, my nerves are on edge!" she added as she sat down
on a beautiful couch and I settled in one of the comfortable chairs to dive into details.
In her new film, Sandra as the granddaughter of a doting tycoon played by
Maurice Chevalier, has the most gorgeuous clothes she has ever worn. 17
Jean Louis orginals were designed for her.
"I like dressing up for the part, " she admitted promptly. As he always does
producer Ross Hunter was presenting her with all the ensembles for her
own personal wardrobe at the finish of the production. "I adore
that custom of his! I certainly wear whatever a role requires but I'd rather not
go around as quaint as Tammy in real life.
And in this movie she also has a change of genuine jewels for each outfit. Gems
literally worth $1,650,000 were rented for her from Cartier's in
Manhattan.
"It's fantastic to wear diamonds, emeralds , rubies and pearls in gold
and platinum settings that are breathtaking," she acknowledged.
In the night club scene where Andy Williams woos her with an irresistable
song , Sandra will be seen ablaze with such accessories as diamond rings, a gold evening
bag studded with diamonds, and an engagement ring that is enchanting, not gaudy, although
it's a 22-carat diamond ring costing $275,000.
This fortune in jewels, flown west to adorn her, was fully insured and kept
in a safe vault when not on Sandra. Herman Vossmeyer, the studio security
guard specially assigned to be with her whenever any of the jewels were, is a 38-year old, stocky
built bachelor who wore his .32 automatic tucked in his waistband. He even followed
her to the ladies room.
"Jean Louis picked out all the pieces to accent the clothes properly. Then
I was almost stuck with a fake the day the emerald brooch was late!
"Cartier's delivered the jewelry by insured mail. But
somebody forgot to put a special delivery stamp on. For that lack
of thirty cents, a package valued at nearly $500,000 gave us a chill.
I was about to use costume jewlery held ready for any emergency.
But at the last minute the stage door burst open, and in poured three men
with that package triumphantly!
"It's a dream part, definitely."
Consider that she had to be courted by fabulous Andy, who makes his film
debut ardently angling for her, and Robert Goulet. Both go into
romantic songs to win her.
"I stopped playing their records in here," Sandra said, rising to put another
pile on her stereo, "I think they're both tremendous singers, but I felt it would embarass
them to hear me
keeping their albums on."
Since she married such a successful
singer, and could develop her own voice
to make more records, Sandra's awareness of singing talent naturally was
acute. She also was plainly awed by
the magnetic presence of Maurice
Chevalier.
"Bobby's "I Wonder Who's Kissing
Her Now?' is the first standard he's
ever done as a single. I'm crazy about
the way he sings it!" she enthused.
"Actually, it was his discovery that
he could run his music business from
Hollywood that got us our new home
on Toluca Lake. Bobby is as glad as
I am that we're staying in California
after all, because he wants to begin
enjoying the year-round outdoor life
that's possible."
When he played top night clubs,
Sandra unhesitatingly took their baby
along, traveling incessantly to be with
her husband wherever he sang. Last
fall when they reconciled she once more
demonstrated her belief that his was
the most important career.
Bobby had decided to accept no more
night club dates. He completed another
tour of high paying one night stands,
sleeping irregular hours in the special
bus he hired to transport himself and
his musicians, in a state of exhaustion.
Wisely he chose to concentrate on
making records and developing new
singers—also he wanted to continue appearing in dramatic roles in films so
he could progress as an actor. They'd
live in Manhattan where he employs
a staff of nine at his T-M Music Company headquarters.
"We put our house here and the
home in Palm Springs up for sale and
I unpacked some things in a suite at
a New York hotel. Whenever we looked at apartments, Bobby worried immediately about a yard for Doddie.
Though we searched for the right house
in the suburbs, we had no luck. Still,
I intended to return here only when I
made a picture."
Her total commitment gave Bobby
the freedom of choice he needed.
He'd always longed to plant permanent roots for his family in the west.
Finally he realized there was no valid
reason why he couldn't function just
fine from his offices in the Capitol Tower on Vine Street.
"I was as thrilled as he was," Sandra
recalled. "The next day I was planning
on packing like mad again. I like to
meet people, see old friends and make
new ones. But I've been going on so
many trips and always have so much
stuff to pack and undo that I don't
like a traveling life any more.
"Neither does Bobby.
"Besides, I'm still afraid to fly. On
that plane when we were moving back
west, I pretended I wasn't up in the
air by talking sensibly to him about
how we'd not buy a house impulsively.
That was the trouble with our first
one. We plunged into it and then saw
we had to make a lot of changes. I
was working steadily. The custom-made
furniture Bobby ordered before leaving for a night club date in Las Vegas
was all too large and had to be cut
down. We supposed we wanted everything ultra-modern, but by the time the
additions were made we didn't.
"Live and learn! We flew in on a
Friday to California again. Sunday Bobby saw an advertisement we couldn't
ignore. To be cautious, he went to inspect the heavenly Spanish house by
himself that Monday. I went to it alone
on Tuesday, Wednesday we hurried
over together. On the doorstep, I tugged Bobby, pleaded with him to calm
down and dicker."
This was a married move new to her.
The more money conscious Bobby,
however, assured her the price was
so fair they shouldn't irk the owner
by dickering. They didn't and paid for
their new dream house eagerly.
"It's only ten minutes from the studio. We know this house will be perfect eventually.
"Of course," Sandra conceded, "getting into it wasn't simply a breeze. Before it was available, we turned down
a cash bid for our original town house
because we had no place to go. We'd
sold our desert place since we only
stayed there a few times, but we'd kept
its furniture and decided to use it temporarily in our new, older house we're
fixing up. As soon as I can, I'm going
to get a decorator who'll take me
around to inspect what Bobby and I
might select.
"We know we want heavy pieces,
brown velvet upholstering to carry out
the Spanish air rather than the reds
and whites we had.
"Our house sits back on its lawn
that runs down to a private lake surrounded by beautiful homes. There are
trees and flowers—the space and privacy, we didn't have before on that
street above the Sunset Strip.
"Getting certain things painted wasn't painless. The cheerful blue for the
walls in the baby's L-shaped room was
no problem. But our beams in the living-room were! Bobby had to go to a
paint store himself to figure out how
to solve the stripped beam bit.
"When we were due to move, the
painting wasn't done. My mother had
been baby-sitting and helping us pack
since I had begun this movie, but she'd
planned a trip east. The day before
she left, was her birthday and I surprised her with a darling Pomeranian.
It was so tiny she had to leave it with
us. The following day it jumped off a
ledge and had to be rushed to a vet and
into a cast for a broken leg. I brought
him to work with me every day after
that. Everybody autographed his cast!"
She had to taper that devotion,
though.
The night Johnny Mathis opened at
the Cocoanut Grove she and Bobby
gave a gala party there in his honor.
With three dogs and a mynah bird already at home, Bobby looked at the
pomeranian she had cuddled in her
safe arms as they sat in their chauffeur-driven limousine and announced, "It's either that dog or me!" Sandra recognized she had been too concerned about the puppy. It would grow up and she really must let it out of her sight.
"I've become a regular Pearl Mesta," she revealed next. "We have a couple keeping house for us and Bobby likes to invite friends to dinner. I plan what's to be served by phone between scenes.
"Two weeks after we expected to move we told the housekeepers to go on over. I had all our mail switched. Then the painters didn't get done, so we weren't finally there ourselves for another two weeks.
"I had to have all our mail redirected back. The studio didn't know where to call me because I never knew at which place I'd be. I was afraid to walk into either. I knew both were a mess!
"The confusion disturbed Bobby, too, because he's so well-organized and neat."
Minus the cook, Sandra had to prepare dinner after she got home from work for those two weeks. "I've always been able to cook pretty well, but I don't care to go at it so fast." Her fullest week end came when she had to supervise the final moving from the distant residence to the closer one. "I never thought
I'd be directing traffic in and out of a huge van, but that's how I ended up."
All during this hectic spell she continued driving her Lincoln Continental to the studio where, in her new role, she presumably was a giddy miss living in a half-million dollar mansion where all was automatically elegant. A make believe butler was on tap.
The Number One feminine star on the Universal lot, Sandra plays someone her own age for the first time in this screen ball. She's jubilantly 22 this April—old enough to be coping victoriously with her personal problems as a famous wife off the screen, yet not too old to frolic as a happy heroine on the screen.
She still finds plenty of kissing scenes in her scripts. Eight years ago when she was 14, a kissing scene with John Saxon comprised her screen test. Leon Charles, who coached her for it, warned her not to bump the handsome John's nose. As the dialogue director on her newest movie, he didn't have to fear she'd collapse from fright when she had to kiss Robert Goulet and Andy Williams nineteen times.
"This script said I had to register sheer ecstasy by instinctively slipping off both shoes when I responded to the one I truly loved. Don't those writers dream up the weirdest things? Imagine not realizing you're in love until your feet hurt! My feet have never told me that, so I was acting, believe me."
She laughed at another memory.
"When Andy and I went for a stroll in the woods for a scene, I had to wear capeskin slacks and an overblouse. They sprayed me from the waist down to make my slacks fit tighter.
"We had to be scared by a bear
weighing six hundred pounds. That
bear, waiting to begin, went to sleep
because it was his hibernating period.
The director had a stand-by bit player
ready to get into a bear suit from Western Costuming, but the trainer woke
his bear and got him going toward us
by tying a lady bear, Minnie, to a tree
behind us as his incentive. Carroll—the
one who was frightening us—ambled
toward Minnie all right, but after we'd
registered alarm he simply went to sleep
again. And Minnie climbed into her
cage on a truck and looked at him
like a woman scorned!
"I don't think Andy will ever forget
his first picture. When he and I had
to barbecue a rocket-stuffed prop chicken that was to take off into the air to
our dismay, it blew up in our faces
instead with a roaring flash. Fortunately, we weren't hurt."
He was, though, when he did his
first film fight with Robert Goulet for
Sandra's smiles. Bob miscalculated on
a rehearsed punch and Andy had to
be taken to the studio hospital for the
deep cut over his right eyebrow.
Bobby goes to his office for the full
day. But on week ends he relaxes,
Sandra vowed.
"I bought him a motor scooter and
something safer—a twelve foot sailboat
we sail Dodd around the lake in. I was
going to order a cabin cruiser, but they
wouldn't permit a boat that big.
"I expect our son will become the
healthiest of athletes because Bobby is
so anxious to guide him into sports.
Me, I'm still a hypochondriac—always
imagining I'm about to get everything!
Bobby's just the opposite, will never
admit he's feeling bad."
He's one hundred per cent okay
physically now, his doctor reports. Yet,
at 7, he suffered his first severe attack
of rheumatic fever. Bobby had three
more severe sieges by the time he was
11. He's alive only because of advances
in medical treatment.
That's why he's proving his gratefulness by devoting so much energy
to the American Heart Association's
campaign for funds for the research
that will end heart disease. It's OUR
country's Number One Killer, Bobby
reminds people. Last year eighty-nine
research programs sponsored by the
finest doctors had to be canceled by
the association's lack of funds!
Because his efforts are so constant,
and he is a living symbol of hope for
all children stricken by heart trouble,
Bobby has been officially appointed the
association's permanent National Heart
Ambassador.
Sandra is so proud of him.
She will star in two more movies for
Universal this year, teaming with Jimmy Darren first ( WEB EDITORS NOTE:
Bobby Darin eventually got the role), in
"That Funny Feeling." a comedy which starts rolling
shortly. Bobby has two more films set
at the same studio, thanks to his newly demonstrated dramatic ability.
"Next year I want to have our second child," she confided. "By then we'll
be caught up where we're bogged
down." Behind her shimmering glamor,
there is a deep sensitivy and a passionate love of life in Sandra's nature
that makes you root for her.
"Bobby beams because he taught me
to fish. It was fun camping out with
him up in the High Sierras for those
trout. Now I'll bet he's wondering if
we can go down to Baja, California,
to tackle marlin. The place I'd rather
go for complete relaxation is Hawaii.
I was there for the first time last summer for a week and got a wonderful
tan surfing. It's lazy magic haunts me.
"But we'll enjoy our home first. We
intend to add a projection room, along
with the proper furnishings. If I can't
manage to make the house run serenely, I'll decide happiness is a three-ring
circus of our own!"
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