To view this article, go to My Profile and then View Saved Stories.
To view this article, go to My Profile and then View Saved Stories.
By Laurence Leamer
In those years, in Hollywood, there were smart women and bad women, and only a treacherous no man’s land in between. Janet Leigh’s colleague at MGM, Elizabeth Taylor, a mischievous woman. The study turned the twice-divorced woman into a kind and morally annoying woman, exemplifying the values intended by repressed America in the early postwar period. Alongside actresses such as Debbie Reynolds and Doris Day, Leigh represented the style of role that teenage women were expected to aspire to. Terrible things only happened if they went to the back seat of a coupe.
One night in 1950, Leigh performed at a cocktail party offered through RKO Pictures. While conversing with endless insights, a young man introducing himself as Tony Curtis, a user by Hollywood standards, approached her. Logically, Leigh deserves to have Murmured a few polite words and turned around. But even in this room where good looks was the only access card that mattered, I was baffled by this “devastatingly charming young man – indeed magnificent – with unruly, big black hair, susceptible eyes bordered by long black eyelashes, and a usability impossible to resist. He was from New York, announced it with his accent and had a contract with Universal, the studios’ Motel Six. Leigh did anything she rarely hacía. su phone number in the small Beverly Hills space she had just bought and where she lived with her parents.
Whatever the motivations that brought Curtis to the party, when he saw Leigh with her exquisite, “sweet and vulnerable” face, he had a schedule in mind and it wasn’t about taking a picture with the actress.
Curtis had the good sense not to seem too worried and wait a few days before calling Leigh. When she did, she posed as Cary Grant. She accepted his invitation to dinner. That night, Curtis told Leigh his life story: Bernie Schwartz, the deficient son of a Jewish tailor, had grown up in New York City. Things had gotten so bad that, for a few weeks, their parents had placed Tony and his brother Julius in an orphanage where they can at least have normal meals. At the age of thirteen, he attended the American Legion parade on Second Avenue. His brother Julius, 4 years younger, was not someone Curtis sought to drag down when he was with his friends. Later that day, a truck ran over and killed his little brother. This death replaced the family forever. His parents had a second son, but the late Julius tormented their lives.
After that night, Leigh and Curtis were in bed together faster than Gary Cooper’s quick drawing. During his first months in Hollywood, Curtis had slept with countless women, some of whom he faintly recognized. Leigh different. Although she only had a few years of higher education, to him she was a global woman, college-educated and with a forged understanding of a world he had barely seen.
What attracted Leigh to Curtis was his warm and expansive soul. Impetuous, bold, pouring out her ironic wit above all, the actor breathed life. Although Leigh had also grown up in poverty, by comparison, she had been raised as a princess in a palace. In his company, she is also passionately alive.
Leigh and Curtis hadn’t figured out if this was eternal love or just another Hollywood craze when they made their first public appearance together. But the moment they were seen together, the enthusiasm they generated was remarkable. “It seemed to us that the enthusiasts in the stands had shaken hands with Janet Leigh and her date, Tony Curtis, when they got out of their car,” one Hollywood reporter wrote.
Fans were looking to see two of their favorites in a marriage for love, making everything they saw in theaters real. They pushed Curtis and Leigh toward marriage, seeing the union as inevitable and natural. Still, when the couple took their wedding vows, the reaction surprised them. Leonard Goldstein, the CEO of Universal, warned Curtis that if he married Leigh, his developing fan base would prevent him from being persecuted, destroying his career. MGM wasn’t happier: in an unfortunate moment, Leigh would destroy the fantasies of young people. men from Maine to New Mexico.
The worst of the negatives came from the most unlikely subject: Leigh’s own father. Fred Morrison, his daughter’s business manager; He didn’t need to threaten his prestige by doing the incredible stupidity of remarrying.
However, Curtis and Leigh were married in a civil rite in June 1951 in Greenwich, Connecticut. The nuptials were greeted with an avalanche of exposure beyond any possible idea of the newlyweds. They were ambitious young actors who used everything necessary to get where they were looking for. after passing by, and here, in front of them, there was a tool that Curtis exploited to the fullest.
By Richard Lawson
By Savannah Walsh
By Natalie Jarvey
At movie premieres, Janet temporarily walked the red carpet, away from the adoring enthusiasts, while Curtis held back, enjoying every moment. On a film tour, Universal’s PR, other people designed a removable blouse so that when teenage women clung to Curtis, they would take a souvenir blouse sleeve. Curtis unabashedly enjoyed worship; Leigh played the innocent wronged off screen and on stage. “I can state unequivocally that I never asked to be photographed or interviewed,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I just tried to respond to requests as much as possible. “Still, film columnist Hedda Hopper called the couple “publicity-crazy, ambitious, boring and impolite exhibitionists. “
Read here
All products featured in Vanity Fair are decided independently through our editors. However, when you purchase something through our retail links, we may earn an associate commission.
Bad Bunny on Sex, Social Media and Kendall Jenner for October Issue
Welcome to the crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy world of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The 25 Best Shows to Watch on Netflix Right Now
The legacy of royal pensioners.
New Revelation on JFK Assassination May Disappoint ‘Lone Gunman’ Theory
Meet Kyle Deschanel, the fake playboy who turned out to have cheated part of Manhattan
From the archives: a father’s account of the trial of his daughter’s killer
We are here to listen to you! Tell us about your podcast listening habits.
By Julie Miller
By Kathleen Hale
By Mark Seal
By Emily Jane Fox
By Mark Seal
By Julie Miller
By Rebecca Ford
By Anthony Breznican
More From Vanity Fair
Contact