 |
|
|
"I can't imagine ever being without Bobby!" says a happy, beautiful Sandra on her fifth anniversary . . .
Sandy eloped with Bobby on December 1st, 1960. Now she says, "We can't believe we've been married for five marvelous, crazy, magical years! But, when we stop to realize it's true, we feel we could never be single again. We're together in our hopes, our fears, our joys. I can't imagine ever being without Bobby!"
Her bewitching brown eyes sparkled at the congratulations on their fifth wedding anniversary from Movieland and TV Time.
"We appreciate hearing from our friends!" she exclaimed.
Looking back, she recalled fondly, "We found we had to create our own fate -- by our own thoughts and actions. We discovered the pleasure in adjusting happily to each other's preferences.
"And lately," she smiled, "we've been learning some more about the kind of marriage that's best for us!"
I'd gone a block beyond a spreading golf course to reach the Darins' home in the uncluttered Toluca Lake section of Los Angeles. The wrought-iron gate flush with the quiet street, opens into a fairy-tale patio. Year-round green grass, shrubs and trees, a continuous splash of flowers in bloom, and the tinkle of a charming fountain, give it the air of enchantment. Their two-story pastel pink house, topped with a tiled roof at different heights, rises on the other three sides.
Although her residence is modified Spanish in style, Sandy is all modern American in her admissions. She welcomed me in a stunningly simple beige sheath dress. Then she led me into the den, where large windows look out on the tree-shaded lawn running down to the private lake shared with neighbors there.
"It was awful to be apart from Bobby so long!" She was soon confiding. "But there was nothing we could do about it. My new picture A Man Could Get Killed, is the last one on my original contract which I started at fourteen, and Universal wanted to film it entirely in Portugal and Spain. Bobby has his work and couldn't walk away from it to go wait on the sidelines. The studio assured me I'd be gone only six weeks. Instead the shooting schedule stretched out and I had to stay over six thousand miles away for four months!" Dodd Darin, who's just four this month, went with her. His nurse, and Sandy's vibrant mother, went along, also, to help her.
"Bobby took us as far as New York by train. We had such a sad goodbye! I'm still scared by those plane crashes I hear about, so we went the rest of the way by ship. Of course, the Leonardo da Vinci is a fine new liner and everybody but our group -- three women and a bewildered little boy -- seemed gay as it pulled out. When they began singing "God Bless America" we joined in with more tears, straining to see Bobby waving from the dock.
"Then, in my cabin, Dodd screamed for two hours. To him, we were staying put and his father had left us! He didn't understand when I tried to explain we hadn't been deserted, that we were going to exciting places. I kept reminding myself I was mature, that a successful mother should be able to be soothing. I talked to Bobby from the middle of the Atlantic, and that phone call did wonders for my morale!"
The ocean was smooth as satin on the southern crossing, and in a week Gibraltar loomed as high as Sandy promised Dodd it would. A chauffeured black limousine met them at the foot of the huge rock to drive the foursome to Lisbon. There was a truck to follow behind them with Sandy's luggage. Unlike those who won't bother, she's always believed in being appropriately dressed.
"Yes, I still take a choice of clothes on any trip so I'll be safe for whatever I'm supposed to do," she conceded. "I took eight long evening gowns this time and didn't wear one because I never went anywhere that formal. Bobby likes to dress well, so he's never impatient because it matters to me."
What she saw of the Spanish and Portuguese countryside from the car -- Cadiz was an overnight stop -- intrigued her since she's inevitably curious about the sights wherever she goes.
When she arrived in Lisbon the lodgings for her were in the posh Cascais area, a fifteen-minute drive out from the capital. More ex-kings and retired nobility have settled there than any place else. The l6-story Estotil Sol, the most spectacular new hotel in picturesque Portugal, had been open only two months. Its three fabulous penthouses occupy the top floor and Sandy was ceremoniously taken to the one reserved for her. Besides breathtaking bedrooms and bathrooms, a dramatic dining room and complete kitchen, her quarters had two magnificient living rooms and marble-floored balconies where a hundred guest could be regally entertained outside. A panoramic view of the harbor where it meets the Atlantic was superb. Tony Franciosa and his family, and Melina Mercouri and her group, had the other two penthouses. James Garner, the fourth star in the picture, was there alone, so he was allotted less space.
"I would love to have given a great party if Bobby had been here. Downstairs there was the biggest swimming pool I've ever seen at a hotel. We swam and tanned while waiting for work calls."
Unexpectedly, there was one delay after another. The weather turned maddeningly cloudy at many times when scenes were all set for filming, so they often had to plan for another day. As a result, their two weeks in Lisbon extended to six.
For this suspense comedy in which Sandy teams with Tony, and Melina with Jim, Universal rented a gorgeous villa in the center of the city to use as the British Embassy. The real one was much too drab appearing to be part of the glamourous backgrounds!
"I played a fun-loving, twenty-year old on the loose in Lisbon," Sandy informed me. "The script had me breaking away from the tourists I was traveling with to chase Tony. Supposedly, I'd had a crush on him in our native Seattle, and I couldn't forget him when I spotted him posing as a Portuguese smuggler." She laughed. "You can see I acted!"
I agreed, for Sandy has never been like that, herself. Today she's twenty-three and has starred in twenty-three movies. She never had a genuine date, only escorts arraned for by publicists, until she and Bobby were introduced in Rome some five years ago when they were sent there separately to co-star in Come September. Sandy was eighteen, and he was twenty-four, when they married impulsively in Manhattan on their return from that location trip.
His relatives were with them and her mom was invited and gave her blessings in advance. As so much had been printed about her mother presumably opposing the match, she wasn't present only because she felt it would be less hectic if she weren't. Sandy's studio, anxious to preserve her popularity as its teenage magnet, worried needlessly for she swiftly became its No. 1 feminine draw. And this year she again rates among the top 10 International Box Office stars.
"But I'm not a bug on acting," she insisted to me frankly. "At first it was the most fun I could imagine. Then it became the work I enjoyed. Now it's a wonderful challenge. Most of all, although, I love to live! And I didn't feel half as alive when Bobby and I had the ocean between us as I do now.
"He stayed at our apartment in Manhattan for six weeks, as long as I was in Lisbon. Friends of ours in the East would ask him to dinner at 7 o'clock and he wouldn't say goodnight until 2 a.m. because he was so lonesome. He took it harder than I thought.
"We talked by phone at least three times a week, ran up enormous long distance bills. It was never satisfying. He didn't sound like himself at that distance. We were spending $35 just to shout, 'I can't hear you!'"
She had to laugh again. "Once that was an advantage. I bought an expensive ring in Lisbon, a diamond and pearl combination, and naturally I raved about it to Bobby. But when he asked, 'How much?' I answered, 'Honey, I can't hear you!' Then, 'What did you say?' so I never had to mention the price. When he saw it he agreed with my taste and was glad I had bought it.
"In Lisbon the phones go dead at night, which didn't make keeping in touch easy. And Dodd was still so hurt by his notion that his daddy had left us that he wouldn't talk to Bobby.
"Letters became a new bond. The dark moment in a morning came if I didn't receive one. I write in such large script I had to struggle to reduce it for all my details. There was always plenty to say. One time my mother and Dodd found themselves locked in the penthouse for five hours when the heavy door into the entrance hall jammed. A man had to climb down the roof on a rope, into a window to dismantle the lock from the inside. And there was the time I had to work six hours in the hot sun on a beach deliberately covered with 3500 pounds of dead fish! After that I didn't think I'd ever be able to eat seafood again!"
Predictably, she got along harmoniously with the whole troupe. Sandy has such a wonderful disposition and a quick sense of humor -- is first to laugh at herself! Yet she's never afraid to be definite. When I wondered about Melina Mercouri, the tempestuous Greek, Sandy replied instantly, "I admire her!"
Buying Portuguese hits for her record-player was automatic. It led to some dinners in night clubs like Lisboa a Noite to hear famous fado singers. "I wanted to hear Amalia Rodriguez, who's known widely, but she wasn't appearing then. However, I did hear Tristao Da Silva and reported on him to Bobby. Fado is a musical lament, wth a guitar or mandolin accompaniment, so it made me sadder than ever about being away. I saw Portugal's beauty, but it would have been so much better with my husband!"
Finally they moved on to Rome to film their interiors at Cineciua Studios, where Sandy had worked twice before. Cleopatra and Ben Hur were made there, and John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Peter Sellers were filming other new pictures.
Everyone else in the Universal contigent registered at the new Cavalieri Hilton on the highest hill in Rome. Sandy and her group returned to the historic, dignified Grand Hotel in the downtown section because she went there on her first trip to the Eternal City and luckily met Bobby.
Minutes after her mother had the chic wardrobe unpacked perfectly ("If I had to do it, I wouldn't even open a second suitcase," Sandy confessed to me) there was a call for a publicty layout. She had to be photographed visiting a dozen of Rome's most noted places.
"Doing that brought back so many memories of discovering them with Bobby. What a pep talk I needed -- and got -- from him by phone after that!"
In her ten more weeks there, she grew deeply homesick. Seeing that Dodd could play outdoors up at the Hilton, and that it had a big swimming pool, she moved there.
"I can be realistic, as well as romantic. Dodd's already aching for a motorcycle. That will be a far day in the future! His grandmother warned him not to touch one parked at the Hilton and I came out and found him playing with it. I said, "Stop that this minute!" He did, and was as content at something else. When I was first married and couldn't have my way, I sulked. That was stupid, and don't want Dodd to know it's possible."
Sandy's determined not to spoil him yet every night they were away she let him climb into her bed to sleep. Dodd's used to the Darin's warm affection, so it's ingrained in his nature.
"He didn't want to talk to his daddy on the phone till the night before we started for home. For a month I pointed out we'd be going. Once he decided to give in and speak to Bobby, he hated to get off the phone!"
The papparazzi, those outrageous free-lance photographers who make a fast buck by chasing celebrities in Rome for the most candid shots they can snatch, are incredible, she remembered. "I was only able to go to the Via Veneto twice because of them. At 11 a.m. I walked up the avenue and ten of them suddenly ran all around me. They yelled at me to pose, pushed each other, snapped dozens of pictures frantically, even changed their lenses in the middle of the street traffic!
"And Paris! We took a train north to sail home on the Queen Elizabeth and had four hours there before sailing. Bobby speaks French fluently, but I don't!"
When we entered New York harbor, the press came out on a tugboat to interview her. Bobby was waving from the dock when they landed. The Darins maintain an apartment on Sutton Place for their time in the East, so he whisked the travelers there.
"Dodd wouldn't get off his lap. And, after rushing to Bobby, to hug him, I felt shy. Those four months apart made me self-conscious with my own husband. It's assinine to be separated that long. We've learned that for sure!
"I've a gourmet cookbook handy there and here, but the only thing I could think of to fix for our first meal together was -- what else after Italy? Spaghetti!"
On the train west Bobby didn't want her to put her shoes on. That might have meant she was stepping out of the drawing-room he and Dodd shared with her. In her absence, he'd made a half-a-dozen flights to California, lingering only a night or two because their house was too lonely.
"By the time we came in the front door, I was just getting going with all I had to tell him. I did't stop talking for forty-eight hours!"
But Bobby is a talker, too, so she did plenty of listening. His musical and business ability have him singing on top TV variety shows as well as records. The "Words and music by Bobby Darin" tag is more and more a guarantee of a song hit, because he's now one of our leading song writers. He's composing the complete scores for movies and television shows, besides. His music publishing firm, increasingly to the fore, presents the singers he sponsors. In September he formed David Productions with David Garshenson, his business manager, for new motion picture and TV projects. Starred in seven films, so far, he won an Academy Award nomination for his dramatic acting in one of them. As effective in drama and comedy on television, he's debating which he should tackle next.
Sandy discolosed, "Acting always has been his main career goal. And I want to get away from comedy, myself. We always see the best plays when we're in New York and I want to do something that's good in pictures."
She demonstrated she can, and she's signed a new contract with Universal for four films in the next three years. This allows her the intervening periods for whatever she chooses. For the first time she can pick her roles at other studios, rather than always doing what's decreed for her, and at the higher pay she now rates. She hopes to make at least two movies a year in addition to those at UI.
The warmth and care in her heart centers around her home. This is what she and Bobby recognize now.
"Run upstairs and change your clothes so we can go out and meet your father!" she said to Dodd, who'd been playing in the den while we talked. "Bobby's doing a new "Andy Williams Show" and we're watching them tape it. Afterwards Andy and his wife, Eddie Fisher, and some other friends are coming on back here." It was 5 o'clock and she was breezing out with twelve due for dinner!
"I'll never be an organized person myself," she insisted honestly. "I plan all our meals, but I've got great help now. I enjoy our parties more than the guests!" With her zest, Sandy's irresistible.
Bobby's going to sing again in a a night-club after a two-year "no" to that sort of bid. "He opens at the Copacabana in June, so we'll be in New York half of this coming summer,"Sandy said. "He's surprised me with a thirteen-acre island he bought in the middle of the Walkhill River. It's an hour and forty-five minutes drive from Manhattan, and we'll build a hideaway there where we can relax by fishing. Bobby hesitated a few minutes before wondering aloud if I'd like that. I told him, 'Good grief, why wouldn't I, our own island!' Together! I'd love it'!"
(Thanks to Joy Cash)
Home | News | Bobby | Career | Fun | Fans | Specials
bobbydarin.net/bobbydarin.com, All Rights Reserved.