Sandra Dee: In Rome
"I Don't Want to Leave Bobby, but I Must!"

There were thousands of people waiting for the Queen Elizabeth to pull into New York harbor that sunny morning last September, but Sandra Dee and the baby, 4-year-old Dodd, saw Bobby Darin's face as though a neon were lighting it up. "We almost jumped overboard and swam to him," Sandra said later. "It had been three months since Bobby and I'd been together, and we never realized we'd find the separation so unbearable. It was our first long separation -- aside from the time when we had a marital separation, and if you don't mind I don't even want to think of that any more. I'd been to Portugal to make A Man Could Get Killed. Bobby doesn't fly so he couldn't jet over for a weekend or two; same goes for me.

So here we are, without having been with each other all this time. We're returning home, and there's Bobby waiting for us. It had been quite a project for Bobby to meet us, because it meant leaving Hollywood for New York by train, and that's a pretty long trip, all three days of it. Then, after we finally swooped into each other's arms, we headed straight for the train again to go home, because Bobby had to be back in Hollywood to do an Andy Williams Show. Just imagine, he'd traveled six days by train, there and back, just so that he could be in New York for that moment when he could see us sail in, and we could see him waiting for us. Sentimental! Crazily so! He'd promised Doddie he'd be there, and he was. And like me, he couldn't wait another day for us to be together.

I don't ever want to be away from Bobby for a long time again. And yet, there will be more separations facing us now than ever before. I don't want to leave Bobby, but I must," said Sandra, her face clouding. "My exclusive contract at Universal ends now, and I can make pictures for other companies. The movies that have been offered me are fabulous -- different from the light comedies I've been doing, mostly against a studio background. These new pictures are more sophisticated, on a more international level. I'm growing up and with a wider variety of studios offering me pictures, I have been given stories that take place in locales all over the world, very tempting roles. I'd be foolish to turn them down; they can put my career on another level, it's exciting. I'm a wife and mother, but I'm also an actress, I love working. Bobby lives me to work. He married an actress and isn't trying to change me."

"There's a picture in Paris I'm planning to do, and one in Switzerland. Great parts! Before I even considered them, I had a long talk with Bobby. We decided that if given enough time, we could arrange to be together even when I am in Europe on a film. Bobby would be able to arrange his work so that he could do night club and TV shows in Europe.

When I was in Portugal on this picture, Doddie and my mother were with me, also my hairdresser and makeup man, old friends. We had a beautiful penthouse suite in the top hotel in Cascais, just outside of Lisbon. I should have been happy -- I had my own little intimate group with me in this luxurious home away from home. But I wasn't happy. I missed Bobby every night. Bobby couldn't come with me because his own busy career kept him in Hollywood and in New York. It was at the height of the new television season, when they were taping the new shows, and Bobby was guest star on loads of musical specials. Bobby's his own man, with his own career, and he doesn't latch on to his movie wife. Thank heavens for that. I couldn't be married to a man who wasn't important in his own right, boss of the house. But that's where the problem lay, too; Bobby can't pick up and go with me when I have to go to Europe for a long picture. But Bobby and I are working it out for the next time. Bobby will manage. He always does. It's because Bobby is so strong and resourceful and I lean on him so much, that I missed him as I did when I was away. I'd feel so blue I'd pick up the phone and call him at home in Toluca Lake, in California, just to hear his voice. He'd say, 'What's the matter darling?' I'd mumble, 'Oh, just nothing.' Then he'd say, 'Nothing -- it's four in the morning!'

The others in the picture were there with their wives. Jim Garner and Tony Franciosa had their wives and children with them; Melina Mercouri was with her fiancé, Jules Dassin. They asked me to go to parties; I was too depressed to go. One night they all insisted that I go out with them for an evening of fun in Lisbon. But it wasn't fun for me. Being with other couples made me lonelier than ever.

Flowers arrived from Bobby every other day -- dozens of yellow roses. Phone calls every night, at crazy hours, because we never could figure out the 9-hour difference. But they made me more homesick for him. Once I phoned him at the house and there was no answer. Not for two days. I was out of my mind with worry. Then came a call from him -- from New York. He'd been on the train those days.

"I'd have gone completely ape if it hadn't been for Doddie. Dodd was taking his daddy's place. Doddie had cried when we left because he was leaving his daddy. Bobby explained to Doddie that Mommy had to go to Portugal to make a picture and that Doddie was going along to protect his mommy and take Daddy's place, since Daddy couldn't go. So seriously did Doddie take Bobby's talk that he even insisted upon sleeping in my bed. I couldn't stay up past Doddie's bedtime. He'd toddle off to bed and take me by the hand, insisting that I go to bed at the same time.

In Rome I took Doddie to places where Bobby and I had first met. It was in Rome, five years ago, when we were making Come September that Bobby and I fell in love. He proposed to me in Rome. I showed Dodd the little fishing village where his mommy and daddy had discovered they were falling in love and to Alfredo's where Daddy had proposed to Mommy. Lots of places, lots of memories. Doddie was fascinated. And it brought back glowing memories to me. Like an idiot, I burst into tears, wishing Bobby were with us, to relive those romantic days . . ."

Now that Sandra's home again she and Bobby have a lot of catching up to do. She turned down at least one film so that she could stay home and be with Bobby. When Bobby had to go to New York, she was free to accompany him. Bobby came down with a virus and was placed in the hospital; Sandy warmed to the experience of being all wife and having the time to be with him all day in his hospital room. But that will be over soon. She'll be off on another picture, away from home. But this time there'll be a difference. Bobby will be with her, for part of the time anyway.