Post by Coopsgirl on Aug 28, 2010 9:49:04 GMT -6
Gary went from a somewhat insecure, immature, unpolished young man to one of the biggest stars on the planet, a fashion icon, a husband, and a father during the 1930s. In the earliest years of the decade (1930-1931) Gary was still dating fiesty actress Lupe Velez and was being seriously overworked by Paramount (and by Lupe ) to the point where it caused a physical breakdown. Between 1928 and 1931 Gary made 24 films! He was always slim but by 1931 he was down in the 140 lb range which was dangerously thin for his 6’3” frame. His doctor told the studio he had to have possibly six to twelve months off. They gave him six weeks and Gary went to Europe where he ended up staying for the better part of a year. He came back to the U.S. one time in 1931 to film His Woman in New York and then back to Europe he went. He was the guest of Countess Dorothy de Frasso, an American born woman who married a European Count, and with her help he found the sense of high style for which he would be immortalized in the song “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” They also took a safari to Africa, a land which Gary loved and always wanted to return to but never found the opportunity to do so.
As his funds were beginning to run low and with Paramount breathing down his neck to return, Gary ventured back to Hollywood a new man. No longer would be he be abused by the studio as if he was a piece of property. Paramount was in serious business trouble as movie attendance had dropped during those early years of the Depression and each studio was desperate to lure people back in and they knew Gary was a big draw. Gary also knew this and used it to his advantage to negotiate a better contract. The new deal allowed him to make two films per year, more if he agreed to it and it also gave him a bit of a say in the movies he made although during these years, the studio would still have the final say on that.
Romantically, this was a big decade for Gary. In 1931 he and Lupe parted ways and even though the Countess was married and about ten years his senior, everyone assumed they were having a fling. She divorced her husband in 1933, the same year Gary legally changed his name from Frank to Gary, and while she may have thought he would marry her, he had another woman in mind. Veronica Balfe was a lovely young (very young as they got married when she was just 20 and 12 years his junior) society girl from New York who decided to move to Los Angeles and try her hand in films. Her uncle Cedric Gibbons was the art director at MGM (you’ll see his name in the credits of every MGM film made during the golden era and he also designed the Oscar statuette) so she changed her name to Sandra Shaw as she wanted to make it on her own. She had uncredited parts in three films, the most notable being King Kong (1933) where you can see her looking out the window of her hotel room just before Kong climbs the building in search of Fay Wray. I’ve read a few different versions of how they first met (at a party, on a boat) but however it happened, he was smitten by her. She’d had a little crush on him since seeing him in Morocco (1930) when she was 17. I can’t imagine how she must have felt when he asked her out on their first date and the first time they kissed. Gary was serious about this one and he kept their relationship out of the press therefore it came as quite a shock to everyone when Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor (and a man many people thought would stay a bachelor) announced his engagement to the society lass. They were married in New York on December 15, 1933 and spent their honeymoon in Phoenix, Arizona. Rocky, as everyone called her, joked that marrying him was a good excuse to end her acting career that was going nowhere. She would often go with him on location shoots and hunting trips and they also raised Sealyham dogs which they would show in contests. Their only child, Maria, was born in September 1937 and through good times and bad, they remained a tight knit, loving family.
In 1932 Gary played the lead in A Farewell to Arms based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway who he would later become close friends with in the 1940s. He received the best critical reviews of his career up to that point for that film and then in 1937 he received the first of five Oscar nominations for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). Unfortunately he did not win but his place in the Hollywood pantheon of stars was now firmly cemented.
1931
1933
Gary, Rocky, and baby Maria - 1937
Gary and Rocky - 1938
1939
As his funds were beginning to run low and with Paramount breathing down his neck to return, Gary ventured back to Hollywood a new man. No longer would be he be abused by the studio as if he was a piece of property. Paramount was in serious business trouble as movie attendance had dropped during those early years of the Depression and each studio was desperate to lure people back in and they knew Gary was a big draw. Gary also knew this and used it to his advantage to negotiate a better contract. The new deal allowed him to make two films per year, more if he agreed to it and it also gave him a bit of a say in the movies he made although during these years, the studio would still have the final say on that.
Romantically, this was a big decade for Gary. In 1931 he and Lupe parted ways and even though the Countess was married and about ten years his senior, everyone assumed they were having a fling. She divorced her husband in 1933, the same year Gary legally changed his name from Frank to Gary, and while she may have thought he would marry her, he had another woman in mind. Veronica Balfe was a lovely young (very young as they got married when she was just 20 and 12 years his junior) society girl from New York who decided to move to Los Angeles and try her hand in films. Her uncle Cedric Gibbons was the art director at MGM (you’ll see his name in the credits of every MGM film made during the golden era and he also designed the Oscar statuette) so she changed her name to Sandra Shaw as she wanted to make it on her own. She had uncredited parts in three films, the most notable being King Kong (1933) where you can see her looking out the window of her hotel room just before Kong climbs the building in search of Fay Wray. I’ve read a few different versions of how they first met (at a party, on a boat) but however it happened, he was smitten by her. She’d had a little crush on him since seeing him in Morocco (1930) when she was 17. I can’t imagine how she must have felt when he asked her out on their first date and the first time they kissed. Gary was serious about this one and he kept their relationship out of the press therefore it came as quite a shock to everyone when Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor (and a man many people thought would stay a bachelor) announced his engagement to the society lass. They were married in New York on December 15, 1933 and spent their honeymoon in Phoenix, Arizona. Rocky, as everyone called her, joked that marrying him was a good excuse to end her acting career that was going nowhere. She would often go with him on location shoots and hunting trips and they also raised Sealyham dogs which they would show in contests. Their only child, Maria, was born in September 1937 and through good times and bad, they remained a tight knit, loving family.
In 1932 Gary played the lead in A Farewell to Arms based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway who he would later become close friends with in the 1940s. He received the best critical reviews of his career up to that point for that film and then in 1937 he received the first of five Oscar nominations for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). Unfortunately he did not win but his place in the Hollywood pantheon of stars was now firmly cemented.
1931
1933
Gary, Rocky, and baby Maria - 1937
Gary and Rocky - 1938
1939