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Show eeeweee ee ) After 20 years of being considered one of the best-dressed, most suave and courteousfigures in show business, the hero of ‘Name of the Game” wondersif it isn’t time for his career to take a whole new turn. does and doesn't please Gene. For instance, I thought she looked very attractive in a gray sweater the trouble with the world. Women get worse-looking as they grow older, but men get better-looking.” Until their first son Michael was born in 1946, Gene enjoyed New York. He was born there, studied to be a concert violinist until he broke his arm playing football in high school and turned to singing. This and black slacks, but she was worried that she'd received me without having had her hair done and her make-up on. “Gene wouldn't like it,” she confessed. “He likes me all dolled up.” The Barrys now live in a iW ales eventually took him into the musicals, “Rosalinda,” “The Merry Widow” and new home in Beverly Hills which, says Betty, is smaller because their last house was too pretentious. The “smaller” oneis still a mansion, even by Beverly Hills CIGARETTES. * “Glad to See You.” They even had a nice Manhattan apartment on S6th St. and Seventh Ave., standards. across the In spite of his being outspoken against the Vietnam war and runaway production in the moving picture street from Carnegie Hall. “Then I began a run of bad luck in the theatre and could no longer afford a flat—any flat,” Gene re- called. “We moved in with my parents.” By the end of 1949, how- ever, Gene’s career had regained its equilibrium. He began concentrating on acting and in 1951 signed a contract with Paramount that led to roles in such films as “Soldier of Fortune” with Clark Gable and “Thunder Road” with Robert Mitchum. WhenI asked Gene how his marriage had managed to survive 26 years, he said, “I guess it has to do with a tremerdous desire to make it work on both our parts and not let our egos or in- dividual thoughts take over. “I think the first few difficult years of industry (he’s all for Gov- Relax. Unwind. Makethis the moment ernmentsubsidization along the lines of England’s subsidy for the arts), Gene is the quiet one in the family. Betty is gregarious. While Gene can appear complefély lost in thought, Betty to take things easy. With a whole newcigarette. Rich new blend, rich new flavor. rarely takes time to catch her breath. Gene is no longer the driving young man he was at the beginning of his Hollywood career. “My whole life was my work then,” he explained, almost apologetically. “I hadn’t realized that you only need so much money to t= MOMENT § on. You do things you could never do before. Why shouldn’t actors mature like everyone adjustment else? On the other hand, I helped tremendously because we realized how much we needed one another. You see, we didn’t really know am not all that settled or stable. “I think I'd like to go back on the stage. I'd love each other when we got married. In iact, we were total strangers. Thefirst two years were the toughest of them all.” Said Betty, “I think a lot of it was. luck. Besides, we had the same ambitions. I wanted him to be famous, and he wanted to be fa- live don’t scurry about so much later on. You want time with the family and time jo THIS IS THE to sweat agair I haven't for a long time. The only excitement in tv is making. the pilot, seeing it get on the air and then waning to it is no secret that she can wind the insecurity kids feel today is due to an inner fear that someday their parents will break up never fight in front of their children. “We always put up a —if they haven’t already. Gene find out whetherit will succeed. If it does, then you*re stuck in a hit show.” It would take a com- a lot of other things in com- ing anddirecting hisfirst motion picture. Fredrick is 18, a freshman at Colorado University. Liza, short for Elizabeth, is him around herlittle finger. Betty insists she and Gene mon, particularly our love for our children. If you three and a half. Generefers to her as “mylittle princess,” and never worked. I think a lot of and I have yelled at each other maybe five times in all our 26 years of marriage. She is very aware of what who'd give their eyeteeth to get in that kind of a golden rut! mous. Of course, we have are loved, you give love in return.” Michael, now 25, is writ- united front. They've tried to get us on different sides, but it puter to count the actors Family Weekly, April 4, 1971 |