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Show Family WeeklyI November13, 1960 He became anelderly “fuss-budget” after his wife’s death, then he married June Life Begins Again for By PEER J. OPPENHEIMER 664 Jey, Loox! There’s Fred MacMurray!” cried H a youngster watching a Hollywood parade. “Gee whiz, I'd sure like to get his autograph!” his companion exclaimed. They were only two of hundreds of youngsters and teen-agers who crowded aroundthetall, blueeyed grandfather, whose physique, stamina, and popularity among youngsters belie his 52 years. Ovations like Fred now receives are customarily reserved for such teen-age idols as Fabian, Troy Donahue, and the Everly brothers. No one is more surprised by his new popularity than Fred himself, who admits that the best he could do a couple of years ago was sign an autograph for an old lady who becamehis fan after he costarred with Claudette Colbert in “The Gilded Lily” back in 1935. The rebirth of Fred’s popularity can be traced to two things—“The Shaggy Dog,” a gimmick movie which became Walt Disney’s top grosser of all times, and his marriage to formerfilm star June Haver, who talked the middle-age widower with two nearly grown children into starting life anew. “When I married Fred,” June says, “he was terribly set in his ways. He was a fuss-budget. He hadn’t quite progressed to being a lint picker, but he was already’ an ash-tray emptier, and that’s just about as set in his ways as a man can get.” Fred was 45 whenhisfirst wife, Broadway actress Lillian Lamont, died in 1953 after 17 years of marriage. Fred lost ambition, interest; even enthusiasm forlife itself. With Lillian gone, he told himself, he would justfish, play golf, and accept a movie role only if he couldn't resist the script. Certainly he didn’t have to work any longer. In 20 years as a top star, he had amassed a fortune— and held on to it tightly. Fred would neverdenyhe is a cautious man with a penny. Oneofhis friends assured me that Fred resoled his own shoes to save on cobbler’s expenses, and a coworker reported Fred brings his lunch to the studio in a paper bag. Fred isn’t sure what's behind his frugal tendencies, but thinks it may stem from his early days in Los Angeles when he barely supported himself and his mother by-doing anything from scraping paint off old cars to playing a sax in local bands. Spoofing it up a bit, June, Laurie, Kate, and Fred sit for a family portrait in an old Model-T Ford. 6 Family Weekly, November 13, 1960 |