| from Screenland magazine, November 1932 | |||
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 FROM A SHY, awkward, gangling lad to a cosmopolite in less than a year! That's what happened to Gary Cooper. He belongs in the "what-a-man" category now. He used to wear a sombrero -- today it's a derby. At one time chaps were the thing -- now it's spats. He was known as a "one-woman" man, but now he is lionized by nobility, society debutantes, and glamorous picture gals. |
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However, the palm goes to Clara (Christopher Columbus) Bow. It was she who discovered that the big boy from Montana has what it takes to make feminine pulses beat faster, and faster and faster. "Hot-hair" Bow was just about five years ahead of everyone else. But their romance didn't last long. Along came Rex Bell and Lupe Velez -- not together!
Hollywood hooted at the Lupe-Cooper romance at first. They were such an absurd
combination. The shy Westerner and Mexican Lupe, the gay, vivacious party girl.
It won't last three months, said the wise guys. And were their faces red when
it lasted three years! As a matter of fact, these same smart boys were the first
to whisper that Lupe and Gary were secretly married. Imagine their embarrassment
when Lupe and Gary decided to call it quits!
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Anyway, this romance kept handsome Coop out of circulation for a long time. He was popular with the femme fans, though Lupe took the edge off their enthusiasm. But now Hollywood gals have re-discovered him and he has become the newest rave. Immediately after his broken romance with Lupe "Hot-Cha" Velez, Gary went abroad. Probably to toss the ashes of his dead love into the ocean. Anyway, that marked the beginning of the New Gary Cooper -- the boy who's in demand now! No chi-chi Hollywood party is a success without the charming Gary. The best pictures are coming his way. He wanted to play in "Farewell to Arms," and Paramount gave it to him, plus Helen Hayes to emote opposite him. |
Even when Gary
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And this brings to mind an incident that happened shortly after Gary returned to New York after his social triumphs in Europe. The scene -- yes, scene is the right word -- is supposed to have taken place in one of Manhattan's smarter night clubs. Gary, the story goes, was sitting with his feminine guest when in walked Lupe on the arm of a well-known playboy. Lupe, never known for her diplomacy and tact, commented, it is said, in no uncertain terms upon the avoirdupois of Gary's companion. That lady is reported to have retaliated with a crack about the muscle that went with her weight! But Gary is supposed to have squelched it by leaving with his fair but furious friend. And that's why you didn't read about it on the front page of your newspaper!
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