Hamilton Evening Journal from Hamilton, Ohio • Page 17

A A I HAMILTON EVENIN8 JOURNAL SATURDAY, APRIL 25. 1931 A I She Was The How Johnny Won the Petite Star, and What the Artist and Gloria Thought About It Of Broadway Until a Champ Met Bobbe and POACHED PRESERVES TM A "'i PVsl MERMAN, MERMAID--SMILES! Recent Florida Snapshot of Johnny. Weiss- muller, World's Swimmer, and His Bride, Little Bobbe Arnst, of Footlight Fame. HowiTheir Two Hearts Clicked at.the Roman Pool, Miami, Is Told on This Page. TTJTTHEN a handsome man and a yjut pretty girl get married, that's pleasantly unimportant.

But when the greatest'swimmer who ever cleft a wave'marries the only real toast of. Broadway, that's. NEWS! At; which point let us introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Johnny 'Weissmuller.

has been called the'human fish, johnny's wife, famed oh. 'stage and screen.as'little Bobbe been called- the first girl, since Lillian Russell was in her golden teens', tb cap. tivate the: most blase street in the. has all. the glittering, classic elements that one looks for in trouper, was it.

Her professionally known as Billie Arnst, was widowed the year of her tiny daughter's debut. The old adage that the show must go on was just as much in. effect eighteen years ago as today. Mother arid' child struck out foe Hollywood, which, in 1013, had already come into prominence "as' the movie capital; There Bobbe proved much in demand for "sympathetic child bits." She was particularly popular with casting directors for the serial the perfect love finds-once 'in a blue had been independent, high-spirited, loftily immune from the exquisite melodramas of the sion. 'Each was a lopnotcher in his 'period.

If you're in- and her'special And; by a tender terested in antiques they first met, on St. entine's Day, in Miami Beach, Florida, they, surrendered to' the bow boy" simultaneously. Two weeks later, they were married by County Judge Fred Shippey, at Fort Bobbe in them Lauderdale, Two friends of i you might dig few of those "Iron Claw" and of Pauline." dinguses, and run them off. You won't have any trouble spotting WHITE WAY'S TOAST- Left: Exquisite Full- Length Camera Study of Bobbe Arnst in Pleasingly Abbreviated Stage Costume. The Photo Is Imposed'on a Striking Night Flash of the Times Square Sector, New York City, Where Many a Male Heart Cracked When.

News of Her Marriage- Leaked Out. sored by "Ziggy." There were, however, a few. rocks on the -path before it a "Scram;" 'probably don't remember those masterpieces, and, if you do, with a shudder. But Bobbe was in them, so; they weren't a. total loss.

She was a very.busy cup of tea those days, what with an elaborate tour of the Continent- and various vaudeville appearances in the United-States. Then one of- those pungent coincidences that seem to happen' to stage people and no one else came about. a Winchell, world-famed gossip- king, had started a series of.radio chats, which enlisted the aid of prominent guest artists. Walter- asked Bobbe if she' would-go on the air with him. She said Among the thousands who listened in on the series was i a 'Above 'and at Right: Sketch.

chanter, of Beautiful Girls, the" a VLstter to on Bpbbe's behalf, Signed on Heart at Right, Was "Judge, Second, a Cari- of the Star Herself. These Were Published.in "Judge." Above, at Right: Close-up "of Bobbe. Jeff asked her to git for him. She did. If all the torches, embers and other emblems that symbolize a flaming heart rolled into one, they couldn't have approximated Jeff's infatuation for The posing ses- were' over, but he couldn't forget that 5 feet-one-and-a-half, 102 pounds' worth of violet-blue eyes and soft hair.

He began, rather daririgly to slip into his strips references to Bobbe, her, jokes, sketches, other may have been a cute way of-wooing, exactly private, for Machamer's stuff is syndicated all over the globe, and -the residents of Tokio knew English, were just as aware of the crush as New Yorkers. Jeff didn't care--except about Bobbe! But Bobbe remained stubbornly herself, footloose heartfree. Laying in a sizeable stock of candy, her own weakness, she bought an old Ford and made-the Coast seven and a half, days, buying in Los Angeles a Mexican "flea hound" for 51,500. She named him "Phoof" and found him steady company, until-' How It Happened at Miami We switch our scene from California to the'Roman pool'at Miami, Florida. Five feet one-and-a-half of sunburned girlhood is sitting on the edge of the blue-green waters, dabbling a small foot in rhythm.

She looks bored. Suddenly her expression changes. A tremendously tall and Grecianly- proportioned young fellow leaps from the springboard into the pool. His body, cuts the water like the clean sweep 'of a knife. Bobbe has never seen such SO Kfi HONEYMOON PLANS Johnny and.

Bobbe, with 1 Close Together as They Ponder the First Problem of Newlywcds: How to "Diick" the Public. They Wholly Succeed. Note the Wedding Ring Clinch and the 'Absorbed Expressions on Faces. theirs-), the dancing team Murphy and Juliet Johnson, were witnesses to the ceremony. After that brief encounter with the forms of Bobbe 'and Johnny retired -to a honeymoon in Johnny's Dallas Park apartment.

They metaphorically shut the door in the world's face. the world was interested and knocked on the windowpane. The world won't let you alone 'when you're famous. Bobbe Began. Her Career Early Let's give an Analytical glance at the backgrounds of Bobbe and her Johnny.

Hers is, of course, the more picturesque, for. even an athletic star, when it comes to Those, -can't -with an ingenue who has caused thousands of, husbands to wish they were bachr, elorskgain. 'Born of French-Norwegian parents in New York City on October 11, 1910, Bobbe was; given the stately names of Roberta Leone. When she made her theatrical debut at three she had six- words and a crying bitr-rshe found the pronunciation of a tough one. So she shortened it to "Bobbe" -with an acctrit grave over: the She's 1 been Bobbe ever since, till became Mrs.

Weissmuller. ever there WM bom and bred fnends of In-between jobs, Bobbe was-being e0 and that's no hackneyed gag in her case, either. Mrs. Arnst-was determined that prodigy-protege offspring should know languages and whatnot. In slack Summer months the girl was accordingly placed in a French A young uncle was commissioned, mxich to his boredom, to escort her back and forth from lessons to rehearsals.

He didn't it, but he was haying a hand in the tutelage of a brilliant star. Credit for the of Bobbe swimming. She's interested, inquires, Tli i finds that this is Johnny Weissmuller, of the Winchell clan, Walters the worl( atest free-style per- leloved young he lad who defeated "Boy" Charlton, the Australian chanip; Olympic games star and holder' of thirty is pretty generally. given Ted Lewis, the crack clown bandsman and wit one of the baby in- genues in the then.flourishing Green-' wich-Village First-night audiences are quick to sense and Bobbe got more "than one big-hand. Leading her before the curtain, Lewis introduced, her the applauders out front: 'He grinned, ruefully: is what always he confided.

"I makes 'em and 'Ziggy' takes 'em." He meant Florenz -Ziegfeld, premier producer of elaborate-musical shows, was' a surefire, Not so many years later Bobbe-Arnst was' doing her delicious stuff in "Rosalie," with Marilyn Miller'and the late Jack Donahue, and "Simple Simon," with Ed Wynn, both spon- suspect it, but. she was hearing the 'fresh, mocking voice" of. a lady who, one day, was to steal Gloria's beau ideal. More of that latei. Bobbe by now was the talk and, hter- ally, the toast of the town--a'town that hadn't cherished a real sweetenhearten since the days when they unhitched the horses and drew the idol through the streets.

Admirers legion; proposals came in But it remained for one of the enslaved to hit upon a brand-new way of paying his respects to "that Arnst person, as homely housewives got to calling her. This was Jefferson Machamer," distinguished girl-artist, meaning that he 'drew them as. well' as likted them. Machamer at that period contributed- a page of light, quiz- i a 1 beautiful sit to the Those pic-" 1 tures recorded Jeff's personal reactions to various shows then rfir.the boards, with appropriate Bobbe, in her few spare moments, wa doing a little model ing for the knights of Aaollwr Sprightly Machanur Cartoon, Portraying Bobb. sit Mmtiu.

crayon and palette. t. CburUsy, CWniH, Ittl, UtoBiUMl Fulin. brflca, IK, Oml SrIUIa BUbU Buinet. American and eight world records.

Bobbe and Jonnny are introduced. And you know the rest. What you don't know, perhaps, is the emotional reflex of little Gloria Winchell to the marriage. Let Papa "Walter tell it again, as he told it to his readers in the New York-Daily Mirror: Gloria aged seven, if. carrying her first torch and experiencing her firtt real heartache.

While she Kilt holiday- ins in Miami Beach she met a chap much older than herself. name it Johnny Weitsmnllcr, lie adored little Gloria, He tcaited her to mth her baby titter and the And alicayt very seriously he would say: dear, if you will only eat all that spinach and your carrots, it will make yon grolt) up quickly. I Kill wait for you to grow up, honey, and 'then we can be married, tee?" Glono hated spinach and carrots, but Johnny teas her dream men. Then her.nurse showed her the newspaper ahich reported Weitsmuller's marriage to Bobbe Arnsl. Gloria wept furiously.

It's said that Johnny, who relinquished his amateur standing last January, will now go on the stage, to keep in step with his bride. He'd like to do a swimming act in vaudeville. rected by' Bobbe (who knows her timing), he ought to be a riot. Perhaps Mother-in-Law Arnst could help, too. A word, in conclusion, about this most uncommon While Bobbe was playing in New York she and her mother were inseparable, at Texas Guinan's.

Every A. M. saw the handsome woman, whom Johnny adores, and the slim girl there. Cracked Tex: "Bobbe won't go anywhere without her mother. But her mother'll go anywhere 1" Even up to the altar, it would seem, for Billie A is ter-- ribly of Johnny.

afi SHE READ ABOUT THEM AND WEPT Cliarminf Gloria Winclwll, 7, Daufht.r of the Noted Columnist. ud Jde.ny Were "SwMtwkMrUv" But.