Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 16

The Slippers, James, and Draw Up an Armchair ''irf- t.v Walt's 16 when she was chosen to represent tha the United States in the international beautv pageant. She got a job with Ziegfcld and was one of his most glorified beauties. In 102S she played hookey one night from tha Ziegfeld production of "Whoopee" and married Edward Jud-son, a salesman of de luxe automobiles. She was a well known bright light figure then, in fact Jack Dempscy once socked his long-time friend, Joe Benjamin, during a hotel tiff over her. Eleven months after her first marriage she divorced Judson, naming a co-respondent In 1931 she married Paul 0.

Richmond, who was 47 to her 21, but they were apparently very happy, and when he died in 1932 Hazel had been at his bedside seven days. He left her a fortune estimated at the time at from $2,000,000 to $15,000,000 from his tooth paste and hair shampoo interests. Actually the estate was worth about J3.000.000. Hazel went out to the west coast and tried to crash the films. She did get a couple of roles but she was frightened by a series of threatening letters.

She met Richman there and when she came east he bombarded her with flowers, candy and telephone calls. Soon they had an understanding, and then Hazel admitted a marriage was in the offing. Any doubt they were in love was dispelled soon after the wedding when Hazel was stricken ill because she would not leave Harry's side during night club rehearsals. At first it was only a cold, but weakened by her failure to get enough sleep, Hazel fell prey to pneumonia and for a while her life was despaired of. Harry was so pathetically grief-stricken that even the most calloused along Broadway conceded that at last real love had V.

T-f I rA ttV-A 1 -f By Rob Roberts CASANOVA looked back on his thousands of amours, righteously averred that it was indeed a wicked mode of life and became a learned librarian desirous only of the ease of an armchair before a fire in his own hearth. Skip a few centuries and we find Harry Richman, one of the great playboys of his time, scuttling home from his night club duties to putter around the house so abject a picture of domesticity that one wonders whether yesterday's headlines were the dreams cf a romancer. Certainly the Harry Richman of today is not the Harry Richman of a decade or less ago. He is still tall, bronzed, with black, curly hair slicked back to one side. His face still has the rough-hewn lines that so many women found attractive.

He still dresses with the ten best, still possesses the suavity of manner that distinguished his career as one cf the nation's best singers of songs. But he no longer turns his head for a pretty ankle, and his eyes flick over the stunning beauties in the night club shows with complete personal disinterest That the time would ever come when Richman would pass a beauty by may seem too incredible for belief. But it is simply proven. Every night a striking woman emerges alone from a Broadway motion picture house. She goes to the stage door of one of the town's hot spots and waits there.

Soon Harry emerges, fondly kisses his wife, Hazel Forbes, and they go home together to their apartment in town or to their sumptuous estate at Beechhurst, Long Island. Weekends or other free days provide the clinching evidence. On her last birthday Hazel said she wanted only one present a sewing machine! And she was a famous Follies beauty! Harry got her the machine and she personally made all the spreads and drapes in the Beechhurst house. Harry, himself, set up a small workshop in the basement and built many of the chairs, tables and odd ornaments strewn about the palatial residence. Says he gets a real kick out of it too.

There are not many links with the plded past left in Richman's life. He still wears on his left wrist the heavy chased silver slave bracelet that Clara Bow, the "It" girl, gave him as an engagement present, but it is symbolic now more of his taste for the exquisite than as a lingering memento of a romance that once flamed across the continent. Otherwise he rarely mentions the lovely fragments in the mosaic of his memory but if any man can draw on the years for delightful reminiscences Harry Richman is that man. Since Hazel Forbes so changed his life it would perhaps be best to single out first the most lasting love of his life. Now that they are married Hazel tells her friends that she fell in love with Harry 12 years ago when she was a showgirl, 17 years old.

But two marriages came between that youthful infatuation and their wedding in Palm Springs, in March, 1938. Hazel was ttfiiv xtvw sq-i -a Before the Fire for Mr. Harry Richman Each Mailt Alter ork Harry Fondly Kifses His Wife, Hazel Forbes. Then '1 hev Leave Quietly for Homo. gan to go places, and the radio gave him the last push to the top.

As he became better known he met and knew manv celebrated women. Peggy Hopkins Joyce and Lenore Line were both rumored engaged to him when first he swam into the public ken. When he co-starred with Frances Williams in the "Scandals," he and Frances carried their romance backstage with them. Lina Basquette, the lovely film star cf a few years ago, was one of his serious heart interests. They seemed devoted, and Harry knew the romance was over only when Lina announced that she would marry Hollywood cameraman Peverell Marley.

Richman's next heart interest was Virginia Biddle, the black-haired diminutive beauty who used to do nudef at the now defunct Hollywood Restau rant on Broadway. This romance landed in the curt in a spectacular fashion. There was a gay party on Richman's yaehl, "Miss Liberty," ion occurred. Itomanres Wh hared lv ev-Movie Cnwhov Kr Bell Their I irt Child. Among Showpirl Lonpcr Inter.

wav 8 Beauties. A v. Mark i I Ji 'V- the raw twjm: ft. ma reached what had been regarded as one of the touehest of all strongholds the Richman heart Hazel's life was saved by the use of the then new drug, sulfanamide. TVipv have been inseparable "tf-' since.

Hazel buys his ties, shirts and socks; at rehearsals she sits quietly by and cro chets or knits. When Harry is not working they spend most of their time at home, abjuring the late spots that once claimed so much of their leisure. They are now planning to adopt a baby. This is not the Harry Richman that Clara Bow knew. Nor is he the same man Peggy Hopkins Joyce and Lenore Ulric knew.

Nor any of the countless others. Clara Bow was probably his most serious romance before his marriage to Hazel certainly it was his most publicized. Miss Bow, the shapely redhead who epitomized the Hollywood sex appeal of her era they called her the Brooklyn bonfire fell in love with Harry and and he seemed to be in love with her. Every week he sent her SO dozen gardenias and a dozen orchids for her bedroom. They were together everywhere, but Harry, who loves to dress and live luxuriously, could not become accustomed to Clara's habit of showing up at formal dinner parties in skirt, sweater and tennis sneakers.

Their rifts and reconciliations were more frequent and as sensational as the John Barrymore-Elaine Barrie mix-up. They parted finally and bitterly but the years have eased the sting, and when Clara and her husband, Rex Bell, had their first child, Richman was the godfather. Harry made his successful career the hard way. He was a chauffeur and a sailor in the U. S.

navy end a lifeguard at Coney Island before he got his first break. This came when a Chicago piano factory hired him. He worked up the tedious scale until he convinced Mae West he was the piano player for her vaudeville act. The Dolly Sisters engaged him, but when they went back to Europe he as stranded. Producer after producer turned him down.

Ziegfeld hired him for the New Amsterdam Roof, but when Richman started off with one of hi3 own songs they turned out the lights. It wasn't until he managed to get backing for his own night club Club Richman that he really be- 10 4' i A. a Year Ao, 1' -V i4 i It A. Wfpm lb vi tL 'A 'A When Harry RirLman Married Hazel Forbes He Headed Straight Into Domesticity. Ahove, ai Thev Hellinger, the columnist, and Rich-man risked their lives to save Gladys Glad, one of Ztegfcld's most beautiful, and Virginia ami fought to save Helen Walsh, another Follies girl, who died despite their efforts.

Miss Biddle sued for $50,000, charging her beauty and nerves hail been impaired; she received $30. For several seasons he was as fancy free as it is possible for one of his temperament to be. Then he met gorgeous Edith Roark, who was being seen everywhere with George Raft. Harry was her constant companion for months. He lavished costly gifts on her.

But Edith developed what was to Harry an annoying trait. Fhe told the press all about their friendship. That ended it. Miami Beach was the setting for the next Richman romance. The heroine was Dorothy Darrcll, dark, petite and 17.

When Harry went to London to star at the Cafe Ie Paris she followed him there on the next boat, and the resultant publicity so embarrassed Richman that he pave her a bit of fatherly advice and shipped her back home. Thcrp wem many more, but Harry is a married man now, so meekly obedient that he virtually has given up flying, although he onco financed and acted as radio man on the fir'-t round-trip transatlantic flight with Dick Merrill. But that is all in the past, and Broad, way, watrhiig him with Hazel Forbes, declares that he's found his true love at last. Cut the Wedding Cake More Than Jr a A 7 SI i4 -si v. if' Dorothy Darril! ollowed llirhiuan lo Europe, Iul Ilj Her Hack Home, 71 (hie of the MIl" 'X IV: IMaWiov IJiehnu'ir Mo! Puldieied Girl.

CI ara lov. -he Cater Married and Harry Acted as Godfather for Many Harry CaiMied Edith Hoark. He oidf hen Fres All About lheir Friendship. (iifi lie on Virginia HiddleSued Harry Told for Jf.jO.000 After a Tragic Yacht Explosion. 1 y.

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