The Oregon Daily Journal from Portland, Oregon • Page 52

THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL', PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 30, 1 marriage or tne IVlovie Star Tkat Ran Away So Far It Took of I3eing an uin at a Subject of tke of Greece. 1 Her King A 'is -t: ImrttMimoltAk Mr, John Pialoglou, the Greek Bridegroom, Born in Turkey, Who Married Miss Constance Talmadge. Is The Profile of Constance Mrs. Pialoglou. the wrong this or speak the right words' at the wrong moment.

The supreme dead of every lover tfie dread of being ridiculous held him back. Besides, there were deterrents to his courshlp. He must at least wait until his English was better. Meanwhile in the Talmadge family there were deterrents. There were frequent jests directed at Connie The Three Talmadge Girls Constance, Norma and Natalie V-A" 1 Mrs Pialoglou, Who Entered the Gretna Green Rectory as an American i and Came Out Greek.

For he might have been a Russian A Greek or Turk or Prussian, Or perhaps 1-taH-an. But in spite of all temptations To belong to other nations He remains an Englishman. SO runs the funny sons in "Pinafore" which humorously commends the hero for sticking to his own nationality. But Constance Talmadge. the well-known movie star, has done differently.

Twenty-two-year-old Miss Talmadge has just married a Greek Constance Talmadge of the movies is cow Mrs. John Pialoglou. In fact, Mr. Pialoglou came very near being, a Turk, for he was born in Constantinople, Turkey, and 'he lived there most of his twenty-eight years. The.

name is pronounced Pee-a-log-loo. A wife belongs to the nationality of her husband. So Mrs. Constance Talmadge Pialoglou Is a Greek woman! Of course, Just such things happen in the movies, but how did it happen in real life that the pretty, versatile, popular young actress lost her heart to this Greek? It is an odd and Interesting romance. Although but twenty-two, and considered by some among them" the Greek Mr.

Pialoglou to be the fairest of the three Talmadge sisters, she has had many suitors. Carefully chaperoned by a vigilant" end affectionately solicitous mother, she led a Joyous life; apart from the toilsome Immurement of her hours 'in the studio. She loved to dance, and her mother accompanied her to dancing parties given by her friends and the( larger affairs of the Sixty Club At all these dances "Connie," as those who knew her well instinctively called her, had an army of would-be dancing partners. Her card filled as If by magic. Irving Berlin was one whose name appeared often en the card.

The popular Bong-writer, who rose from a lowly station! an East Side boy whose same has become known 'wherever popular English music Is played and sung used to stand near5 the door of the ballroom. "Look at' Irving," said the Broadway celebrities in the room. "He watches 'for Connie Talmadge as a cat watches for mouse." i Mr. Berlin had long been what! was deemed a disconsolate widower. The wife of his youth and poverty had died early, I leaving him, It was thought.

Inconsolable. Certainly he mourned her long and with genuine grief. But sparkling Connie Talmadge, Broadway said, caused him once more to smile. "She is giving him back hi 3 youth." said Broadway with, an approving nod of its grizzled head, bejewelled by millions of lncandescents. Broadway loves its Irving Berlin.

It hoped that a new happiness was about to crown the life of the little musician with the mop of thick hlack hair and the eyes In whose depths a ktnd of genius glows. But Broadway counted without two important factors. One was the consent of Mrs. Talmadge. The Talmadge girls admit th i mother rule.

A mother so devoted.1 they agree, should receive -the homage of confidence and obedience. She approved the match by which Norma Talmadge becanle Mrs. Joseph Schenck, but she disapproved pi -Irving Berlin as a would-be son-in-law. Why? to Greenwich together on December 22 aS were married. Each pair witnessed tha ceremony for the other.

Each bride's wedding certificate Is a souvenir of the friendship of the other. Miss Talmadge and her betrothed were the first pair married. When the justice of the peace had spoken the few necessary words ending with "I pronounce you man and wife," they stepped back and acted as witnesses for theU; friends. They motored back to New York, sought Mrs. Talmadge Mrs.

"Gish and tohf, them the news. "We 'have' saved you all the fuss an4 bother wedding," they said. uonstance Taimaage win continue in ner motion picture work, at least for the prea- about her "Turk." For it developed early In their acquaintance that Mr. Pialoglou had been born in Constantinople, though his parents were Greeks. "Born in Turkey.

Of course, he'r a Turk!" said one of the family, smiling at the rest. "If you're born In America of aren't you American? Of course you are." They Ignored the treaty made between' Greece and Turkey half a century ago whereby the children of Greeks, though born on Turkish soil, would retain the nationality, as they retained the religion, of their parents, and the fact that the population of Turkey is almost as largely foreign as native. "Throw a stone at a Turk and you hit a Greek," is a proverb In Constantinople. But repeat a thing often enough and you will believe it, or hear it often enough and you will lend it a more or less credulous ear. The Turkish tale constituted a serious impediment to the young man's suit.

While his English improved the Turks grew increasingly unpopular In America. Nevertheless, the young man. remained here. His father wrote him and his brother George, asking whether they were lonely in the new land and whether they preferred to leave the business in other hands and come home. John replied with emphasis that he did not feel lonely and did not wish to leave, the business In other hands and come home.

Perhaps he did not quite clearly know why he so Inclined to American, soil, but he stayed on, and the sign, "Pialoglou Tobacco Company," remained on the door of the suite of offices in Liberty Since Constance Talmadge returned from Europe early last Autumn the young Greek pressed his suit with greater vigor. The pair were seen oftener together. When one appeared at-the Sixty. Club the other, was sure to be there. The magic letter 'P" seemed to lead all the rest on "tho youngest Talmadge girl's" Early In December she finished the sentence; sbo had two years ago begun: Gittt feriteia Ittand, There appears the second factor which Broadway forgot.

Irving Berlin has lots of money far more than Mr Pialoglou but he is of the stuff of the old-fashioned hus- He did not endorse the modern feministic movement. He felt that the career led too far from, the home, and he believed, from the heart, that It stunted the exercise of the old-fashioned womanly qualities of love of home and love of children. If be ever married again his wife would leae the screen or stage or any other public post she adorned, because he was able to take care of her, and because his ongs had profited him a million or two or three. At all events, he did not want! strange eyes, perhaps vulgar eyes, to feast upon the loveliness of the woman who would he the loveliest on earth to him. Often he enunciated this matrimonial platform.

Whenever she heard It Mrs. Talmadge frowned, ror Mrs. Talmadge gentle, low voiced, kindly as an Intense 7 modernist believes every Individual should develop his or her talent to too, declared her creed.1 Marriage was the way; of tne heartland of flesh. Every- one should marry, Jbut the joining of two lives should not mean the sacrifice et nor assimilation of one. So Irving Berlin's suit never blossomed.

Twa nipped, as 'twere, at its budding. He accepted the role of family friend and semi-father to the! girl who hut fori views so completely at variance might have become his wife." Then appeared Clifton Webb among the matrimonial possibilities. Clifton Webb is the graceful young dancer who is more like the late Vernon Castle than Is any other living dancer; at least, Vernon Castle's widow, now Mrs. Irene Castle Treman. has so said.

But Mr. Webb's career was in the shaping. He was young. The world was before him. Mrs.

Talmadge desired no dancer for her son-ln-law. That suit, too. was frostbitten by early parental disapprobation. A young motion picture magnate appeared, persisted, and vanished from among the would-be husbands of Constance Talmadge. He, It was said, found no favor in the eyes of the much-sought maid herself.

Entered then John Pialoglou. He entered by way of the Sixty Club. That club, which is composed of the elect the stage and screen. Is responsible for many ardent flirtations. It has fostered several matches.

After Blllie Burke and Florenz Ziegfeld, had met and fallen in love at that club it was called by the flippant "Cupid's Own." Mr. Pialoglou came In, It was said, "with an air." Not that he intended to enter the club in any but his habitual fashion. It was his habit to enter a room and leave it, to greet and make his adieu with the assured manner of cne bora to command. He had the background of wealth. His father was a rich exporter and Importer of tobacco.

had business houses in Constantinople and Athens. ViS John Pialoglou, who entered so the hrilllant ballroom and made his way from table to table, greeting bevies of beauties and their distinguished escorts, was backgrounded also by culture. He had received a thorough education through famous tutors. He spoke fluently ft half-dozen languages. Above all, in the -inquisitive, beautiful eyes focussed upon him he had that extreme deference which Is the soul of manner.

One of the first beauties before whom he bowed from the waist down and heels together at the Sixty Club was Constance Talmadge. She smiled her engaging smile at him and he invited her to dance. "He danced beautifully," she said. "So beautifully that that The sentence remained for two years unfinished. John Pialoglou did not immediately enter the lists with the large array of her knights.

He was different, being a stranger ia i 1 'v id. "Uilt IstcnuUoad rutin Strife, Tie dances beautifully. He has danced into my heart." There came up, of course, (he question of Mr. Pialoglue's Miss Constance is an ardent American, Mr. Pialog-lou's ancestry Is pure Greek.

"If you were born in Miss Talmadge, "doesn't that make you a Turk? And won't that make me a Turkess or something? "Oh, no, no," reasoned her lover. "It -would have, of. course, if there wasn't a treaty between Turkey and Greece that makes me av Greek subject even though I was born and live In' Turkey." "YouTe sure you won't become an American, not even for me cajoled she. And then Mr. Pialoglou, althoui not in rhyme, repeated in effect the immortal sentiment from quoted at the beginning of this story.

And so, of course. Miss Constance had to make up her mind that If she wanted to marry Mr. Pialoglou she would have to become a Greek. Finally she and Dorothy Clsh deter--mined to elope! Not far, only to New York's Gretna Green, Greenwich, Conn. They would escape there the publicity of securing a license in that clearing house of information, the twenty-four-story arch of the Municipal Building, neighbor of the Brooklyn Bridge.

-there may have been other reasons, but one was potent. She and Dorothy Gish had been churns-ever since they could remember. "Let's get married and tell the folks afterward," said Constance. Or was It Dorothy? At all events Constance Talmadge and her Greek cavalier, who speaks English in a softer than an American voice, but still with a slight accent, and Dorothy Glah and James Rennie, the good looking young Canadian stage and screen hero, motored enough to wish her to gratify her ambition, and loving enough to wish her to have her way y' 1 This is the story of how Constance Talmadge. famous at twenty-two, talented and beautiful, has ceased to be an American.

By her marriage she became a Greek Until the laws are amended, as the ly made Voters say they will be, an Ameri- am a wrjvfn a ntnm a la1Tw Ko'rtfn Asa ana. tive of the same country as her husband when she marries. Mr. John Pialoglou has not applied for naturalization papers. He says he will not! His father and mother live In Athens.

The family Interests and property are in Greece and Turkey. He has no thought of becoming an American. Unless his lovely bride can exert her power over him to attain that object, or until the laws are amended to make an American girl always an American, she is a Greek and subject of Greece, which doe not disturb her ia the least. Just now she is in the mood "All for love and nationality well lost.".