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The three daughters of Actor Richard Bennett looked, a few years ago, as though they might later be something of a problem, but things turned out to make the Bennetts, like the Barrymores, a legendary family in the theatre. Barbara, second daughter, was the first to go into the movies, before she became a dancing partner of the late Maurice (Maurice Oscar Louis Mouvet). Now she is the wife of Radio Tenor Morton Downey, who last week became temporarily blind from exposing his eyes to a sunlamp. Joan, youngest daughter, married when she was 16, divorced at 18, now gets $2,000 a week from Fox (current picture: Hush Money). Constance, most spectacular of the three, has ash-blonde hair, big round eyes, bow-lips and an expletive vocabulary reputed to be the equal of her father's. As a débutante, she was one of the most provocative college prom girls of the Scott Fitzgeraldized era. Her second husband, Millionaire Philip Plant, caused her to desert a promising cinema and stage career.
When she signed an RKO Pathé contract in 1929 Constance was shrewd enough to insist on a ten-week holiday every year. Recently she spent this holiday working for Warner Brothers at $30,000 a week, highest salary ever paid to a cinemactress. Last week she left Hollywood for a trip to Europe with a quick stop-over in Manhattan. Her companion on train and boat (adjacent staterooms) was the Marquis de la Falaise et de la Coudray, estranged husband of Gloria Swanson.
When he appeared in Hollywood in the entourage of Cinemactress Swanson five years ago, the Marquis became acclimated quickly. When Cinemactress Swanson lost interest in him, he gave proof of a shrewd business head by securing Constance Bennett for RKO Pathé, where he was hired to supervise and direct talkies made for exportation to France. An alliance too open to be a scandal had existed between the Marquis and Constance before and since. On embarking for Europe last week, Cinemactress Bennett said there were no plans for a marriage, implied that there might be after Cinemactress Swanson gets her divorce, due Nov. 6. Asked whether he would spend part of his vacation with Constance Bennett, the long-lashed Marquis, grinning, replied, "Well, what do you think?"