The New Year hit Hollywood like the last reel of a badly directed thriller. More denouements crowded into the private lives of the cinema colony than had been furnished by any seven days in a twelvemonth. There were one natural, one sudden death, an elopement, a surprise marriage, a bill of divorce, a last testament. In nearly every case the event stirred memories of old, unhappy, far-off things and litigation.
Marriage. At 47 William Powell has behind him two wives, Actress Eileen Wilson (divorced), Actress Carole Lombard (now Mrs. Gable). Dark, dapper, Thin Man Powell has also been publicized as grieving for the late and glamorous Jean Harlow. Last week William Powell's last act before eloping with Wife No. 3 was to call up Jean Harlow's mother, let her in on the secret. She wished him happiness.
Few Hollywooders had known the newlyweds were acquainted. He met her for the first time four months ago at a studio party for visiting politicians. He had wooed her for only three weeks. Her name was Diane Lewis, a 24-year-old rising starlet who began trouping in her parents' vaudeville act as soon as she could walk, played a small part in Warners' She Couldn't Say No, bits for M.G.M. Both used her chiefly for leg art. Such adolescent Hollywood revelers as Jackie Cooper, Johnny Downs, Tommy Wonder consider small (five-foot) and vivacious Diane Lewis witty, gay, wonderful at a party.
A justice of the peace tied the knot beneath a bower of flowers, on a dude ranch, at Warm Springs, Nev. Back in Hollywood, Mrs. Powell No. 3 begins another small part in Forty Little Mothers with Eddie Cantor.
» In a second surprise marriage greater Starlet Jane Bryan, 21, espoused Justin Whitlock Dart, 32, general manager of Walgreen Drug Co., a divorced son-in-law of the late Drugman Charles Rudolph Walgreen. Formally Cinemactress Bryan's husband announced that his wife was through with pictures. Warner Brothers expressed bewilderment, resignation, doubt that movie-struck Jane Bryan would be able to live up to such a marriage vow so soon after her first big part (in We Are Not Alone).
Bill of Divorce. One reason pert Vivien Leigh (rhymes with Robert E.) got the part of Scarlett O'Hara was because at the right time she was in Hollywood seeing darkly scowling Laurence Olivier. He looks like a swarthy Douglas Fairbanks Jr., is as British as young Douglas Fairbanks tries to be. When Olivier was acting with Katharine Cornell in No Time for Comedy, Vivien Leigh used to nag Director Fleming to speed up Gone With the Wind so she could fly to Manhattan and Laurence Olivier. When Vivien Leigh flew to Atlanta, for the premiere of Gone With the Wind, Olivier flew with her. A friend once called their love "the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."
Olivier's wife, British Actress Jill Esmond, recently filed a divorce suit in England, named no corespondent. In London Cinemactress Leigh's husband, Barrister Herbert Leigh Holman, after vain efforts to bring her back to himself and their six-year-old daughter, last week started divorce proceedings. Grounds: misconduct. Corespondent: Laurence Olivier.
Scarlett O'Hara was, after all, no model of propriety, so there was little likelihood the suit would damage Vivien's professional career.