When she was a teenager, Barbara Hutton, the five & dime store heiress, was as fat as butter, and slim, gum-chewing daughters of plain people were wont to gaze at her newspaper pictures and cry with feline contentment: "She's got money, but look at that shape." When pretty Barbara grew older, she reduced until her bones showed. Afterward, she was sick a lot. Between bouts in expensive hospitals she wandered wanly around Europe, wearing jewels and Paris dresses and collecting husbands (two princes, one count and Movie Actor Gary Grant) as befitted a member of international society. But none of the marriages worked.
Fate, however, had not abandoned Barbara. All this time, as it turned out last week, it had been grooming a fifth husband for her—a dark, politely feral Latin named Porfirio Rubirosa. At the time Barbara began reducing, of course, she had never heard of Rubi. He was not yet known to the tabloids as the "Big Dame Hunter," but was just the son of an impoverished Dominican Republic general, a personable lad who wasted energy boxing and playing soccer. Rubi had been brought up in Paris before daddy lost his dinero, wanted to get back to Maxim's, and soon launched his career.
Loving. He married Flor de Oro (Flower of Gold), the wildcat daughter of Dominican Dictator Trujillo, and stayed married to her for five years. The Dictator, apparently impressed by this feat, made him a diplomat. Once established on the Continent, Rubi found ways of maintaining himself in expensive luxury. He had setbacks. The Germans threw him into a detention camp during World War II. Back in Paris in 1944 he was wounded in a mysterious street shooting. But Rubi was undismayed. He married French Actress Danielle Darrieux (a collector's item), and capped this by marrying Doris ("Richest Girl in the World") Duke. During that ceremony, he insolently smoked a cigarette, and afterward, in Miss Duke's fond words, "Big Boy passed out in my arms."
Last year, after two other members of the international set had accused him of seducing their wives, 44-year-old Rubi was at the very zenith of his career. During July, in Deauville, he met Barbara. By now, of course, she had heard of him and his accomplishments. He, of course, had heard of her and her enormous for tune. "He told me," she explained, "that he loved me. But he doesn't remember. He never asked me to marry him then. He just told me he loved me, but I didn't believe him. I have loved him ever since I met him."
Leaving. At the time, Rubi was busy. He was accompanying Hungarian Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor around Europe, like a bumblebee buzzing about a truckload of sugar. He still seemed disturbed, as a matter of fact, when he came to the U.S. last month. He visited New York to renew his acquaintance with Barbara, but then headed west to see Zsa Zsa again. Last week he was back in New York, and as he arrived, Dominican officials in Ciudad Trujillo announced that he was going to marry Barbara.