"How Far Will Sandra Let Bobby Darin Go?"

This article appeared in the February 1961 issue of Movie Stars Magazine and was written by Frances James


While I was still in the United States I heard it -- that Sandra Dee had finally and completely fallen in love, and that the lucky boy was Bobby Darin, her co-star in Come September. Rumor had it that they were dating hot and heavily in Rome. Since I happened to be going to Italy and since I have long been interested in Sandra Dee's doings and was fascinated by the fact that no young man had yet been able to sweep her off her feet, I naturally decided to investigate the situation.

While in Rome I spoke to both Sandra and Bobby and observed them together when they thought no one was observing them at all. First let me say that Bobby was willing to talk about absolutely anything at all -- except Sandra Dee.

So in the Cafe de Paris while we sipped coffee we talked about anything and everything at all until I couldn't restrain myself any longer and just plunged right in to questions about Sandra. In his answers it was soon obvious that Bobby wasn't just being stubborn. It really was difficult for him to talk about Miss Dee, difficult because he was terribly emotionally wrapped up in her. They met for the first time in Rome when the whole cast of Come September was assembled together to read their lines. According to Bobby his reaction was: "She read lines very well." The only preconceived notion he had about her was that she was a beautiful girl. He said he didn't flip for her at the line reading, but if he didn't, he certainly did flip very soon after. At the time I talked to him, he was gone. He was taking Sandra very seriously. He said he hoped she'd continue to date him when they got back to the States, but he wasn't sure that she would.

So---the little tough guy from the streets of New York City had fallen for a fairy princess, a blonde beauty who had lived practically all her life in luxury. An odd combination--or was it? Bobby apparently thought it was just fine--but what did Sandra think?

The day after I talked to Bobby, I went to the Come September set on the outskirts of Rome to wait for Sandra and my interview with her. When she appeared, Bobby was holding her hand. She disengaged it and sat down on a sofa.

Then the most extraordinary thing happened (extraordinary because I and other people were around). Bobby asked Sandra if she would wear his ring. She smiled, turned away and seemed to shudder. "Noooo.....it frightens me," she said.

Then Sandra and I left the others and found an isolated table in a part of the set that wasn't in use. She asked if she might have one of my cigarettes. "Mother doesn't approve," she told me "but I've been smoking since Romanoff and Juliet."

When I asked her about Bobby Darin, she felt no inhibitions at all about talking about their relationship. What did she think of him? She smiled and said, "Bobby's a card. He keeps everyone laughing." Was she in love with him? "No. I sort of shy back all the time... run away."

It was very clear that Sandra had not flipped for Bobby at that time. Yet it was only a month after that interview that Sandra announced to the world she would marry Bobby. Bobby adored her, he had been persistent and he had won.

He certainly won Sandra's love. By her own admission she had never been in love previously. And when it happened, it certainly happened in a big way. And Sandra didn't expect it would happen with Bobby. When I talked to her, Sandra said she was waiting for the right man to come along, that he would be very strong and domineering. "I can never be the boss," she said. "I was brought up that way. My father was the iron rule. I haven't come across fellows like this."

Apparently Bobby convinced her that he not only loved her, but that he was the strength she craved. Talking Sandra into marriage as the next step after you've found love really couldn't have been a very difficult job for Bobby as Sandra believes that love and marriage "go together like a horse and carriage." For years she has been looking forward to marriage. "God made people before he made motion pictures," she told me very emphatically. "Marriage is very important to me. My career wouldn't keep me from marrying or interfere with my marriage once I did marry. When I get married, my career will be secondary for a year or two, until I have a child, and then my career will either be secondary or nothing. I love what I'm doing because it's my life now, but then, I've got another life." Nice words from the hottest glamour queen in the movie industry today. Comforting words for the man she loves to hear.

But I must admit that at the time I wondered if Sandra would let Bobby go as far as marrying her. I wondered if her studio and her mother would frown on the idea of her marrying a mere singer-actor. After all here is a girl who could have looked for her prospective husband among princes and millionaires. Her studio or her mother might well have had such plans for her---and could have tried to persuade her not to marry Bobby, her first love.

Perhaps that is exactly why Sandra married Bobby so soon after they returned from Rome. They originally announced that they would wait until March. Instead they had a civil ceremony in New Jersey on December 1. Sandra said: "We wanted to get it over with." Maybe she was afraid that somebody might change her mind.

The ceremony was hardly elaborate. The ring they used was borrowed. No one was really dressed for the occasion. Bobby fell asleep on the plane they took West. But unromantic as the situation may have been, it was the most precious of all moments in the lives of these two young people.




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