Boys Get Nowhere With Sandra--WHY?


This article appeared in the March 1960 issue of TV Show Magazine
and was written by Ruth Setley


"I can't think of marriage for a long time yet," said pert Sandra Dee, who at seventeen is one of Hollywood's most gifted, pretty and going-up young stars. "But in the meantime I have as many dates as I have time for--with nice boys like Edd Byrnes, Troy Donahue and Ricky Nelson."

These days, the average girl of seventeen has her sights set on something much more permanent than a lot of dates. And to her the three young men Sandra dismisses so lightly would seem much more than "nice boys." But two influences keep Sandra from being an average girl. Together, they make it impossible for her to take any young escort seriously. They are a sorrow that she sensed and an ideal that she formed in her childhood, and both still have a powerful hold on her mind and heart.

Sandra's own mother was married at seventeen, to a boy who was in the service. It was young love, glorious at first, but too soon all mixed up.

All sorts of dangers confronted this marriage: the couple's youth, then the separation of war, then a scarcity of money. Either side of the story of the break-up is believable. Sandra was then too little to take sides; but, since she was with her mother most, naturally she clung to her. To help the household budget, Mama took a job with a man named Eugene Douvan. Mary, a tiny brunette and still a beauty, was a young charmer in those days. The young husband was resentful, and the home atmosphere went from bad to worse, until the final parting.

After the divorce, Mary married the wealthy Eugene Douvan. Though Sandra vaguely remembers her own father, it is Mr. Douvan that she remembers best. As his cherished step-daughter, she had more pretty dresses, more trips to the zoo--more attention, since her mother didn't have to work any more.

So, naturally enough, Sandra began to worship Eugene Douvan and to think of him as the greatest man in the world. He encouraged her when she developed ambitions to be a model, then an actress. She felt deeply bereft by his death and vowed "I'll try to live my life the way he'd want it." She still quotes him, always beginning, "Daddy used to say. . ."

As for her real father--the younger of the two men--remember that--he became a vague and shadowy figure in Sandra's mind. She probably thought that he was entirely to blame for the break-up of their home when she was little. The man he is today--hard-working, good bread-winner, devoted to his second wife and small son--seems in his daughter's eyes to be a stranger, no part of her present life.

Mary, Sandra's mother, admits she was always ambitious, always wanted the best for her little girl. And she wanted her to grow up to be self-reliant, capable of making not only a living, but a good one. Sandra has answered her dreams, all right.

But Sandra, aside from her talent and beauty, can think for herself--and does. Every boy she dates, she doubtless compares to her stepfather. And she probably finds some of these high-spirited kids immature. Or perhaps, far back in her mind, Sandra does remember her own father, young, tempestuous, often at odds with her mother. And Sandra may decide, "Not for me!"

Many people said that Liz Taylor was happy in her marriage to the late Mike Todd because he was old enough to be her father. Perhaps Sandra is looking for the same kind of happiness. She used to let her mother make most of her decisions; but recently Mama put her foot down, said Sandra was old enough to do a few things on her own, and sent her to New York all by herself. Sandra was thrilled, of course. "But," she says, "I was kind of scared, too. It was the first time I'd ever gone on a long trip without Mother. But I got along all right. I wrote Mother every day, though, and told what I was doing, the exciting people I met."

Is this the standard, rebellious teenager? It sounds more like a girl who is still longing for the loving protection of an older person.

On the job, Sandra seems to be maturing more rapidly. Youthful, as her voice still sounds (you'll hear it on the sound track of the cartoon feature "The Snow Queen"), her personality shows greater and greater depth. Her home studio, U-I, is scheduling her for such trying roles as "Portrait in Black."

In "A Summer Place," with Troy Donahue, Sandra proved she was ready for grown-up roles, with the intensity she and Troy gave to their love scenes. She dates Troy, finds him loads of fun--but no more than the many, many others.

Asked whether she liked Elvis Presley, Sandra said "Not especially. It seemed he acted so, well undignified when he wiggled." Did she mean "not mature enough"?

But Sandra his been known to change her mind. She used to dislike rock 'n' roll, both the music and the dancing. Then Rick Nelson came into the picture and taught her rock 'n' roll dancing. Now she thinks it and Rick are the greatest.

She worries about her mother. After all, Mary Douvan is only in her mid-thirties, and life shouldn't be over for her romantically, by any means. Sandra says, "I love Mother to have her own friends and lots of interesting activities, because eventually I will marry and have my own home." You will note Sandra did not say she would like her mother to marry again. Was that because Sandra's memory of her stepfather glows so brightly that she cannot imagine any man taking his place?

In her studio life, producer Ross Hunter, directors she has admired and older male stars have given Sandra another reason to prefer older men. She can talk to them. They understand her. At work on a film, Sandra is all business, listens to everything that is told her, strives for perfection in her acting.

In her adolescent days when she was a model, she came to respect and take advice from photographers, all of them far beyond her in years. Perhaps her pattern was further set then.

And still Edd Byrnes says of her, "Sandra's a delightful date. She's a good sport, game for whatever entertainment you prefer. She's so full of pep, so wonderfully young, and still so wise for her years."

In some other respects, too, Sandra's an average teenager. She loves pretty clothes, has closets and closets of them and enjoys trying them on for effect with different types of accessories. She loves the big premieres, where she can wear her most beautiful dresses. She likes parties, too, like the one Ross Hunter gave for her when she graduated from high school. "It was a Coke party for the teenagers and a cocktail party for the older stars and it was a ball." she reported.

Though finished with high school, Sandra still wants to learn. She can't very well go to college full-time--not with a career like hers--but she has settled for next best. She attends college-level classes in psychology under Miss Hoene, her teacher on the Universal lot. Of her Sandra says, "I was the only one in her high-school class and I just loved her and I think she is the best teacher. So I want to go on studying with her."

Thus far, Sandra's offscreen activities have given no worries to studio bosses, in contrast to the case of Tuesday Weld and other unpredictables. "Sandra conducts herself like a lady--which she is," Ross Hunter says.

And still she has plenty of fun, as Kookie attested. Sandra admits that now and then, when she is alone, she broods. "You can't be bubbling with happiness all the time, you know," she explains. But she also says those moods are short-lived. What does she brood about? Is she trying to solve the mysteries in her life, to understand herself better?

Some day Sandra will know. And some day, too, she will meet a man she knows she wants for her husband. Unless her outlook changes dramatically, he'll probably be a mature man of the world, a man with a highly successful career of his own (like that of her late stepfather). Then she'll find the hot-dog beach parties too young for her; then she'll want a lovely home of her own and eventually children. Sandra says, "I want more than one child, because one child is apt to get spoiled. My stepfather spoiled me terribly."

Though she says she won't consider marriage for a long time, other girls have said that and married shortly afterward. If love takes Sandra by surprise, she might marry on impulse. The boys she dates now are busy with their own careers--boys like Edd Byrnes and Troy Donahue--so she's playing it safe.

Also, Sandra says significantly, "I have a sure way of not falling in love these days. I always have a mad crush on an older man. When Paul Newman married Joanne Woodward, I hated her, for about a week, and then I said to myself, 'Let her have him,' and promptly fell in love with Rex Harrison."

She's had such fantasy crushes on others, including Marlon Brando, and she knows she's safe. These men are completely out of her scope. But it does indicate that fancy may turn to fact, and that Sandra, when she really does fall in love, may well follow her dreams--and choose an older man.

She did say once, when asked what kind of man she wanted to marry, "Why, one just like Daddy. He was the most!"

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