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| Eve Arden, actress |
Feeble Defenses |
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I'd met several attractive men, and one was threatening to become a serious romance, an advertising man who had arranged radio shows for various members of the cast of Billie Burke Ziegfeld Follies. After rehearsal one day he invited me to have lunch with him to discuss doing another show. On the way to the restaurant in the cab he asked me if I enjoyed dancing. I said, "Very much," so he suggested that we have dinner and mentioned a delightful place to dance. My suspicious nature led me to ask, "But aren't you married?"
His answer was, "Oh, I thought you understood." He went on to say that he and his wife were actually separated . . . In spite of my desire to keep our relationship platonic until he was free, I now admitted to myself that I was as deeply in love with him as he seemed to be with me. I fought my own urges, and he didn't pressure me; but tragedy was my undoing.
As I was dressing for our dinner date one night, Mother called from California to tell me that my wonderful Aunt Elsie had died suddenly from one of her mysterious attacks. In shock, I went to the restaurant where I was to meet the only man who could comfort me now . . . But he was late, and after waiting awhile I went back to my hotel room. On this night of my life when I desperately needed him, why wasn't he there?
The phone rang, and he was in the lobby apologizing for being so late. He sensed the tension in my voice and insisted on coming up. His sincere sympathy and love when I told him of my aunt's death, and my own need to obliterate my anguish, crumbled my feeble defenses, and we became lovers. (New York, mid-1930s)
from Three Phases of Eve: An Autobiography by Eve Arden (St. Martin's Press, © 1985)
© 2001 Nerve.com, Inc.
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