The big town has really been getting a load of Hollywood romance lately. No sooner had Farley and Shelley blown that Janet and Tony arrived. The pictures that start on page 22 should give you a rough idea of that mad week after the wedding. Yep, we were taken by surprise, too- but we shouldn't have been. Right on the job, reporter Lloyd Sloan (who takes you Here and There around Hollywood in MOVIE LIFE) had sent us a hot tip. A few weeks before Janet left the Coast, Loyd wired that the Leigh-Curtis wedding might take place in New York. Well, Hollywood being a Grade-A rumor-factory, we kept our fingers crossed on this. But when Janet arrived, I quizzed her about this particular rumor. No, dead-panned Janet, she definitely would not be married in New York. True to her word, she became Tony's bride in Greenwich, Conn., of course.
First time I met the bride-to-be, a few days before her fiance reached New York, she was leaving after a screening of A Place in the Sun. It wasn't until later that Iheard an astonishing detail about this. Seems Janet had gotten there a few moments after the movie started; found the projection room jam-packed; decided to stand at the rear and watch just a few scenes. But she got so absorbed in the powerful Clift-Taylor-Winters drama that she wound up standing through the whole two hours and two minutes of it!
In the days just following the wedding, the town was fizzing with festivities- planned or impromptu. UI, Tony's studio, started the ball rolling with a previously announced party for the bridegroom and Piper Laurie, his co-star in The Prince Who Was a Thief- on the afternoon of the wedding day! Even in an everyday mood, Tony's as straightforward, enthusiastic, likable a lad as you'd love to meet. But on this particular evening, all the local power stations could have conked out, and Tony's smiles would still have done a fine job of illuminating Greater New York. (I gathered he's happily married man.)
Somebody asked him whether he and his bride had visited his old neighborhood. "Which old neighborhood?" Tony chortled. "While we were driving through town on the way back from Greenwich, every other block I'd be telling Janet, 'I used to live there...I used to live there..
Tonys co-star, on her first visit to New York, was also a delight to meet. On the screen, Piper comes across with a brash youthful kind of bounce that matches her red hair. So it's a surprise to find that in person the little Detroit gal is shy and quiet-spoken, almost frightened by the fuss that's being made over her. The fuss is justified; she's certainly headed for an important niche in Hollywood, and by the time she's firmly established in it, she'll probably have all the assurance you'd expect of a movie star. Just the same, I'm glad I've met Piper while she's still wide-eyed about the whole thing. Like Tony, she's been enjoying their p.a. tour with The Prince, but she's looking forward to her return to Hollywood. She misses her dog so much!- no special breed, just a dawg.
Later in the evening, after the UI party for Tony and Piper, came a shindig for the newlyweds at Danny's Hide-a-Way. Danny and Janet had cooked up this scheme in advance- but mine host thought it was going to be just a birthday party for Tony. He learned different on the morning of the big day, when he got a phone call to this effect: "Never mind the birthday cake. Make it a wedding cake!" That cake (the Curtises' second) really made a grand entrance at the party. The room was darkened, and the five DeMarco sisters came in softly singing I Love You Truly. When the lights went up, there was the cake- and there were Janet and Tony laughing and crying at the same time. Other singers joined in the off-the-cuff floor show: Perry Como, Frankie Laine, Gloria De Haven. Of course, the Jerry Lewises were on hand, sharing the table of honor with the bride and groom.
But Jerry couldn't make the next evening's party for the Curtises- the one at the Versailles, where Gloria De Haven (then the featured singer at this swank night spot) played hostess. What with the Martin-Lewis night-club stint at the Copacabana (packed 'em in!) and their TV show, Tony's best man was hardly vacationing in N.Y.
Other Hollywoodites did whiz though town on their way to or from vacations: June Allyson and Dick Powell, Spencer Tracy. Still more flew in and out of business. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans set some kind of record- popping in for a business luncheon and promptly taking off again. The Van Johnsons and the Burt Lancasters came here just to grab the next boat for Europe; in each case, the man of the house had a picture-making job in Italy, while the lady went along for the ride. Liz Taylor also planed in and sailed away, off for the English location sites of Ivanhoe. It was a little sad to think about the last time she sailed for England- as a bride in a This-is-forever mood.
Some interesting sidelights on Liz came up during a luncheon with Roddy McDowell. Roddy's practically the charter member of Hollywood's younger set. Of course, he's known Liz since both of them were kid stars, and she couldn't have a more loyal friend, though she's no longer part of the set. That began happening a few years ago, as soon as it became apparent that Elizabeth was growing up as a great beauty. This drift into new circles wasn't any of her doing, Roddy implied. She was just naturrally claimed by the- "the world," he said, with a sweeping gesture. Her beauty automatically made her sought-after by every set.
All the headlines and the emotional mix-ups have made Liz the target for a lot of criticism, but she has a staunch defender in Roddy. He insists that her situation is just something she's been pushed into, and that she has remained a thoroughly sweet-natured girl, a little bit naive- and still very young. (Liz herself now admits that she's due for some more growing-up.)
There weren't any complications to discuss when we got around to a couple of other special pals of Roddy's. These are two lucky people named Janie and Geary Steffen, who really deserve each other, said Roddy. (It's a wise child who's picked out parents like these.) This Janie Powell Steffen is the bubbling-over type, it seems- cries or laughs with astonishing ease even when there's no script to follow. For instance, Roddy recalled the time when he sat next to Janie at a revival of A Star is Born. "Toward the end," he said, "where Fredric March walks into the ocean, I was gulping, when all of the sudden, I heard a little whimpering noise, almost like a puppy. I looked around, and there was Janie, sobbing out loud, with the tears spouting out of her eyes!"
But when something strikes her funny, it takes her a lot longer to get over her hysterics. Roddy and the rest of the gang still kid her about the time she was shopping with Barbara Thompson in Saks. Neither of 'em remembers exactly what was said or done that was so hilarious, but Janie wound up absolutely helpless, practically collapsing on the floor in a fit of the giggles. Startled the other customers considerably!
With or without any such personality sidelights or news bits, friend Roddy is welcome to drop in any time. This trip, he had his weather-eye out for possible Broadway stints, after his summer-theatre appearances. He'd been to see pal Jerome Courtland in the stage musical Flahooley- and he still wasn't discouraged! Co-Jo drew excellent notices for his work as the romantic lead, but most of the critics got pretty tough about the show itself, and it quietly folded, with some talk of a second try in the fall. Even so, New York doesn't seem to scare the Hollywoodites; they keep coming this way.--J. G.

The article is accompanied by a small black and white photo of PL holding a camera- ASKED what she most wanted to see as introduction to New York, Piper Laurie came up promptly with "Greenwich Village!" So off she went, with camera in hand, starting tour conventionally at Washington Square Arch, where Fifth Avenue ends; Another larger b&w photo of PL holding one end of a jump rope- GAMINE of UI"s The Prince Who Was a Thief couldn't resist getting into the act along with school kids out for recess in the Square. Shops selling curios, modernistic jewelry charmed her, but UI kept new star too busy for shopping spree.; A full page b&w of PL looking at the awning of a small shop- STROLLING quaint, traffic-less Washington Mews, Piper shows off Clothes Line items: side-paneled, tissue silk in a redhead's rust and green; smart, capacious pyramid purse.