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Griffin Daily News
Ella Raines wed secretary’s date
By NANCY ANDERSON
Copley News Service
HOLLYWOOD - “I’m so
proud of Ella,” a long-time
friend of Ella Raines said on a
recent proud day in the for
mer star’s life.
“When she married Robin,
most people said the mar
riage wouldn't last six
months, and, when she gave
up her career, nobody thought
she meant it, but now, 26
years later, she and Robin are
still married, and she’s com
pletely happy.”
The proud day, occasion for
the comment, was May 31, the
day of Brig. Gen. Robin Olds’
retirement from the Air Force
in which he was serving as a
major when he met and mar
ried movie star Ella Raines.
She was a glamorous, but
All-American-Girl type who’d
been under contract to How
ard Hawks and Charles Boyer
and later to Universal when
A gap
between
generations
is one way of looking*
at it. But actually, it’s
a case of age is no
barrier to enjoyment
of a Florida beach.
(Photos by Glen Puskar)
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she dropped her flourishing
picture career for the sake of
her husband and family.
And she’s never considered
the step a sacrifice.
“Acting is something one
misses every day,” Ella said
on the day of her husband’s
retirement. “I miss it just as I
know Robin is going to miss
his airplanes; but regret? No,
I’ve never regretted leaving
Hollywood.
“Actually, I’d just started a
picture in London with John
Mills when I quit.
“A series of things brought
that about. In the first place,
Robin and I had been having
troubles. He was one place,
and I was another, and that
was bad. I’d lost a baby. And
then I got word that my moth
er had cancer, so I left the pic
ture I was making in London
and went home.
“We’d just been shooting
for three days when I learned
that my mother was ill, but,
since I was an only child and a
good daughter, I felt that be
ing with her was more impor
tant than finishing the film, so
I left.
“And I never went back.”
Ella, a girl with dark,
swinging hair, sexy eyes and
an elegant figure, was born in
Snoqualmie Falls, Wash., the
daughter of an engineer.
While growing up in the
Northwest, she hunted and
fished with her father, be
came an expert tennis player
and skier, and played leads in
Snoqualmie High School dra
matic productions.
Ella attended the
University of Washington
where she majored in drama.
She was in New York on a
trip her father had given her
as a graduation present when
she met Charles Feldman, an
agent, who immediately saw
her potential for stardom.
He showed pictures of her to
Boyer and Hawks, and they,
equally impressed, gave her
the lead in “Corvette K-225.”
A long list of picture assign
ments followed, among them
leads in “Cry Havoc,” “Brute
Force,” “The Suspect” with
Charles Laughton and “Tall
in the Saddle” with John
Wayne.
“I suppose the most popular
‘Emigrants’ team together
again in ‘Zandy’s Bride’
By Dick Kleiner
BIG SUR. Calif. - <NEA>
— At the edge of the sea.
where the meadow ended in
a cliff leading down to the
rocky coast, they were shoot
ing a movie called Zandv s
Bride. It looked like a great
place to work
It s terrible, said Eileen
Heckart. thereby bursting
another bubble. "Everybody
in the company has a cold. At
this location there are black
widow spiders. At the one we
worked at last week there
were rattlesnakes."
Still, it was beautiful. Per
fect for the scene, a big bar
becue. with Gene Hackman.
as Zandy. escorting Liv Ull
mann. as his mail-order bride,
in this romantic western set
in Big Sur in the 1870 s
Producer Harvey Matofsky
said that, because of the high
cost of meat, thev wanted to
boycott beef for the barbecue
scene and use a vegetable
substitute.
"But it didn’t work, he
said, unhappily.
Matofsky is a Brooklynite
who now lives mostly in
Rome, works with Federico
Fellini and produced "The
Last Tomorrow." Liv Ull
mann says that she feels it is
important these days to pick
producers with as much care
as you pick directors.
"You have to be very care
ful who produces your pic
tures." she says. "He can cut
the picture after the director
is finished. My Pope Joan’
was hurt that way. The produ
cer showed it every night to
his friends and then would cut
it again, based on what his
friends said."
picture I made,” Mrs. Olds
remembers, “was ‘Tall in the
Saddle,’ but I think the two I
liked best were ‘The Suspect’
and ‘The Senator Was Indis
creet’ with William Powell.”
Ella met Olds on a blind
date in Palm Springs, Calif.,
where she was resting be
tween pictures and recouping
after a divorce.
“I was through with men,”
she remembers. “Or I thought
I was. But Ace Hastings,
whom I’d met at the Gary
Coopers, called and said he
was coming down. So I told
him to bring two men with
him, because I had two girls
with me.
“Robin was my secretary’s
date. We met in May and were
married the following Febru
ary.”
Almost as soon as Ella met
Robin, she knew she’d found a
man who was special.
The same friend who’d said
he was proud of her on the day
of her husband's retirement
recalls the first time she men
tioned Robin to him.
“I’ve met a wonderful
man,” she exclaimed. "He’s
the only man who’s beaten me
on skis in three years.”
Olds' skiing ability wasn't
his only recommendation,
however.
i
W
LIV ULLMANN stars in
an Old West love story
as a mail order bride.
She is working here with
director Jan Troell. making
his first American film after
his smashing success with
"The Emigrants’’ and "The
New Land. ” in which she
He’d been an All-American
tackle on West Point’s 1942
football team and, as a fighter
pilot during World War 11, had
flown 107 combat missions,
downing 13 enemy planes, and
destroying eleven and one
half aircraft on the ground.
(During the Vietnam con
flict, he was credited with
shooting down another four
planes to become a triple
ace.)
The Olds have two daugh
ters, Christine, a senior at
Vassar who will, her mother
thinks, graduate Phi Beta
Kappa and Susan who has fin
ished two years at Wheaton
College.
Ella herself plans to go back
to school. She expects to begin
work almost immediately on
her masters degree in drama
with the hope of teaching
sometime.
Hie Olds have chosen as
their retirement home a 12-
room chalet at Steamboat
Springs, Colo.
“We are a mad skiing fam
ily,” Ella explains. “We’ll ski
all winter and play golf all
summer.
“Yes, I’m looking forward
to a happy future, and I’m
sure we’ll have one, because
we’ve already had such a hap
py past.”
starred. But she indicates he
is not too happy under Ameri
can conditions.
"Jan’s specialty is photog
raphy ” she says "On The
Emigrants’ and The New-
Land. he’d grab a camera
himself and shoot. He isn’t
allowed to do that on an
American film.
Troell shoots reasonably
fast but there were still long
periods of waiting. Every lo
cation fills those periods dif
ferently. This one had gone in
for palm reading, due to the
presence of a Dutch palmist
named Marcel Broekman.
who was part of a crew mak
ing a film about the film.
Liv said Broekman had pin
pointed everything about her
— "he said I idealize every
man I meet and I guess I do.
But I am worried. He says
that from 35 to 37 will not be
so good for me and I’m next
to that age now.
Everybody had his palm
read, even troell. which as
tounded Miss Ullmann.
"He's changed so much,
she said. "Two years ago. he
didn’t believe in that sort of
thing. Now he reads books on
astrology.
Hackman keeps moving
from picture to picture. He
says he is after financial secu
rity but won’t do a TV series
— ”1 don’t want to be that
secure." He says there is talk
of a sequel to "The French
Connection but nothing defi
nite yet.
"I’d really like to do a
comedy. ” Gene says, "but
that may have to wait. First.
I want security. So I’ll take
the best offer that comes
along.”
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN )