Medford mail tribune., October 28, 1962, Image 34

Family Weekly October 28. 1962
fn "The Ugly American" with Sandra Church, Marlon was a model star.
MARLON
BRANDO:
HOLLYWOOD'S
EXPENSIVE
ENIGMA
Bad-boy behavior has earned him
headlines and enemies, but some who know
him, particularly his leading ladies, insist
he's gentle and considerate
By PEER J. OPPENHEIMER
Brando personally chose Tarita to costar in "Mutiny on the Bounty."
iKf rir ;
While MARLON brando was starring in "The Ugly
American" at Universal-International, an acquaint
ance stopped him on his way out of the commissary one noon.
"Hi, Marlon. How are you?"
A blank expression crept over Marlon's face. "I don't know how I am."
After a moment's hesitation, he added: "I don't even know who I am
today!" With that he shuffled out of the dining room like a sleepwalker.
If he doesn't know who he is, is it surprising that nobody else does?
Volumes of material have been written about him, mostly by reporters
who have never come face to face with him, or who have seen him but
briefly. An example of the latter is Bill Davidson, a well-known writer,
who arranged an interview several years ago. Marlon rode into the inter
view room atop his drama coach, dismounted, and gave Davidson a two
hour lecture on why he shouldn't talk to him. Then he remounted his
human charger and disappeared through the doorway!
Nowadays, practically the whole press corps is barred from talking
not only to Brando but to anyone connected with him, down to a make-up
man or unit publicist whose job, supposedly, is to get news about the cur
rent production into print!
Because family weekly has a reputation for fairness, and because I
promised not to reveal the source of my information when it might prove
embarrassing, some of the people closest to Brando spoke freely about
him to me. Combined with a lengthy meeting with Marlon himself which
established a good rapport between us I now feel justified in drawing
some conclusions.
Marlon's sister Jocelyn filled me in on Brando's formative years in
Libertyville, 111. : "He was just a normal boy, no different from anybody
else I knew. He played the same games and did the same things he went
swimming, climbed trees, played the drums, got into trouble, like any
other boy. He had chores around the house, like washing the car or cutting
the lawn, for which he got 50 cents. I can't remember if he went steady,
but he had girl friends and he went to dances and on picnics and did all
the other things teen-agers do. We were all surprised that he turned out
to be famous. There was nothing different about him till he was 21."
Jocelyn admitted that her brother hated school. His reasons seem to
forecast the difficulties he later encountered in Hollywood. "He never
liked mundane, organized knowledge, organized anything. He may know
a lot about anthropology, for instance, but not the way it was taught in
class. He read about it and retained most of it."
When Brando first came to Hollywood 12 years ago, he was called
"the Slob." He showed up everywhere in blue jeans and soiled tee shirts,
and invariably in need of a shave. He made unkind remarks about people
driving around in fancy cars and wearing elegant clothes.
Brando, "the Slob," Disappears
The condition of his living quarters defied description, even before his
pet raccoon moved in. Yet when interviewed at the time, he said: "I'm
sick of being thought of as a blue-jeaned slobber mouth, and I'm sick
of having people come up and say hello, and then just stand there and
expect me to throw a raccoon at them."
In this respect Marlon has reformed considerably. He now lives in a
well-kept, modest house, drives a modest car, and except for court fights
with his ex-wife, Anna Kashfi, he gets into the news primarily through
professional misbehavior.
Considering the disturbing family bickering of his early years, an
even reasonably well-adjusted Brando is something of an achievement.
His father was a limestone-products salesman (he now runs Marlon's
various business enterprises). His mother was a beautiful woman with
an interest in amateur dramatics and an alcohol problem. Marlon was
very close to her and took her death a few years ago very hard:
There seemed to be more than the average family discord. Asked if
theirs was a close-knit family, Jocelyn told me: "We were all individuals,
but at the same time we were quite close without hanging onto one
another. This still holds true today. If we don't see each other for two
weeks or two years, we can always take up anything where we left it!"
Quite likely, even Jocelyn seems to have underestimated Marlon's long
ing for love. Apparently he has wanted to be reassured and since he
wasn't, he has not been able to reassure others. "Whether he admits it or
4
Family Wrrkly. Orlotxr 21, 1962