What
Next
for
Sandra
Dee?
Sandra Dee trips over the
college traces in "Take
Her, She's Mine," much to , ,
Me chagrin of her dad J
in the film, James Stewart.
IWih Her career is
i&kjf mam'ase to Bobby
llii 1 Darin sinking,
$ i it M I low and, at 21,
she's torn between work and love
By JACK RYAN
MOVIES
Sandra dee slipped out of her New
York City hotel recently for a
quiet dinner date with a handsome
escort. Much to her dismay, a gossip
columnist heard atgnit tile rendezvous
and printed the item.
"The. next day," she says, "everybody I met
pulled out a clipping and waved it at me. 'Did
you really hare dinner with himV they'd ask.
It was embarrassing."
It is indicative of the topsy-turvy world of
Sandra Dee that the man ihe was embarrassed
to be seen with was her husband. He's popular
with young audiences, too singer-actor Bobby
Darin. Why was she "embarrassed"?
"We're separated, you know, and we just
can't be seen together. It causes talk."
Sandra Dee, at 21, has lived nearly half
her life as a top-priced child model and teen
age movie money-maker. She is one of three
women (others : Doris Day and Elizabeth Tay
lor) among the top 10 box-office stars, and her
latest film, 20th Century-Fox's comedy, "Take
Her, She's Mine," costars veteran James Stew
art. Her fantastic furs and fanatical fans are
no legends.
But a growing legend is that she is the
frothy creation of a stage-door mother and a
Pygmalion-inspired director. When Sandra de
nies this, articulately and vehemently, she
also explodes the canard that she is a simple
"Tinkertoy," as one publication labeled her.
Sandra's mother and father were divorced
when she was four. Her mother subsequently
married a well-to-do New Jersey real-estate
operator, Eugene Douvan, and the couple lav
ished wealth and affection on Sandra.
"But they didn't push me into a career, as
some people say," Sandra explains. "A girl
friend told me about a Girl Scout fashion
show, and I entered. Harry Conover, the mod
eling agent, was there and offered me my first
job, a cover for the Girl Scout magazine."
SHE was soon earning $30 an hour at age 12
and running around to four or five sittings
a day. "I got fed up and was going back to
school and my parents were happy about it
when a Hollywood offer came. I haven't
stopped working since and never wanted to
except once."
Through her teeti Years, Mrs. Douvan was in
constant attendance, especially after Sandra's
stepfather died. Hollywood claimed Mrs. Dou
van stared with tearful eyes through the win
dow while Sandra received tutoring; that she
chaperoned Sandra and Darin on their dates.
"The part that is true," Sandra says, "is
that my mother was usually with me. She had
to be. i was a working minor, and California
law required her to be near. Besides, I was in
a totally ajiult, sophisticated world, and what
mothtSr wouldn't be protective? I never had a
friend my own age to play with or confide in;
my mother had to tabe on these things, too."
Ross Hunter is the directer and perhaps
father-substitute who has guided Sandra
through most of the 21 film she has made in
six years. But Sandra denies he is a Svengali,
although when she and Bobby fepfet their
honeymoon house, it was next to Hunter's.
When talking about her marriage, how
ever, Sandra implicitly admits that th,e shel
tered life under her mother and director left
her unprepared for adulthood. She had never
had a real date when she met Darin in Italy
in I960. After a six-weeK courtship, they
eloped to Elizabeth, N.J., "because, it was the
only time we were sure we could hive, six
weeks together."
Bobby is a tough boy from the Bronx who
set out early to be a "living legend by 25"
and alienated gome with his brashness and ego.
But not Sandra. She says: "Whatever hap
pens to my marriage, I'll never regret it. I
owe Bobby so much. He taught me responsi
bility. He made it on his own, so he knew how
to stand on his feet. Now I do, too . . .
"Certainly, I still love him. You don't just
'fall out of love.' Sometimes, though, you don't
know how to handle it. I'm 21 and no smarter
or dumber than any other 21-year-old. People
ask me how my teen-age fans react to our
separation. You know, it's funny they aren't
teen-agers now, any more than I am. They've
grown up, too. They're 21 or so, married, hav
ing babies and marriage problems. So they
write with sympathy because we're all the
same, star or fan . . .
"rn HE happiest TIME of my life was when I
X learned we were having a baby and I quit
work. Bobby was making a picture in Red
ding (Calif.), and we rented a little cabin.
No maids, just Bobby and me me, who'd
never even picked up my clothes! I kept a
good house and liked it, I knew I could quit
the movies and be happy. Yes, I know house
wives get bored, but there was so much I
wanted to learn.
"But I never got a chance to quit. We sep
arated, and I went back to a 15-hour day. I
liked it because I could forget."
Sandra doesn't say what caused the rift
which left their baby, Dodd Mitchell, 20
months, in the care of her mother, grand
mother, and assorted maids. ("Too many
women," Sandra admits.) But' when a young
woman, who is now No. ( at the box office
and wants to be No. 1, marries a young man
who aims at being a "living legend" (now 26,
he has had to move his target date back five
years), you get a glimpse of a conflict area.
Sandra had a teen-age reputation of accept
ing advice but "Nobody has advised me on
my marriage," she says. "My mother is no
help. I'm right, Bobby is wrong. But I'm al
ways right with my mother. No, only time
will tell what Bobby and I will do. But with
his club dates and movies and my commit
ments, we never seem to have time."
"Here's some advice," I said. "You love him,
you want a solution, but you don't have time
to find one. Well, why don't you both quit for
a while and go off together to talk things out?"
"We couldn't do that!" Sandra said, enty
half-kiddingly. "If we were together, we'd he
reconciled; we wouldn't have to go off sekae
where and talk things out. No, time wiU hava
to tell."
Unfortunately, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin
are two people with everything but time.
10 Family Wnkly, Srptmbtr I. I9J