MOVIES
"fTIHE YOUNG COUPLE that
J moved into a New England
style home in Tarzana, Calif.,
earlier this year posted a sim
ple sign outside : "Mac Arthur."
The stocky, square-jawed husband
spent days pushing a heavy polisher
over the hardwood floors while his
three-year-old son, Charley, tried to
ride atop it. The wife of the household
abandoned improvising comedy rou
tines, a talent her husband deeply
envies, to shove around the few pieces
of antique furniture they had man
aged to accumulate up to then.
The young MacArthurs had put
down their roots. Any doubts about
themselves or about what they were
doing seemed to have been outgrown.
Head of the house is James Mac
Arthur, starring now in Warner Bros.'
"Spencer's Mountain." He is one of
those "children of famous people," a
rather shy, easygoing 25-year-old who
tried to be a dutiful son, didn't suc
ceed entirely, but ended up making
everyone happy.
Mrs. MacArthur Joyce Collins
Bulifani comes from a wealthy Phila
delphia society family. Her comedi
enne's talents might have been sub
merged in postdebutante life if she
hadn't met Jaimie at an ultraexclusive
school at 14, started "going steady"
nt IG 1 : I . nn
"i w, miu nini I icu hi u.
MacArthur is the son of the First
Lady of the Theater, Helen Hayes.
His father was the late newspaperman-playwright,
Charles MacArthur.
They strongly desired that he would
have a "normal childhood." Jaimie
would not be a "professional child,"
would finish college (Harvard), then
decide on a career, and next marry.
V FATHER used t0 Bay' 'Never e
1VJ. an actor.' He was a great kid
der, of course, but I didn't realize it
when I was young. My mother didn't
try to influence me. She wanted me to
make up my own mind after college.
At home it was almost all theater, and
she felt I could evaluate things better
after an education."
A friend of the MacArthur family
recalls young Jaimie as a "good boy,
obedient, and very anxious to please."
Jaimie entered Solesbury School in
New Hope, Pa., where he played foot
ball, basketball, and baseball. "The
school was so small," he says, grin
ning, "that if you could get out on the
field, you were on the team."
But acting? Very little. "My mother
let me appear with her in 'The Corn
It Green' when I was only eight, then
he retired me for about seven years,"
he says. "Friends would offer her
rules for me, but she'd say: 'What?
Have him up until midnight and going
to professional children's schools? Oh,
n!' Later on, I was a messenger that
nubody could hear in 'Macbeth,' and
Real ham in theatrical family, nay
James MacArthur, is his son Charley.
JAMES
MacARTHUR:
He
Couldn't
Help
Being
a Star
By JACK RYAN
He had promised his
mother, Helen Hayes,
that he'd get an
education before
deciding on a career;
but the best plans
often go awry
.to everyone's benefit
another time I was the page nobody
could see who wheeled my mother on
stage as Queen Victoria, but that was
about it"
MacArthur says he didn't have any
great urge to counter his parents'
wishes, but their theatrical fame was
overwhelming, and his older sister,
Mary, had made an outstanding Btage
debut, only to die of polio at the age
of 19. As a timid youngster, Jaimie
appeared to lack the driving self-confidence
to challenge this awesome
family tradition. "He looked every
where for a career but the Btage," a
friend says. "Business particularly
fascinated him, and I think he would
have had a good head for it."
When producer Martin Manulis
asked Jaimie to star in a television
diama in 1955, he got his mother's
permission to accept, pointing out he
was on summer vacation anyway. His
first rehearsal was so bad that he went
home almost in tears. His unsteady
confidence was shaken further by re
ports that an official of the network
had hired a stand-by actor in case
MacArthur failed. "The kid must have
got the job through connections," the
official was quoted as saying.
But the critics praised his acting,
and Jaimie simply packed fame with
his books and finished high school.
When next summer came, Hollywood
was ready to do a film version of "The
Young Strangers" if MacArthur
would star. Acclaim for his role topped
even the tv reviews. But Jaimie en
tered Harvard, as had long been plan
ned, and considered a career in the
publishing business.
BY Now, despite timidity, Mac
Arthur had made his acting debut
and brought it off in the best theater
tradition. There were no self-doubts
now: he wanted to be an actor. But
what about his promise to finish
school? He thought up all sorts of
arguments "Mother, you never went
beyond high school, and you've got
11 honorary degrees."
But when the showdown came, all
he could say was: "I'm not getting
much out of school."
And Miss Hayes replied: "Then
there's not much point being there."
Jaimie promised that he would take
only a "leave of absence" from Har
vard. A wise mother. Miss Hayes
ignored the promise. Jaimie was an
actor now. He went on to six movies
and several tv shows, mostly boyish
adventure roles. But in "Spencer's
Mountain," he plays man-sized love
scenes with Mimsey Farmer.
Plans for Jaimie may not have
worked out according to parental ex
pectations; they rarely do. But when
Grandmother Hayes visits that stone
house in Tarzana, she happily visits
a very normal couple who have found
what they've always wanted.
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