If Tyrone Power Marries now, says his mother, it'll be unfair to his fan public (the girls) as well as himself

Just about every day of the week, and Sunday, too, the doorbell rings out at the pretty house where Tyrone Power lives. And there?s a florist?s boy, with another gargantuan box of flowers for Tyrone?s mother?..And now wait!-wait, before you snort ?fooey!? and turn the page. Because this is NOT another of those too, too sweet stories about how-oh-so-much Handsome Movie Hero Loves Mama. Tyrone loves mama, all right-but that?s not the point. The point is that those flowers mama gets aren?t from Tyrone at all. They?re from Tyrone?s girl friends??.!

Why, Sonja Henie and Loretta Young and Alice Faye, and all those other girls whose names mama doesn?t even know-they must be keeping the Hollywood florists rich, sending posies to Tyrone?s ma! And Mama Power just loves it.

Now, don?t get her wrong. Don?t picture her as one of those mammy-ballad mothers, with grey hair and rocking-chair complex, who just sits and knits and knits and sits. Tyrone?s mother, you may as well know right now, is just as young as Tyrone is, under the universally accepted standards of ?you?re just as young as you eel and as old as you look.? Mama Power is really Patia Power, nationally-famed actress. She?s got no silver crown and all that, no toil worn hands to sing about, and there aren?t lines in her face that show how she suffered for her bay-hay-bee-boy-hoyyyyyyyy.

No. Tyrone Power?s mother is a beautiful, alert and up-to-date woman, with a rich intelligence that includes as a vital necessity a keen sense of humor-not bitter sense of humor, but one of those rich, tolerant sense of humor that can laugh with, rather than at??.

And that?s why she just loves all these flowers she?s getting from Sonja and Loretta and the girls. She loves the flowers for themselves, but even more than that, she?s getting a tremendous kick out of watching the grand free-for-all that?s raging among the girls for her son?s heart and smiles-and maybe his hand.

And being a veteran actress, herself-as Patia Power, she?s famous in Shakespearean roles, and in many other stage parts-she finds intense amusement and interest in watching the girls ?put on their act? for Tyrone! She sits on the sidelines, does Tyrone?s mother, somewhat in the role of a stage producer watching actresses try out for some rich emotional role?..

And with her experience, her knowledge of the subtle and not-so-subtle tricks of the trade, she says to herself, as each of the girls flashes woman?s immemorial weapons:

?That was a neat play!? or ?She rather overplayed her hand there-but that sudden demure look she gave him was very clever come-back, I must say!?

Oh, I won?t mention names. Neither will Tyrone?s mother. After all, an umpire or a referee can?t tell the contestants, can she, how to play her tricks?

Now, don?t overlook this: Behind this interest, this fun, this amusement that Tyrone Power?s mother inevitably gets out of watching Loretta and Sonja and the other girls battle for Tyrone, there is a definite and panicky note of apprehensiveness. Tyrone?s mother, today, is rather afraid that sooner or later (probably much sooner than would be desirable, in fact!) the game?s suddenly going to end. One of the girls will effect the coup de grace-and there?ll be wedding bells. In fact, Patia Power isn?t merely apprehensive that that will happen; she knows It will happen.

?In all my experience,? she says, resignedly, ?I?ve? never yet seen a woman fail to achieve what she wants of a man, when she sets her mind to it.?

And Mama Power doesn?t NOT want Tyrone to marry-yet. She?s frank about it. Outspokenly frank. It wouldn?t, she feels, be fair. It wouldn?t be fair to Tyrone; it wouldn?t be fair to the people who have built and are building Tyrone on the heights he?s scaling. And those ?people? include not alone the producers who?ve given him his chance and their backing, but also the thousands and millions of fans-the girls whose admiration for Tyrone on the screen have catapulted him to a position alongside Robert Taylor, Clark Gable, and the other heart-throbbers of the films.

?It wouldn?t be fair to them,? says Patia Power, simply. ?If Tyrone marries now, instead of waiting for quite a few years, as he has said he will, it will be unfair to them-and to himself.?

And so-with the picture in you mind, now-the picture of a loving mother, a mother ambitious for her son yet having to sit by and watch some of Hollywood?s most expert man-catchers lay their campaigns for Tyrone?s heart, ask yourself this:

Which mother has the tougher job-Shirley Temples? or Tyrone Power?s? You all know, because you?ve read it over Andover again, what a tremendous load of responsibility and work and worry Mrs. Gertrude Temple carries. BUT-can?t Mrs. Patia Power look at her and say (if she wanted to!): ?Hmph! You think you?ve got a job. Hmph, hmph!!! You should have a marriageable and wanted son on your hands!1?

Sharpest contrast (as long as we are Contrasting their jobs) between Mmes. Temple and Power is that whereas Mrs. Temple can and does do everything in controlling Shirley?s life and work, Mrs. Power cannot and does NOT do anything to control her son?s.

How can she?-even if she wanted to. He?s ?free, white and 21,? isn?t he? Mrs. Power may, from her grandstand seat, see him being enmeshed in a cleverly contrived web; she may see him falling, as all men do, for some of womankind?s oldest but surest wiles-but she has to sit still and say not a word.

About girls, about romance, about marriage. Tyrone?s mother has given him, throughout their life together, only one sentence of advice of guidance form herself. It is this: ?Tyrone, my son, I am not and never will be jealous of any girl; but I am jealous, and keenly so, for your career.?

That is all. And it is remarkable that that is all she has ever told him, from mother to son, about his girls. Remarkable because of the extreme closeness, intimacy of their lives. There is no part of Tyrone?s life and activity that is not an open book to her-or rather, to her, because she does not attempt to tell him, in any way, what to do.

They have a splendid house together. She keeps lovely house for him. When and if he does marry, his wife will find it on small work to live up to the standard of ?home? that mother has established.

Nights, when Tyrone has been out, his mother is almost invariably awake when he comes in. You see, the garage is right under her bedroom. And no matter how tip-toe quietly Tyrone manages to get in, Patia (being a mother) is awake.

?If Tyrone closed that garage door by a fraction of an inch, I?d still wake up,? she smiles. As he passes her door on the way to his own bedroom, Tyrone always taps, ever so gently, on hers. ?Awake?? he whispers very softly. He knows darn well she is. She calls to him. And there and then-be it midnight or three in the morning, Tyrone comes in, sits for five or ten minutes on the edge of her bed, tells her about the night he?s passed, the people he?s seen, the girl he?s been out with.

By now, Tyrone?s girly are no novelty to Patia Power. ?ever since he was a little boy, he?s had a girl,? she tell you. ?He had his first girl when he was about five or six years old when he was in the first grade in school. That?s where he found her. He has had a girl ever since!?

How many? Oh, bosh!-she can?t remember that?..! Tens! Hundreds? Millions maybe.

?How long did his average ?girl? last you ask her.

She smiles. ?I can?t remember that, either. As a matter of fact, I never could keep track. I don?t know, at all, how many girls he?s had, or how long they?ve lasted, but I know the condition has lasted ever since that girl in the first grade!?

But it?s not been until recently-very recently-that Tyrone has discovered the truth of the old adage that ?in numbers lies safety.? Up until a few weeks ago, Hollywood observed Tyrone?s romance with Sonja Henie, and Since Sonja was the only girl I the picture, Hollywood took it for granted that there?d be wedding bells for them almost any day. And then along came Loretta Young. Now Hollywood doesn?t know whether Loretta or Sonja will win out, but it?s watching anxiously to see. And it?s learned that Alice Faye is in the picture, too.

but what they don?t know is that Alice Faye is regarded, by Tyrone?s mother, somewhat in the nature of a welcome ?safety valve.? (Imagine Alice being a safety valve!1) What I mean is this: Alice calls Patia Power ?Mom.? Alice is ?sort of part of the Power household. There?s a camaraderie between Alice and Tyrone--and Patia-that doesn?t exist in the picture when either Sonja or Loretta is the third party. With Sonja or Loretta, the picture is romance, out-and-out; with Alice, it seems to be just ?palsy-walsy.?

Alice sends Patia flowers, too. But Alice sends simple flowers, and she sends the kind she knows Patia likes. Loretta and Sonja send gorgeous ones. Tyrone?s mother thinks and says that Alice is ?nice.?

?Don?t you ever think, sometimes, that maybe after all Alice will win Tyrone?? someone once asked Mrs. Power.

Surprised, Mrs. Power answered: ?Alice? Why-Alice is just a friend. There?s no romance there?.!?

But ever since, Mrs. Power has been wondering about that??

Of course, Sonja and Alice and Loretta aren?t the only girls who want ?at? Tyrone. Not by any means. Mrs. Power can tell you all about that. She can tell you about the telephone at their house, for instance. Oh, yes, it?s one of those ?private? numbers, and you wont? find it I the Hollywood telephone directory. But girls, when they want to reach a man, have their ways. And Tyrone?s so-private telephone number seems to be sported on the bulletin board or every girls? club and sorority in California, Mrs. Power rather imagines. Anyway, it?s always ringing and always there?s a strange girls? voice on it.

?May I speak to Tyrone, please?? it invariably ask, then, in Mrs. Power?s ear. You see, Mother Power makes it a point to answer the phone herself; that?s one of the things she can do to help Tyrone. So she asks who?s calling please?

Well, sometimes that ends it. Sometimes there?s merely a disappointed click. But sometimes, the caller is more persistent. Sometimes she comes back:

?Well, who the so-and-so wants to know?? Then Mrs. Power simply says, sweetly: ?Why, my dear, this is Tyrone?s mother. Now won?t you tell me who?s calling, so I can tell him???

?Why-ah-this is Miss-uh-Jones,? the voice very often says. Mrs. Power tells her then that Tyrone is not home, but if she?ll leave a number, since she knows him so well, he?ll call. She usually doesn?t leave the number.

?It?s amazing,? comments Mrs. Power, ?how many different girls named ?Jones? Tyrone seems to know.

In the shops, Patia Power has her experiences, too. Just the other day, she gave the salesgirl her name: ?Mrs. Tyrone Power.? (You see, Tyrone?s father was Tyrone, too-the famous stage and screen star of a decade and two ago.)

The salesgirl looked startled for a moment. Then she ?got? it. ?Ph, she blushed, ?you?re not his wi-I mean, you?re Tyrone?s mother, aren?t you??

Then, still more confused at fear of having committed another faux pas, the girl gushed on: ?That is, I mean, you don?t mind being known as the mother of Tyrone Power, do you??

Knowingly, Mrs. Power smiled and answered: ?Why, my dear-Tyrone has been known simply as ?Patia Power?s son? for so long that I?m proud to take my turn now and be known as ?Tyrone Power?s mother?.?

but with all the ?Miss Joneses? who phone; with all the strange girls who write notes, with all the other beautiful approachers, there is still one thing that keeps Mrs. Patia Power proud and happy about her son. No matter how many other problems and worries she may have as the mother of a bachelor movie-hero, she can and does say: ?At least, I don?t have to read the gossip columns to find out my son?s latest romance. He tells me first.?