Gossips had the Ty Power Linda Christian romance all figured out-but so did Dan Cupid!

A little over a year ago when Tyrone Power dropped Lana Turner for Linda- Christian, an actress who had known Ty more than passably well was sitting in Romanoff's sipping a drink.

"I give that Christian girl," she said, "exactly three months-no more, no less. After that she'll have to find a new boyfriend." Generally, that was the tone of most prophesies I made in 1948 concerning the future of Ty and Linda..

Good friends of the actor would whisper in con fidence that his love for Linda was a mere infatuation that - would wear off and pass away in time.

How wrong the prophets were, we all know now.

The Ty-Linda romance has surpassed everyone's expectations. It has developed into an ardent. powerful love match with deep, basic, lasting qualities. And the credit for this must go to Blanca Rosa Welter, which is Linda's original name, Linda was able to pin the notoriously elusive Tyrone down to matrimonial promises and intentions where such worldly predecessors as Sonja Henie, Janet Gaynor, Norma Shearer, and Lana Turner had failed.

This is really a remarkable accomplishment when you realize that Linda is at least ten years younger than the 35 year-old Ty and that Ty has always gone with older women.

Sonja Henie is two years older than he; Janet Gaynor eight years; Norma Shearer nine years; and Suzanne Georgette Charpentier Sorre Murat (Annabella), by her own calculations, merely one year older.

Here then comes a 23-year-old girl, Linda Christian, virtually unknown, no stage background, no buildup, no accomplishments to speak of, and she walks right off with one of the greatest catches in the movie colony. How did she do it? What was her technique? How did she warm up Tyrone Power, who reputedly off-screen is pretty cold potatoes?

Girls desirous of obtaining husbands should read the story of Linda's methods with rapt attention. Thanks to her father's occupation (he's an oil engineer), Linda as a young girl was educated in schools all over the world, or wherever oil companies had any interests. She knows Italy, China, Palestine, the Near

East as well as you know the palm of your hand.

These Americans were men for the most part, and they told Linda that with her face and figure she would have little trouble in becoming a screen star.

Under the sponsorship of Errol Flynn, Linda came to the United States and took an apartment in Hollywood. Her mother couldn't go along at the time, but not long afterward her uncle arrived.

Linda set about becoming a screen actress. Her English was indistinct and faltering, so she began taking lessons. When she became intelligible in the language, she was given a beginner's contract at M-G-M, and while there, she was borrowed by Sol Lesser for a Tarzan picture.

The man responsible for her being borrowed was Bo Roos, business manager of Johnny Weissmuller, who was then playing the Tarzan roles. Bo had met Linda when she was a model in Mexico City, he had also met her mother, and when the opportunity came for him to do the girl a good turn, he was johnny-on-the-spot.

It was he who suggested that Sol Lesser borrow Linda Christian from M-G-M. She was starred in a Tarzan picture, and it was this production that gave her the right to be called an actress.

After the picture was finished, and much of it was shot in Mexico where reputedly Linda became a fast friend of President Aleman, Linda returned to her home lot, M-G-M, where she met Tyrone Power.

Ty was a constant M-G-M visitor, because Lana Turner was working in HOMECOMING and supposedly, he was in love with Lana. Actually, he wasn't. "I merely liked her as a friend," he says.

In any event, Ty met Linda while he was going with Lana. He told her about his projected round-the-world flight. And coincidence of coincidences! When Ty Power landed in Rome, who should be in that city at the same time but the red-headed, green-eyed Linda Christian!

Linda speaks beautiful Italian. She knows practically all there is to know about Italy. She took Ty around Rome. They tossed pennies in the good-luck fountains. Ty was impressed by the girl?s intelligence, her talent as a linguist, her worldliness. There was nothing provincial about Linda. She's older than her years.

When Ty flew back to the States, he announced that romance or his friendship with Lana Turner had come to an end. He made no announcements concerning Linda Christian, and Linda kept mum all the way.

After Lana was married to Bob Topping, however, Linda and Ty made no secret of how they felt toward each other. Linda suggested that they visit Mexico. "I'll know you'll love my country," she told Ty. (Ty was born in Tampico. [SIC])

So off to Mexico, the young lovers flew. Once again Linda was on home soil. Get your boyfriend on the home grounds. That seemed to be her motto. I Mexico, Linda gave Ty the grand tour. She was guide, instructor, interpreter, everything. Ty gave her a diamond ring as large as a walnut.

Back in the States once more, Ty let Linda re-decorate his house. Despite all the outward appearances of a great love affair, Ty's friends still insisted at this point that their boy would never marry Linda.

They said he was using her to forget Annabella; that she was merely the rebound from the Turner affair. They pointed out how Tyrone always liked older women. They sought to discourage the course of true love.

Ty said nothing. He never has anything to say about the women in his life. The only time he's ever bared his heart in the public print was a few months before he married Annabella. It was then that he said, "It's very difficult to fall in love in Hollywood or stay in love. Long before you're certain of your own feelings, the publicity begins to swamp you. You begin to doubt yourself or what is worse, you talk yourself into an emotion that doesn't exist."

Feeling this way about love in Hollywood, it was only natural for Ty to insist that Linda accompany him to Italy when he went over there last year to make PRINCE OF FOXES.

In Italy he could find out once and for all exactly how he felt about Linda. There would be no publicity, no inquiring reporters, no pursuing photographers. A man would have the opportunity of taking inventory of his own soul.

It was in Italy that love between Ty and Linda first bloomed. And it was in Italy that love ripened. After Ty was finished with PRINCE OF FOXES, he and Linda toured the entire country. She took him to Florence, Capri, Venice. They floated in the gondolas. Linda pointed out the sights, explained the landmarks.

Ty wanted to marry her immediately. Stories drifted back to the U.S. that the couple had been married in a civil ceremony. There was no truth to that.

As for Ty, he wants Linda to remain as cosmopolitan, sophisticated, knowing and witty as ever.

These are qualities that you must emulate if you?re in the market for a husband like Ty Power Travel all around the world; learn six different languages including Arabic. Make sure that your figure is trim, inviting, and firm. Cultivate a sparkling sense of humor, a quick sense of adaptability, and you, too, can marry an actor like Ty.

No girl gets a man by accident. She studies his strength; she studies hi weakness, and then she plans her attack.

Linda saw to tit that she met Ty at the right time and that she spent that time with him at the right places. She is one girl who made her geography pay off.

A globe-trotter by nature and disposition, Tyrone Power has always been a sucker for a girl who knew her way around. Such girls in his life have been comparatively rare. To date, they number only two; Annabella and Linda Christian.

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