Tyrone Power, who has been headed for the altar with several film lovelies including glamorous Lana turner, has finally been altar-broke by Linda Christian a gorgeous a cookie as ever flashed across the silver screen.

Although Linda let the world know she had her heart set on becoming Mrs. Power more than a year ago, Ty wasn't talking. His Hollywood pals, who knew him to be a pretty nimble-footed gent when it came to ducking the marriage license clerk, were positive Linda would never get him.

For the past several months you could get good odds from lots of folks that the marriage in Italy, or anywhere else, would never come off. It had become a sort of on-again-off-again affair, with Linda telling about her gorgeous wedding dress and honeymoon plans but the prospective bridgegroom keeping discreetly silent.

Their friends couldn't believe their eyes when they opened their mail early in January and actually found invitations to Ty and Linda's wedding, to be held in Rome on January 27.

It all began in Acapulco the fabulous west coast Mexican resort famed in song and story as the glamour spot of the western hemisphere. Ty was there making 20th Century Fox's Captain From Castile late in 1946 and early 1947, and Linda was doing a Tarzan picture. At that time his heart belonged to Lana Turner, who incurred the wrath of the MGM bosses to fly to Mexico to be with Ty for New Year's Eve, although she was in the middle of a picture.

But there was something in the flashing green eyes of the lovely, dark-haired Linda that kept haunting Ty as the months went by. He couldn't forget her.

Then one afternoon in Rome, while relaxing at the Excelsior Hotel, he picked up the Rome Daily American and read that Linda had arrived and was on her way to Switzerland to arrange the school term for her young sister, Ariadne. A bell rang in Ty's memory bringing back the flashing green eyes and the infectious smile that had so affected him in Acapulco.

"Let's ask her up for cocktails," he said to Jim Denton, 20th Century Fox's public relations man who was in Italy with Ty.

That was in November, 1947, when the big romance between Ty and Lana that had burned so brightly was beginning to dim. Ty had heard that Lana was going around in New York with Bob Topping, whom she later married, and he didn't like it.

Linda came for cocktails and sat sipping fine old Italian vermouth in Ty's luxurious Florentine apartment until the rosy dawn came up over the pine-clad hills.

For three days the couple played together in the ancient Italian capital and although Ty probably didn't realize it, he was a gone guy right then. When Linda lit up the candles of love, she tended the fires as carefully as the vestal virgins of the ancient Roman days did the sacred hearth flames which never were allowed to die down.

When Ty returned to Hollywood in December he and Lana said their good-buys, apparently without regret on either side, and that year he enjoyed New Year's Day in Mexico with Linda.

I met him n Hollywood at a Christmas Eve cocktail party and quizzed him on his new romance. He only gave me that utterly disarming smile and said he thought the reports of his being in love again were slightly exaggerated.

He spent Christmas with his mother but the next day he flew off to Mexico where he was met by Linda and her family. Her mother, Mrs. Blanca Amezquita Alvarez, told newspaper reporters she wasn't sure she was happy about Linda falling in love with Ty.

"You never can tell about an actor," she said. "Maybe he is only acting when he tells you he is in love."

but Linda knew Ty wasn't acting. I began to think he wasn't acting either when I met them in Hollywood at a screening of Tarzan and The Mermaid, in which Linda starred.

When I heard that he not only saw this Tarzan picture once but three times, I felt that it was certainly love. No actor would spend that much time watching another player on the screen unless his heart was pretty deeply involved.

Ty's first wife, Annabella, the French actress who had never seemed to be in a hurry to ask for her divorce although the couple had been separated for two and a half years, suddenly went into court on January 26, 1948, and got her interlocutory divorce decree.

At once Linda flew back from Mexico City, apparently in such a hurry that she mislaid her entrance visa and found herself all tangled up with the immigration authorities. She didn't tell Ty on what plane she was arriving but sort of sneaked in and got herself all prettied up before she called him. He had been preparing to meet a later plane but the smart little girl didn't want him to see her all travel-worn.

when Ty went to Rome to make Prince of Foxes Linda didn't take any chances on being separated form him. Probably she was remembering what had happened to the Lana Turner romance when Ty met her in Rome. No doubt she figured it could happen again.

The palatial home of Countess Dorothy di Frasso was turned over to Ty and Linda and the film entourage Ty needed for his picture-making. The countess moved into the Excelsor Hotel. she owns one of the most beautiful homes in Italy. The Villa Madama, which is the main chateau on her large estate, was confiscated by the government during the Fascist regime and is still in litigation, but Dorothy did over the stables into a twenty-room palace It was here that Ty and Linda's romance flourished.

The estate is on a hill overlooking the Tiber River and the Vatican and commands a breathtaking view. The Villa Madama was designed by Michael Angelo and decorated by such great artists as Rafael and Bernini.

Linda and Ty walked hand in hand around Rome with happy smiles on their faces and all the romance-loving Italians shared their joy. they chose the historic Church of Santa Francesca Romana in the old part of the city about two miles from the Vatican for their ceremony. they are both Catholics. the church did not recognize Ty's marriage to Annabella because it was only a civil ceremony so t here were no bars to prevent them from being married in church by a priest. An old friend of the Power family, Father Mix, assisted Monsignor William Hemmick, a canon of St. Peter's church, in the wedding ceremony.

Linda's long-trained dress was white satin trimmed with seed pearls and atop her lovely head was a pearl-trimmed satin cap. She carried a muff of white flowers. Her sister, Ariadne, was the maid of honor and her school friend from Mexico, Lunisa Costero, was the bridesmaid. Ty's best man was George Ornstein, husband of Mary Pickford's favorite niece, Gwynn. Naval Commander victor Schrager who was in service during the war with Ty, was an attendant, and of course the Countess Di Frasso, who had almost taken on the role of Cupid, was there.

Directly after the reception at the home of U.S. Ambassador Dunn, Ty took the wheel of his car and the couple headed for Austria on their honeymoon for some skiing. Then on to Switzerland, which seems almost like home to Linda, who went to school there. They had six wonderful weeks together before Ty had to report back to work on Black Rose, which will be produced in England by 20th Century-Fox.

It is doubtful if Linda will ever make another picture. she has told friends she will work as hard at keeping her marriage safe and peaceful as she did in keeping the love light burning in Ty's heart before he slipped the ring on her finger.

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