Veronica - This Week in History. Waterloo Sunday Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, September 10, 1944 Veronica Lake Discarded Folly With Peekaboo Bob By Louella O. Parsons Hollywood, Cal. - The influence of Andre De Toth, the director, has been very important in the life of Veronica Lake. She is no longer the girl who doesnt care. She cares very much now what people think of her, and she is eager to win the respect of fellow workers and to explain why she has done some of the things in the past that have brought criticism on her - not really serious things, but impulsive, foolish little exhibitions of temperament. Veronica very much resents the implication she is irresponsible and unreliable. Those are two fighting words where she is concerned and she explained to me why she feels they are unjust. I had dinner with her and her director-fiance and it is no longer a secret that when her divorce is final she will marry him. Nobody took the trouble when I was only 17, she said, to talk with me and give me good advice. Somebody started a story that was wickedly untrue. I had no way of combating the gossip, which I knew, and the man about whom it was told, knew, was an absolute lie. I was only a youngster and I had to fight all by myself. That would have been a beautiful chance for someone to have helped me combat the cruel fabrication, but, no, they just let me suffer myself, and I certainly suffered. I had been married a short time and was in love with my husband. On Christmas day I had his and my families for dinner. We turned on the radio and heard it announced that I was at the head of the table at that certain mans house. My Christmas was spoiled and I made up my mind then that I was going to fight with every ounce of strength. Thats why I have been what people have called a difficult girl. Veronica is only 21, which is very young, and she feels shes lived a lifetime of actual tragedy - first with the trouble with her husband, Major John Detlie, and then with the death of her little boy, and finally, with the inability of people, some of them in her studio, to understand her problems. I think now, she said. I have worked out everything and Paramount knows that I am no longer an unreliable harum-scarum girl. Seventeen is only a child. A girl that age needs sympathy and understanding, not censure and bitter criticism. De Toth, who has just finished Dark Waters and Guest in the House, is a charming cultured man. He is widely traveled and has become a strong influence in the life of the Lake girl. Not many people have shared in her confidence, but those who know her appreciate that she has many fine qualities. For instance, Rita Beery, with whom she lives, will tell you there is no better mother in this town than Veronica, whose little Elaine has had her mothers love and care. Veronica feels she has now gone past those first unformed impetuous years. At the ripe old age of 21 she wants more than anything else to achieve dignity and to have her studio understand her problems. She has discarded all the foolish things of life, even the Peekaboo hair-do which brought her into almost unprecedented fame. (Photo: Veronica Lake with husband Andre de Toth, circa 1945)
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 23:09:00 +0000
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