“Actress Declares She Won’t Marry Actor or Rich Man” (Portland Evening Express, March 29, 1932)

Adrienne Dore, 20 Year Old Blonde, Disappointed In What She Thought Was A “Divine Romance” Two Years Ago

Twenty, talented, tantalizing—that’s Adrienne Dore, as lovely as a blonde ever made a greying interviewer wish he were young again. She’s bothered about love.

So lessons in love are occupying her mind when she is not busy making pictures and playing at love in pictures for Warner Bros. and First National. For the last named company she has just been at work in Ruth Chatterton’s starring film, The Rich Are Always With Us.

Two years ago, she says, she was disappointed in what she thought was a “divine romance”. However, she is willing to admit that at the time of her grand passion she was a rank amateur in affairs of the heart.

But since that time she has been seeking to learn about love, chiefly through interviewing others more experienced–and calloused–in the “racket”.

“For one thing,” she says, “I have about made up my mind that there are three kinds of men whom I shall not consider as prospective life partners. No.1 in my list of ineligibles is a very rich man. No.2 is an actor; No.3 is the young man engrossed in some public career other than acting.”

She seemed so positive in her cataloguing of the three types that an explanation was requested.

“Perhaps I am selfish,” she explained, “but I believe I have plausible reasons. Within the last two years, I have had proposals from two very rich men–both much older than myself. I declined, with thanks, because I was certain they did not want me so much as they wanted youth. If people do not strive for the things they want, their minds go to sleep. I wish my mind to remain awake, and I have no intention of turning myself into a walking calendar of social events, set to go to a luncheon at a given hour, to a bridge or a tea at another, to a dinner at another, to the theater or a reception at another.”

It seems strange that this girl, who has been on the stage, or at least in the theatrical profession, since she was a child of three, should turn thumbs down on actors as matrimonial candidates. She knows that some of the happiest couples in the world are theatrical mates, yet she hesitates to link her life with that of a man in her own profession.

“Not because they are not attractive to me,” she confides, “but because actors–and actresses, too–have to be super-egotists if they are to amount to anything in the profession. They must think, and believe, that they are best in their line; otherwise, they cannot be convincing in the roles they portray. To keep the fires of vanity blazing they must be fed fuel, in the form of flattery, continually. One or the other–whichever has the strongest personality–must go to the top. So that the one who is left in second place is going to be eaten with envy. From that to quarrels to unhappiness is not a far step.”

“The ideal situation, so far as married happiness for actors is that enjoyed by Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne of the Theater Guild. They are both splendid artists, they are married and they are very much in love with each other. They put their happiness before their art, however, and insist upon contractual provision that they shall be cast together in plays or pictures. Not every theatrical couple may do that, and I’m not sure that it would be desirable in every case. So often men and women of the stage who marry are specialists in entirely different lines of work.”

Adrienne thinks that there is room for only one career in a marriage setup outside the theatrical game.

“It is my belief that that sincere admiration is the very essence, the true basis of real love,” she said, “and a person who is set on a career must necessarily be an egotist, with little time for admiring and encouraging other careers. Vanity in such a situation is not entirely a fault, as I see it. For a person who sets oneself a goal must believe, at all times, that he is perfectly fitted; a person who sets oneself a goal must believe implicitly in themselves. Otherwise they will not be able to convince others of their ability or fitness.”