Hollywood Romances: The Golden Era For Valentine's Day

The romances of Hollywood's Golden Age unveil what love was like in a time without the Internet, cellphones and Skype. Love was revealed on celluloid -- and in handwritten love letters between the biggest of the silver-screen stars.

Orson Welles once wrote to Rita Hayworth, "I suppose most of us are lonely in this big world, but we must fall tremendously in love to find it out. The cure is the discovery of our need for company -- I mean company in the very special sense we've come to understand since we happened to each other -- you and I."

Romance was tumultuous, iconic and pure for these faces of filmdom. Their love stories are the stuff of Hollywood legend.

This Valentine's Day, take a trip back in time and discover the passionate romances of Hollywood's Golden Age.

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Comments

[themightyabealrd]

04:54 AM on 02/16/2012

Dancer/ actress Cyd Charisse and singer Tony Martin-married for 60 years until her death in '08.

[mom72]

04:40 PM on 02/15/2012

I love Bogey, I can understand why a young girl would fall for him. he had a charisma and strong character that can be sexy and irresistable. From all accounts from Ms. Becall saw him that way too and he loved her like no other.

[clarendon67]

03:31 PM on 02/15/2012

The biggest hypocrisy in all of this is Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn he couldn't divorce his wife because he's Catholic, but yet he committing adultery with her. I don't understand that.

[imuham1093]

03:25 AM on 02/17/2012

Sorry to be a downer but that's a lot of people, I'd say most. There are Catholics who get divorced in the court, but are still seen as married in the eyes of the church and remarry elsewhere. Doesn't that make it bigomy? Or those whose churhces tell them alcohol is a sin and yet they "party" every week. Or my personal favorite, the preacher who goes on and on about family values and the sin that is homosexuality, THEN they get caught with a man. Gay and a cheater, two birds, one stone, so many hypocrates.

[NatTurner1]

09:30 AM on 02/15/2012

Irony and Hypocrisy 101:

The world is pooping in their clothes that Chris Brown was given a Grammy after what he did as a teenager 3 years ago while HuffPo salutes Humphrey Bogart as the face of Romance on its Valentines's Day page.

Humphrey Bogart repeatedly beat his third wife!

[StevenWells]

11:01 AM on 02/15/2012

From what I hear about Mayo Methot, whatever Bogie may have done was in self-defense. They were known around town as "the battling Bogart's," and his nickname for her was "Sluggo" (for the obvious reason). She reportedly even stabbed him once: there's a story about him going to a neighbor's house, asking for them to remove the kitchen knife that was in his back, which he couldn't reach.

[NatTurner1]

01:44 PM on 02/15/2012

There were several fights and the "seld defense" excuse doesnt hold water. many are claiming that Rhianna was teh first to hit Chris Borown after seeing tweets and text from an admirer which started the fight. If Chris Brown cant use the self-defense excuse, Humphrey Bogart cant either with his many examples of abuse.

[jamcelr]

12:20 PM on 02/15/2012

you are just a chris brown groupie...thats all..trying to put someone else down because
your hero is a cad...

[NatTurner1]

01:42 PM on 02/15/2012

No, I am a Rhianna groupie and she got over it, so did I!

[adams321]

04:30 AM on 02/16/2012

What he did to Rihanna was awful, but it shouldn't disqualify him from winning a Grammy-but the poor quality of his music should.

[lioness39]

04:03 AM on 02/15/2012

Now that was unmitgate, pure glamor!

[Steamboater]

03:40 AM on 02/15/2012

Not really from Hollywood's Golden Age (made I thinkl in the early 70's) , but "Sunflower" with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroanni (sp?) is a beautiful love story about a woman's husband who goes off to war during WWII and is lost somewhere in Russia. She goes to Russia and searches for him and Loren is heartbreaking in this. This is definitely a 5 hanky film.

[Steamboater]

03:17 AM on 02/15/2012

If it has to be a hetero romance :) one of the the best and one of the sexiest was between Lana Turner and John Garfield in, "The Postman Always Rings Twice. That one really rang true with it's love hate relationship. The film holds up very well and was better than the remake with Jack Nicholson and Jennifer Lange.

[carmenalex]

01:52 PM on 02/15/2012

Jessica Lange

[Steamboater]

04:14 PM on 02/15/2012

OOPs! Always make that mistake with her. LOL Thanks.

[Steamboater]

03:09 AM on 02/15/2012

The reason why Lombard took that fatal bond tour was because Gable had been fooling around and Lombard was pissed. Her death added to his guilt and grief.

As for Tracey and Hepburn, read the new book: "Full Service" bu Scotty Bowers.

"Newly discharged from the Marines after World War II, Scotty Bowers arrived in Hollywood in 1946. Young, charismatic, and strikingly handsome, he quickly caught the eye of many of the town’s stars and starlets. He began sleeping with some himself, and connecting others with his coterie of young, attractive, and sexually free-spirited friends. His own lovers included Edith Piaf, Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh, Cary Grant, and the abdicated King of England Edward VIII, and he arranged tricks or otherwise crossed paths with Tennessee Williams, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, Katharine Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Errol Flynn, Gloria Swanson, Noël Coward, Mae West, James Dean, Rock Hudson and J. Edgar Hoover, to name but a few.

 ... a fascinating chronicle of Hollywood’s sexual underground, but also exposes the hypocrisy of the major studios, who used actors to propagate a myth of a conformist, sexually innocent America knowing full well that their stars’ personal lives differed dramatically from this family-friendly mold."

[Rachael Crawley]

03:23 AM on 02/15/2012

That book is very poorly sourced, I wouldn't take anything from it.

[Steamboater]

03:33 AM on 02/15/2012

Read the NYTImes review. Bowers was there and did pimp for stars.

[StevenWells]

11:06 AM on 02/15/2012

"...to propagate a myth of a conformist­, sexually innocent America knowing full well that their stars’ personal lives differed dramatical­ly from this family-fri­endly mold."

Substitute "elected officials" for "stars," and it sounds very much like one of our major political parties.

[Steamboater]

04:09 PM on 02/15/2012

Everything is politics. :)

[JuliaDemJules2020]

02:23 AM on 02/15/2012

Richard Burton and Elisabethe Taylor........and Michael Todd.
Those were the two loves of Ms.Taylor.
Bogart really did love Betty Bacall he was 44 she was 19 when they first met.
Same with Vivien and Sir Larry. While she was filming GWTW they had to keep the two lovers apart. MGM had dumb rules.
Larry was filming "Wurthering Heights" and Vivien wanted the lead.

Gable was never the same after Carole Lombards death.
Read any bio. He was never the same.

Frank Sinatra loved Ava Gardner until she died.

Gregory Peck and Victoria Peck his 2nd Wife and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodard.

Rock Hudson struggled badly with his sexual orientation as did Monty Cliff.
Elizabeth Taylor alway understood this.
In those days it could ruin a Stars image. Now the industry is much more open.
The one person I do not understand. Barry Manilow. He is a regustered Republican and a Homosexual. Other then keeping his precious money tight and not taxed......will look at the GOTP field. They loathe homosexuals.

These were all very high profile romances. Why question it b/c of bad breath or something silly.
We enjoy our old golden age couples.
You never know anybody until you walk in their shoes.

Happy Valentines Day to

[adams321]

04:40 AM on 02/16/2012

It's Monty Clift, not Cliff. Brilliant actor, by the way.
Also, I'm not sure that Barry Manilow is gay. I don't know too much about him, but I seem to recall hearing that he lived a woman for years and that he has specifically denied being gay.

[JuliaDemJules2020]

03:36 PM on 02/16/2012

Hi Adam....I was responding on my notebook and it is giving me trouble.
My g/f who flies for American Airlines used to see him a lot in first class and according to inside information he is. I don't see anything wrong with that.
I just know he is getting up there in years and voting GOTP when you are gay and Jewish well that is his perogative too. The only way I would say he is voting that way is too keep his money. Keep the taxes low on the wealthy.
Clive Davis a stauch Democrat. There are some in the industry. For the most part always been a Liberal/Democrat town but there are some GOTP.

Re: The Clive Davis Grammy party I thought was in very bad taste.
With Ms. Houston dead four floors above in the same Hotel that was a bad call.
Clive Davis was probably in extreme shock and could not think.
We will all hear details soon.
In any event thanks for dropping by and glad you enjoy our golden age of Hollywood too. Julia

[professor]

11:09 PM on 02/14/2012

Most people would find the real story of every one of those love affairs very hard to take.

[Siebenstein]

12:03 AM on 02/15/2012

Lol, you are right;-)

Still, just looking at these people makes me feel good; Lalaland for a few minutes.

[NatTurner1]

09:32 AM on 02/15/2012

Looking at a picture of Bogart in regards to romance makes me sick. He was a wife beater!

[Steamboater]

03:10 AM on 02/15/2012

You got it!

[aka62792]

10:47 PM on 02/14/2012

Another incredible romance that was kept private, even though Tracy and Hepburn were living together.

If anyone ever had any doubts of the incredible love story between these two, watch "Guess who is coming to dinner" Tracy addresses the young lovers with advise about happiness, however he is looking at Hepburn and they both have tears in their eyes. Not me, I was crying my eyes out LOL

[aka62792]

10:21 PM on 02/14/2012

Although these movies and actors were way before my time, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THEM. The clothes, sets, actors and actresses on and off screen.

The most magical part of it all was they maintained their privacy. The sexuality was just below the surface. They didn't have to jump,naked into bed with someone, like today.

"YOU KNOW HOW TO WHISTLE DON'T YOU STEVE? YOU JUST PUT YOUR LIPS TOGETHER AND BLOW"

[Clamdip LobsterClaws]

08:01 PM on 02/14/2012

I heard that Humphrey Bogart had really bad breath and all of the female actresses would complain incessantly about it.

[Janetgv]

08:23 PM on 02/14/2012

I think that the one with the foul breath was Clark Gable.

[Mattie]

09:13 PM on 02/14/2012

It was, and it was Vivian Leigh who said it about him after filming Gone With the Wind. My mind is filled with useless trivia, but somedays I can remember what I had for breakfest...LOL!

[inapickle]

09:28 PM on 02/14/2012

I've read about that. He had dentures (it wasn't uncommon for actors back then to have their crooked teeth pulled and then get 'perfect' dentures) which led to bad breath.

[mendodnem]

08:27 PM on 02/14/2012

Most smokers have really metallic bad breath.

[Buffyspeaks]

07:32 PM on 02/14/2012

Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh? Olivier was Gay and had a long time Gay relationship with Danny Kaye among other men - The writer of this article for Huffingtonpost MUST know this well known and documented fact - So why post this phony picture and pretend that the marriage of Olivier & Leigh was anything other than what it really was - a FRONT to protect his career, and create a phony image during a time when being outed would have ruined his Hollywood career? Don't blame Blanche du Bois in "A Streetcar Named Desire." for poor Vivien Leigh's mania, depression, mental and emotional distress for the strained 20-year marriage. Blame "Laurence Olivier" for being a coward, phony, fraud & hypocrite!

[inapickle]

09:36 PM on 02/14/2012

I doubt it was a front. He was bisexual and married three times. They were both married when they met and his wife was pregnant. Neither of their spouses would initially grant them divorces. Both of their careers were endangered by the scandal. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a front.

[Firehorsegirl]

11:37 PM on 02/14/2012

I'm not a fan of life on the down low. Faking your sexuality and marrying someone creates a host of problems, especially for the hetero person. Be gay loud and proud!! Hiding is a real act of cowardice and deceit.

[Steamboater]

03:57 AM on 02/15/2012

That's been fine for years but during the 30's and 40's and for a long time after coming out was a death knell for your career. Metro star William Haines was one of the only Gay men to quit his job at metro because he rather wold have lived as a Gay man then fake it and on demand by Louis B. Mayer. He just refused Mayer when Mayer called him in on the carpet and left and never went back, becoming a very wealthy and famous interior decorator to the stars. He was also a lousy republican.

[cookscove]

06:26 PM on 02/14/2012

Hepburn and Tracy? By this time everyone knows she was a lesbian in a committed relationship for decades. Tracy was her beard, albeit her friend. They never lived together, but had separate cottages on George Cukor's estate at one time. The stuff of Hollywood fluff.

[Firehorsegirl]

11:38 PM on 02/14/2012

Really? I'm a tad shocked to hear this. Katharine Hepburn was a wonderful actress, btw.

[Rachael Crawley]

03:26 AM on 02/15/2012

Don't believe it. The so called "biographies" that assert these claims are usually unreliably sourced and badly researched.

[jamcelr]

12:32 PM on 02/15/2012

you are crazy!! have you read her books? they did live together...he died in the kitchen
she was in the living room..getting tea..
you need to stop spreading this gossip

[cookscove]

12:21 PM on 02/16/2012

And because she wrote that, it is true? Next you will tell me Rock Hudson was not gay. You need to stop reading hollywood PR fluff -- and then believing it. Everyone in the film community knew she was a lesbian. She was quite open among her friends with her decades long lover.
Ever notice she didn't marry Tracy; ever notice how she dressed?
It's okay if you don't want your pink bubble burst; unfortunately, I understand.