Cinema: Still Pursuing It

Still Pursuing It For two days and one night last week, Barbara Payton stayed true to Franchot Tone. She visited Tone in the hospital where he was recovering from his fight with Tom Neal (TIME, Sept. 24), swore that she would marry him, and publicly called Tom Neal “a brute.” There was even some twittering about a bedside wedding. But then Barbara was herself again.

Tuesday night, said Hollywood’s wagging tongues, she went straight from the hospital to a restaurant, where she met none other than Tom Neal. Next night a Hollywood newspaperman kept vigil outside Barbara’s house. He was amply rewarded. At 12:30 a.m. she drove up in a convertible with Neal. Soon the sound of cooing and the smell of frying bacon floated out from Barbara’s kitchen. At 2 a.m. Barbara and Neal reappeared and whirled off in a yellow convertible that looked something like Franchot Tone’s.

Said Barbara, when quizzed by the press at her home next day: “It is not true. I haven’t seen Tom Neal and I don’t want to see him. What’s more, I’m gonna marry Franchot.” Then Barbara stepped gingerly over Tom Neal’s bar bells, still lying in her patio, and tripped off in high good humor. It all seemed to be working out in the best Hollywood tradition. Though the affair had cost her a leading part in a new picture, the publicity was making her such a drawing card that exhibitors from coast to coast were clamoring for prints of her latest film, a jungle epic aptly entitled The Bride of the Gorilla.