Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty

Chapter 7. The End of a Modern Marriage

CHAPTER 7 109 Claudette’s Oscar paid off—literally. In July 1935, Paramount rewarded her with a seven-picture contract that raised her salary to $150,000 a picture and permitted her to make at least three more at other studios. The year 1935 proved memorable for another reason: her relationship with Dr. Joel “Joe” Pressman, whom she first met in August 1933, when he performed her appendectomy, changed dramatically. Plagued by periodic attacks of sinusitis, Claudette learned that Pressman was also an otolaryngologist and arranged for a consultation. Soon they were no longer doctor and patient. Claudette discovered a man who, unlike the actors she had known, shunned the spotlight and was interested only in achieving prominence in a profession that had nothing to do with show business, about which he cared little. Actors suffer from insecurity, which they conceal behind a meticulously crafted persona. Pressman, however, did not need a persona; he was secure in the knowledge that he was one of the best practitioners in his field. And yet, Pressman had to admit he never had a patient like Claudette, who could enchant with a smile and seduce with a look. In Claudette’s case, it was not the same kind of passion that she experienced with Foster; it was the kind of The End of a Modern Marriage love that two people discover when the heyday in the blood is subsiding, as companionship and compatibility take on greater importance than sex. Claudette had now found a man who respected her both as a woman and an artist, but was interested in her only as the former; Pressman found a woman who had a life totally different from his—a life that would consume as much time on sound stages, location shooting, and publicity junkets as his did in consultation, surgery, and research. To use the movie cliché, they were made for each other. By 1934, Claudette had become so involved with Pressman that she had no other choice but to initiate divorce proceedings against Foster. Their marriage was no longer modern; in fact, it had become so ultra modern that it was not even a marriage. She and Foster not only lived apart, but worked apart, even though they were in the same business. While Claudette had a home studio, Foster did not; he freelanced. In 1936, he made a startling— but, in retrospect, understandable—transition to directing. But before he turned director, Foster thought he had reached his nadir, personally and professionally. Around Academy Award time, rumors began circulating that Claudette was seeking a divorce; in fact, on 2 March, en route to New York after winning her Oscar, Claudette admitted it when she had to transfer at Chicago’s LaSalle Street station for the Twentieth Century Limited. That August, the marriage formally ended when Claudette filed for divorce in Juarez, Mexico. According to the press, the divorce was amicable, with Foster announcing his intention to marry Sally Blane, Loretta Young’s older sister. But there was still a residue of regret, even though each had found someone who eventually proved to be the perfect mate. Claudette at least acknowledged that her modern marriage was a failure, as she told Photoplay: “‘I believe that one of the troubles with a ‘modern marriage’ is that it does away with the small intimacies of daily living.’ ” Although Claudette’s modern marriage scenario was a flop, she at least came out of it unscarred. Foster’s scars were not just emotional; they were visible. Around the time of the divorce, he was reportedly attacked by an unidentified as sailant and badly beaten, but not disfigured. In the documentary Directed by Norman 110 THE END OF A MODERN MARRIAGE Foster, film scholar Scott MacIsaac placed the attack in context: “[Foster’s] marriage to Claudette Colbert was breaking up and there was a terrible incident that seems related to the breakup.” “Related to the breakup” is the crucial phrase. The attacker boasted, “You’re never going to work again.” Since Foster was not an A-list actor, it was hardly a case of professional rivalry. Claudette’s niece, Claudette “Coco” Lewis, recalled a story that her father (Claudette’s brother, Charles Wendling) told about an incident that took place at a family dinner, at which Wendling “ended up hauling Foster off, flattening him out, and breaking his nose. Aunt Claudette took him to the best surgeon...