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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (May 13, 1923)
MAGAZINE SECTION The Sunday Bee VOL. 52—NO. 48. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 13, 1923. FIVE CENTS i PokMpn How a Mexican Girl Made the Comedian the Fairy Prince of Her Dreams and Then Tried to Kill Her- . X _self When She A Found She Couldn’t t Have I Him for || Her Real j Hero 1 i'MAYAr* r -*■ ON’O before any man whispers 5 words of love in her ears al ^ most every normal minded girl is picturing in her dreams the sort of man she would like to hear whispering them—the Ideal hero who will, she hopes, some day risk his life for her sake in countless daring ways and finally carry her ' off triumphantly to an everlasting honeymoon. Ik As a rule these romantic dreams • serve only the good purpose of helping a girl better to pass the tedious time until the delightful reality of love comes to her. But sometimes a girl will become so ob sessed with these vlsionlngs that she is driven to tragedy or the verge of it when she awakens to the utter Impossibility of making these dreams come true What seems to be a most rentals able Instance of this kind occurred only the other day out in the Cali fornia film metropolis of Holly wood when a pretty young woman made a desperate attempt to kill herself with poison on learning that rthe hero she had enshrined in her dreams would not desert his beau tiful fiancee and take her to his heart instead. The unhappy girl is Marina Vega, a pretty Mexican. Tu'> hero of her dreams whose love si,a sought and without whose caresses she thought * life not worth living is no less a personage than Charlies Chaplin, the promised husband of Pnla Negri. The fact that Marina Vega had never seen Charlie Chaplin in the flesh, nor he her, until the night when she so dramatically demanded his love made no difference what ever with the bitterness of her dis appointment. She was as despair ing. as broken hearted, as if he had been her aetual Hultor and had wooed her as earnestly as he is said to have wooed his adored film queen. How this love-mad girl worked her way hy slow and painful stages from her village home more than 2.000 miles away to throw herself at the feet of her hero and beg some of the tender caresses and heroic deeds with which he was always filling her dreams is an amazing story. Even the most bril liant ot scenario writers would have ^ hard work to imagine anything like its equal. The f.tscination that may yet have a tragic ending for Marino Vega is said to begun when she was a girl of 1* and was taken by her parents to see her first movie. The picture happened to be a Chaplin film and from ihe moment when the famous comedian shuffled be fore her wondering eyes he became the one man in the world for her— the man she at first admired, then really loved and yearned to have for — her very own. H Other girls admired Charlie Chap ip Jin—but only for bis grotesque looks B and the comical capers he cut up B When they fell In love with a film I hero It was with a rough riding cow 1 JPuP "In her dreams Charlie Chaplin was always the hero who risked his life for her—llie fairy prince who bravely climbed to the roof of her father's castle and saved her from the clutches of as wicked a vil- d lain as ever slit a cirl's throat.” 1 Marina Vega, Hie unhappy vlrtilu of lier romantic dreams who is be lieved to have wanted to take I'ola Negri’s place in Charlie Chaplin's heart boy or a seductive shetk or a silk hatted society man. Charlie was all right as a down, they thought, but not the sort of man they'd care to have calling them pet names- not even in their dreams. But Marina had quite different ideas. She regarded Charlie Chap lin’s clownishness ns the mask that hid from an unfeeling world a man of men, the living embodiment of all the noblest qualities, a modern knight, who eould be as dauntless in deed as he was tender and de voted in love. The movies existed for Marino only to give her all too fleeting glimpses of Charlie Chaplin, the hero she adored as worshlpfully as any girl ever did her promised hus band. And as she grew older the glimpses of him obtainable in the small, out-of-the-way village where she lived failed to satisfy her crav ings. Several times she distressed her family by running away to Mex ico City, where in a single day she could get many different film views of him. In her dreams Charlie Chaplin was always the hero who risked his life for her—the fairy princess who bravely climbed to the roof of her father's castle and saved her from the clutches of os wicked a villain as ever silt a throat. Of course this and other even bloodier adventures were always followed by moments more tender, more intimate, more satisfying to her girlish heart. She imagined her fairy prince gently raising her faint ing, tearful self In his strong arms, pressing his lips against hers and murmuring In that manly yet softly musical voice: "My well beloved! Come fly with me to my golden palace across the seas and be happy forever," It distressed her not at all that In her dreams, while the rest of Charlie looked like the convention al fairy prince, he still /■lung to his comical derby and absurd little mus tnrlie and grotesque shoes. She was too much in love to see anything in congruous or laughable In those things. To her they were quite as heroic as the sword on which he so neatly spitted every pursuing vil lain. Years flew by, as the movie cap tion writers say, and Marina be came old enough to marry. She was the belle of the village and her father and mother could not under stand why she persistently refused the advances of the numerous men who showed eagerness to woo her. They little suspected that their daughter regarded herself as al ready betrothed to another—as sa credly pledged to her dream hero. At last the pressure from her family on the subject of marriage became so great that she feared she would be forced to prove faithless to her fairy prince if she remained at home any longer. She decided to go to Hollywood ami seek out Char lie Chaplin. Her obsession Is he lloved to have reached a point where she felt sure that If she could' meet him fare to face and tell him lmw much she loved him ho would reciprocate her devotion Just ns he always was doing in her dreams. By slaving at menial Jobs she managed to get together enough money to take her a 100 miles or so of the way. There she went to work again to earn the price for another stage of her Journey, and so on, until months later she reach ed Hollywood. For several days after her ar rival there Charlie Chaplin was annoyed by the persistent attempts of a young woman to gain an In terview with him nt the studio where he was working on his next film. She refused to give her name and Mr. Chaplin's secretary, whom she pestered three or four times n day, could not recall ever seeing her before. One afternoon when Mr. Chaplin was leaving the studio she slipped out of a vestibule where Pols »Rri, from I ho raintine by Taile Sijrl.s. Charlie and the expected future Mrs. Charlie. she had evidently been lying in wait for some time and tried to stop him. The following evening, while Mr, Chaplin was out motoring with Tola Negri, his fiancee, and a Hollywood physician his Japanese valet heard nn unusual noise com ing from his master's bedroom. It sounded suspiciously like the rustle of a woman’s skirt. As the valet entered the room and turned on the lights he saw at a glance that it was just that— the rustle of the clothing of a well-dressed, good looking and quite agitated young woman, who was trying to conceal herself behind the hangings at one of the windows. The valet seized her by the wrist dragged her out into the light and demanded to know who she was and what she was doing there. Hut Marina Vega—for she It was—only shook her head, pressed her red lips firmly together and said not a word. The conscientious Japanese was In a quandary bh to just what hls duty as n servant and a gentleman demanded of him In this unusual situation. There had been many burglaries in Hollywood of late ami even If this girl were not a thief, she deserved to be punished fur d.< ing to Invade his master's luxurious sleeping chamber. Yet h:s gentlemanly Instincts re volted against turning a young woman so attractive and so evi dently a person of some refinement over to the police. Perhaps, he thought, it would be Just as well tv lead her out of the house and tell her sternly that she must never come there again. While he was debating this ques tion with true oriental thoughtful ness his problem was solved by the sound of Mr. Chaplin and Mis Negri and the r physician frieni entering the house. Tightening hi* hold on his prisoner's wrist, th* valet lad her down the broad stair ease and into the library, where Mr. Chaplin stood. As Marina \ ega faced the famous comedian she is said to have thrown herself at his feet. Her i*>dy was shaken by a torrent of sobs, an*: from her lips poured a flood of wo i* so hurried, so incoherent that no body who heard them could make out what she was tryinR to say. But facts revealed later at the hospital and obtained from her former homo In Mexico indicate that this was her avowal of a ion* • her Ished love—-the love she had •aims 2,000 painful miles to offer ns a sub stitute for Pola N’eRTi'S. Miss Negri and tlie physician bent over the sohhlng woman and tried to soothe her. hut It Is said that not until Mr. Chaplin added his sooth log words to theirs did she begin to grow calmer. Then she suddenly rose to her feet, wiped her tear stained face with a dainty handker chief and starter! for the door. In vain Mr. Chaplin urged her to alt down a minute to regain her composure or to let him call a motor car for her. She shook her head with a wan little am lie, hurried out of the house nnd disappeared down the street Within half an hour or so after the departure of thla surprising visitor the ears of Mr. Chaplin and his guests ngaln caught the sound of a woman's sobs. The comedian (Continued on Pngs Fight.t