(16 August 1941 - 1949) (divorced) 1 child
January 41 vacations in Palm Springs and is introduced to 39-year-old screenwriter Sidney "Sy" Bartlett. The two hit it off immediately. They begin dating regularly and become engaged, planning to wed in the summer. Bartlett (born Sacha Baraniev in Russia), a former Chicago newspaperman, is the former husband of screen star Alice White.
16 August 41 married Sy Bartlett in Lake Tahoe. Bartlett, one of Hollywood`s most vocal opponents of the Axis powers, has just enlisted in the service, being made a captain in the U.S. Army Air Force. The couple begins their life in a beautiful Bel Air home, but two months later Bartlett is temporarily reassigned to Washington D.C., where she joins him.
41/42 she and her husband seldom find time to be alone together. Life for Bartlett is very hectic, with the U.S. poised to enter the war. Paramount insists that she return to the studio and report for work.
42 Bartlett is promoted to the rank of major and relocated for duty in England with the Eighth Air Force. She tries to focus much of her energies on her marriage, her son, and the war effort. This dedication wreaks havoc on her film career.
42 travels to England to be near her husband and to entertain servicemen
27 March 42 during the evening Bartlett is called away from his wife. She has no idea of why or where he is going; she does not ask, and he does not tell her. She does think he is "on some sort of mission." When he returns the following day, he casually tells her, "I`ve been over Berlin." Hours later reporters turn up at their door, and she finds out that her husband was the first American officer to bomb Berlin. Participating in a large-scale aerial attack on the German capital, Bartlett had been a member of the crew of a giant Royal Air Force Lancaster plane, riding as an observer and an extra bombardier. Shortly after the take-off, one of the bomber`s four motors goes dead, but the crew presses on, though at a hazardously lower altitude and speed. Arriving over Berlin, Bartlett lets loose a two-ton, high-explosive bomb dead-center in a giant sea of flames. Returning to England, without being attacked, another of the Lancaster`s engines goes out, and the crew prepares for a crash landing, but the plane sets down without a hitch. Bartlett`s momentous accomplishment makes the front pages of every U.S. paper, most of which feature photos of the major and his proud wife, who tells her side of the story to reporters. She later tells Louella Parsons, "When I went to London to be with Sy we could be together so seldom. I know he worried about me and when I read what he had been up to, believe me, I worried about him. When I discovered he had been the first American to drop a bomb on Berlin, I was so proud of him I could have wept. But, how I worried after that every time he was out of my sight. Try as we would to be together, Sy had his assignments to carry out, and I tied to do my best at the various camps."
Late February 43 sails for London. Her luggage overflows with sheer hose and lipsticks that she plans to distribute to luxury-deprived British women. Once in England, she manages to spend some cherished moments with Bartlett, whose many military commitments give her much time to devote to public service. A favorite of the soldiers, she entertains both American and British troops, visits hospitals and factories, and sells war bonds.
May 43 returns to California without a studio contract and permanent home. She and her son David live in temporary quarters because the Bartletts sold their Bel Air house when Sy left for England. She has no luck when looking for a rental because of wartime overcrowding. Consequently, she is forced to purchase a house in Beverly Hills at an inflated price. No longer salaried and with a husband in the service, her financial situation is somewhat shaky. She summons all of her strength and sets about to rebuild her film career on her own.
44 during filming of Isle of the Dead, Boris Karloff severely injures his back, necessitating an emergency spinal operation. Production on the movie is halted for four months, during which time she begs RKO for a short leave of absence to visit her husband, whom she has not seen in over a year. The studio denies her request, and she has to make do with phone calls to Bartlett, now stationed in Nebraska and about to depart for a tour of duty in the South Pacific.
November 45 welcomes home her husband, who has been discharged from the service with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The reunion proves bittersweet. The war was over, we were like two strangers," she later relates to Silver Screen`s Jerry Asher. "What happened when he returned what happened to us, is the same thing that happened to thousands of men and women who were married and were immediately separated and never allowed to work at it."
January 46 the Bartletts split