Shirley Jones by Shirley Jones

Author:Shirley Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2013-07-23T04:00:00+00:00

After I finished playing Tahoe, Ryan, our third son, was born. I was delighted, and so was Jack, although sometimes the stress of having three little boys under one roof became too much for him. Brought up by his strict mother to be fastidious in the extreme, Jack imposed his own rigid standards on the boys. They weren’t allowed to make a single noise all morning when he was sleeping the day away after a drunken binge.

He wanted everything to be neat and always in its own place, but that was a tall order for three normal, rambunctious little boys. Jack’s high standards were impossible to maintain, and if he came home to find a toy or two scattered on the floor, he invariably erupted in anger. As he screamed at our hapless little boys, who were shaking from head to foot out of fear of their father, I couldn’t help wondering if he was screaming at them or at the universe for not granting him the movie career he craved.

Meanwhile, I wasn’t having much of a movie career anymore myself. Instead, in the winter of 1966, I signed to do a tour of The Sound of Music and took my sons with me, along with their nanny. As always, Jack was appearing on Broadway, this time in It’s a Bird . . . It’s a Plane . . . It’s Superman, with Linda Lavin and Patricia Marand, and this time the rumors that he was having an affair with an actress in the show were deafening. I was led to understand by “well-wishers” that this was not Jack’s usual type of lighthearted sexual fling but a full-blown love affair, and that the woman was doing everything in her power to incite him to divorce me and marry her.

Whatever the truth, I intended to remain married to Jack, no matter what or whom. There had always been other women in Jack’s life, I knew, but this time was different. He was pulling away from me emotionally, and I could sense it in the very fibers of my being. And to top that, I also had the feeling that he was disappointed that I hadn’t had an affair with Mike Davis. In a strange, perverse way, Jack actually wanted me to be unfaithful to him.

The Sound of Music, which began in January 1967, took me to theaters all over the East Coast, and we usually traveled from venue to venue by car. Inevitably, my costar Stephen Elliott (who would go on to play Liza Minnelli’s father in Arthur) was by my side. At forty-seven, he was a complete gentleman, erudite, well read, charming, Captain Von Trapp to my Maria.

I suppose what happened next was inevitable.

It all began with a party in Stephen’s room after the show’s opening night. My own three kids, who were traveling with me, were fast asleep in my room, watched over by their nanny.

Gradually, all the guests left, and suddenly Steve and I were alone together. Then he grabbed me and kissed me, really kissed me.

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