Personal Report on Bob

by Mrs. May Mann Baer

This is from a movie magazine, probably in 1951. Mrs. Baer was the wife of actor Buddy Baer, who played the giant Ursus in Quo Vadis.

Two nights in a row I found myself a guest at the same Hollywood parties with Bob Taylor, who was alone and dateless. The famous producer, Sam Zimbalist, gave the first party at the Coconut Grove and Bob, in a tux, was never more handsome sitting at our table of twelve making pleasant conversation—except for frequent noticeable lapses into silence.

Gorgeous movie stars surrounded him. Beauties, whose dazzling figures and flawless pink and white skins enhanced in fabulous Schiaparelli and Christian Dior gowns would devastate the senses of any man, plied him with their smiles. There was open invitation in their eyes. Seemingly oblivious to such enticements, Bob remained courteous, but that was all.

Whether Bob and Barbara Stanwyck will ever resume more than a cordial friendship is unpredictable.

Mr. Taylor and Ms. Gabor without Mrs. Baer, same occasion.

Bob and I sat out a couple of dances and reminisced as people do who’ve known each other for a good long time. I knew Bob never cared much for dancing It was well known that on a dancing date years ago at the Coconut Grove or the Palladium, Bob would take a mutual friend along—a fellow who liked to dance—so his date wouldn’t be disappointed.

During dinner Zsa Zsa Gabor, the irrepressible wife of George Sanders, stopped John Lee Mahin (the film scenarist) on the dance floor and rushed over to Bob. “I just can’t resist you asking me to dance—!” Than she was off to finish her Samba with Mr. Mahin and Bob and I were back to our conversation.

“No—I’m not buying a ranch. Haven’t even thought of it. Truth is, when I went to England to make Ivanhoe, I sublet my apartment and when I got back—I had no place to go. I can’t stand living alone, so when Ralph Couser, my pilot, invited me to move to the back bedroom of his two bedroom house in Inglewood—which is conveniently close to the airport—I very happily accepted for the time being.”

Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr and Buddy Baer (writer’s husband) in a scene from Quo Vadis.

I can well imagine the excitement of that neighborhood—a family one heavily populated with rows on modest, small lots closely knit into square blocks. And loads of children. Bob Taylor, the movie star, who has long dwelled on the heights of Olympus—in a fabulous estate in Bel-Air in a house with twenty rooms—was their next door neighbor. Unbelievable! Fantastic!

Yet Bob doesn’t consider himself fantastic. According to him, the neighborhood kids take him quite for granted. Recently, he saw large bunch of balloons in a friend’s business office. Bob wound up taking them out to the kids. It’s become a habit for them to drift into the house after a game of ball. Bob makes them sandwiches. When a neighbor’s child came running to Bob and asked him to get her ball out of a twenty foot tree, he complied, although it took him a good two hours to perform the feat which merited the skill of the fire department and its long ladders.

Anyone around Bob for long will tell you they’re constantly tripping over his duffle bag—a leftover from the Navy. He has a passion for flying so he always keeps it packed, ready-to-go and standing by the front door. Next to flying, he likes hunting. “Any time I get a call that the ducks or quail are flying—I can make it to the airport and be up and off—in nothing flat.”

Perhaps the late Wally Beery had something to do with Bob’s first interest in hunting and flying. They made a picture together—and Wally kept telling Bob how he and Gable flew to Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Northern California and Oregon—depending on the months and the seasons—and the great—really great—sport it is. Bob now has a four seater plane and full hunting equipment.

Morgan Maree, his business manager; Ralph Couser, his pilot; have spent considerable

Robert Taylor with one of his dogs.

time training their pointers. Bob’s, a champion ribbon winner, and Morgan’s are considered the best dogs at our kennels. They gave Ralph, skeptical of pointers, a dog named Jack. They flew, all three of them, to Texas for quail. Wax, Bob’s dog, was the best pointer, but on the first day out he cut his leg on a barbed wire fence. It took twenty-two stitches to fix him up. Morgan’s dog went through a fence and wound up with a bleeding swollen paw and Ralph’s didn’t work at all. “You should have seen us getting out of the plane at the airport—our two best dogs limping and obviously sick while Ralph’s was in the pink and prancing along like a champ. We rushed directly to the Vet’s and found that, besides their sore legs, the dogs were just plain air sick!”

“After seeing the Waggonor ranch in Texas, which is as big as Rhode Island, any ideas I ever had about owning a small ranch went out the window. What a wonderful life! Big chuck wagon dinners every night after the hunt with all the neighbors—there were never less than 40—joining us. These are the kind of parties for me,” Bob said. “I feel at home and relaxed. Guess I just like to sleep a lot and eat a lot. On the ranch we’d be up before daybreak and to bed soon after sundown. And I loved it.”

Morgan Maree, who accompanied Bob on this trip, later told me Bob had caused quite a stir in Texas. There were a lot of beautiful daughters—with a lot of anxious mothers and, when the word got around that Bob liked a certain cheese dip and a dessert called “whiskey balls”–a couple of jars of each were sent down to his plane. Everyone who had cameras took group pictures with Bob.

Denise Darcel tries to capture Bob Taylor’s heart in Westward the Women. Bob’s chief interest these days is in travel. He has extensive plans.

When I asked Bob what else he had been doing, he said, “I’ve been looking for a new horse to ride in pictures. My buckskin quarter horse, Buck, is about ready to be put out to pasture. In Texas, I saw some beauties. I also a nice big ranch, but Morgan keeps his weather eye on me to see I don’t go overboard.”

Morgan has known Bob for fifteen years and they are great pals. Morgan says that when Bob sees something he’d like, he immediately wants to buy another for his friends. “I even talk myself out of gifts because Bob’s inclined to be a little too generous.” According to Morgan, Bob’s major weakness is suits, but he limits himself. In Italy, he had several made by Angelo Di Pippo—and that was his limit for a year or more to come.

As for hunting, Morgan says Bob always get his limit—always prepares his game and has dishpan hands because he’s the one who cleans up. But he doesn’t try to cook. “Bob’s a man who knows what he wants—makes his own decisions and is forceful in doing what he believes he should do. He’s definitely a man’s man.”

Since Bob’s return to Hollywood from London—he has taken Barbara out to dinner a couple of times. Apparently no other girls seem to interest him. Perhaps he doesn’t want to get involved at the present time—preferring to let his heart be fancy free. When a combination cocktail party-baby shower was given for Deborah Kerr—there was some conjecture as to whether Bob would come to a shower. But he did. He had shopped himself for a tiny gold St. Christopher medal on a little gold chain that he brought Deborah.

Bob seemed thoroughly excited about his European jaunt. “I’ve always wanted to travel,”

Robert Taylor and Ralph Couser in Europe, 1949.

he said, “but never before had the time. First, I’m going back to England, then I want to see Spain and Switzerland. I’ve mapped out quite a trip for myself,” he added. “Every time I’ve been in Europe I’ve been making a picture so I’ve never had a chance to go sightseeing”

Bob expressed his pleasure in working with Dore Schary, executive producer at MGM. He is to be co-starred with Stewart Granger in “All the Brothers Were Valiant,” one of the greatest romantic adventures of 1852 based on the Ben Ames Williams novel, after he finishes “Eagle on His Cap.”

So perhaps all this travel isn’t so mysterious after all. Bob’s finding himself with some time off to relax.

“I’ve always wanted to go to a little island called Malta which I am told is very beautiful. I think I’ll go on this trip. There are inexpensive ways of traveling and I hope to slip about quietly and see the world. Then I’ll probably wind up right back here in Hollywood saying, “Lord, I’m glad to be home.”

Quo Vadis, the stupendous spectacle in which he starred and which was made in Italy, is so applicable to Bob Taylor. “Whither Goest Thou?”