The Washington times., 1931-02-14
ALMA RUBENS' LIFE STORY

nagging, irritable person, with
whom no one, I believe, could
have been happy.
A Mothers Love
And I couldn't tell my mother,
because she wouldn't have
understood. AS I have said
before, she is of an extremely
practical nature. She would
never fail in anything. No
thing-no person-cmld crush
her. Love me, she always has.
But she has never understood
me!
So in my dilemma, after
months and months of this, I
decided to return to California.
I thought maybe a change of
atmosphere might benefit me.
Maybe, in the milder climate
there. the terrible longing might
be overcome. I might be able
to cure myself, without my
mother learning of my predica-
ment.
Upon my arrival there I
added to my woes by falling
hopelessly in love with Ricardo
Cortez. Poor old Alma. What
troubles!
A dope fiend. Unhappily
married. Desperately in love
with another man. And no one
to confide in.
Cortez had just been assigned
a role in "Cytheria" at that
time, the first picture made by
First National after they had
taken over Cosmopolitan Pic
lures. I was introduced to him
by George Fitzmorris, and, so
far as I was concerned, it was
a case of love at first sight.
She Meets COrtez
The very day I met him I
read a notice in the papers to
the effect that he was engaged
to marry Agnes Ayres. I
grieved about that for days
and days, although I con-
tinued to meet him almost
daily on the set, and he showed
signs of reciprocating my affec-
tions.
Cortez, who, as I mentioned
before, was the son of a
butcher with shop on First
Avenue, New York, was my
ideal. Tall. dark, slender and
with a Greek god profile, the
more I saw of him the more
I loved him.
incidentally, I might men
tion, that, according to the
story I heard more than a year
after our marriage, he was
given the name Cortez by
J,j-j-o-e Frr-r-r-i-s-co, that inimit-
able wag of the stage, who
happened to become acquainted
with Cortez while on the movie
lots.
The Property Man
At that time, Cortez was a
prop man, occasionally assigned
to small parts, and he was
complaining to Frisco, as they
sat in a Los Angeles restaurant,
about the difficulty he had
obtaining parts because OF
his name.
Frisco. always on the alert
for a chance to spring some
thing funny, casually turned
around, peered into the cigar
store adjacent to their table,
and counseled:
"Oh-o! Is t-t-that so? Lo-
cook at that" and he pointed
a finger at two cigar boxes
reposing within. ''Lloo-ok at
that! A-ab-absolu-lutely per
feet! Ri-ri-ricar-do Co-cocortez!
So Ricardo Cortez he be-
came, the name under which
I met him and which I be-
lieved his own for almost a
year after our marriage. Ric
was an awful prevaricator. I
actually believed his long
winded story that his mother,
a famous Spanish prima
donna, had died when he was
a small child, Immediately
after his father brought her to
America.
I didn't learn that his
mother "a quiet, intelligent,
lovable old woman-was alive
until the time he was suddenly
called away from Hollywood
to appear with Gilda Gray in
"Aloma of the South Seas"
several months after he had
led me to the altar.
Her Love COOlS
And, when I did learn of
this, it almost broke my heart.
Up until that time I had
trusted him implicitly. And,
when I learned Of his duplicity.
and the apparent shame he