From Another Angle

"An Affair To Remember; My Life with Cary Grant" by Maureen Donaldson and William Royce. G. P. Putnam and Sons 288 pages $18.95

I reviewed Grant's daughter Jennifer's book the other day. But having learned early on to get a second or third source for any story, I went looking through the library stacks for another point of view. And found it.

Grant and Dyann Cannon were married from 1965 to 1968. Grant and Maureen met in 1973, a relationship that continued until 1977. The bitterness of the Cannon-Grant custody fights colored those years. Jennifer said that when her Mom was on location, she stayed with Dad. Au contraire. Maureen said that Grant had to fight for every minute he could get from Cannon. He once flew from a vacation in Acapulco back to Los Angeles for a one-day visit with Jennifer.

Jennifer paints a picture of an utterly idyllic Dad, full of fun and creative ideas. Conversely, Maureen says he really didn't know how to amuse her, a task that fell upon her shoulders.

Grant was 69 when he met Maureen (27) and 75 when they parted in 1977. Grant met his fifth and last wife in June, 1976, but couldn't convince her to marry him until 1981 when he was 77.

This is the amazing part. Long before anyone had ever heard of Viaga, Grant, in his '70s and '80s, was still making love to his girlfriends! (According to them, that is.) Despite telling Maureen that a male had only so many sexual acts in him (so to speak) and that one by one, they diminished the male!

It's an interesting book in that Grant confided a lot about his former wives to Maureen and she clearly never forgot a word. At his urging, she became a photographer and there is a section of shots she took during their relationship.

Certain hers is a very different point of view from his daughter's.