JULIE Facts 2

JULIE continued to work sporadically ["when we needed the money," she once said], and played the heroine in RETURN OF

THE FRONTIERSMAN. While she was making THE FAT MAN in 1951, JULIE was offered another film, but turned it down. She

said she was married to a really talented man and she wanted him to feel important . . . . . . . . she felt it was not good

for the marriage if the wife was more successful than the husband. And, true to her word, she held back her own promising

career although it was widely agreed that she would have always been in demand and could have worked steadily. "I

think I'm a good actress," JULIE said at that time, "but Jack has greatness."

Shortly after Dragnet made its television debut, Jack's work became all-consuming, to the

detriment of everything else. Daughter Lisa was born on November 29, 1952, but JULIE's

efforts to hold the marriage together collapsed when Jack left for the studio one day and

simply did not return. In August 1953, when it became evident that he was never coming

back, she filed for divorce. For JULIE, this marriage was to have been her lifetime commitment

and many of her friends felt she carried a torch for Jack long after the divorce. "I guess I was in shock," JULIE later said.

"My mother and dad had been so happy and well-adjusted. I 'd never thought of divorce. I'd never been around it."

Devastated, JULIE took the girls to Paris for a while, returning a few months later to Palm Springs. Despite Jack's

acknowledgement that the fault for the breakup was solely his, JULIE brooded. "When you're a woman," she once

confessed, "and your marriage breaks up, you fall apart. At least I did. I felt suddenly old and stupid . . . . and

uninteresting and unattractive. All of a sudden, it wasn't 'we' any more. Before that, it was 'We' --- and then that 'we'

isn't there, and it isn't even 'she' any more because you've lost all your drive and spirit."

Suffering what she called a "failure of self-confidence," JULIE set about devoting her life to caring for her daughters. Then on

March 24, 1954, friends convinced her to go out with them. They went to the Celebrity Room and there JULIE met Bobby

Troup. The two hit it off at once; he made her special once more. Bobby, thoroughly smitten, nonetheless recognized her

talent and urged her to sing, but JULIE had no confidence in her abilities and would not be swayed. As a young teenager,

she'd sung a bit with some small groups, most notably Matty Malnech's, but none of these engagements lasted long. "None

of the arrangements were in my key," she once said, "and I sounded horrible." [Not to mention the fact that once they found

out her true age, they had to let her go.]