Hold the Roses (16 page)

I asked, "What's going on? Where's the Como show?"

She said, "President Roosevelt has died."

Oh.! My god.... The President is dead. I thought of the time I sang for
him. I think I was about six years old. After the show we went into his
office and I spied some poker chips.

He said, "Do you like to play with those?"

I said, "Oh yes," and sat down on the floor with the chips.

He pulled up his wheelchair and picked me up and said, "You're a
very lovely child and you sing very well."

I remember I said, "Thank you," and went back to playing with the
chips.

Poor President Roosevelt... he was very kind to me.

This time everything went well. I did the three Como shows with no
disaster.

Bobby found out he would be discharged on June 19, so it was getting close. I called Gerry Danna, who couldn't believe I was going to marry
"that fat sergeant."

I told her, "I'm packing my clothes and on the night of June 18, give
me the secret whistle. I'll open my window and throw the bags out." My
window overlooked the driveway, and we had arranged a secret melody to
whistle as a signal.

She said, "I'm gonna get killed for this."

I said, "No, you won't. Just promise me you'll do it."

She said, "All right."

We then called Scotty and Murph and asked them to help us. The
four of us went down to pick up the car. Scotty and Murph said they'd
keep the car and we'd meet them on June 19.

Here's how it went: I got up early, around 7:00 A.M., walked in to my
mother's bedroom and kissed my mother, who was still sound asleep. Then
I left the house to walk to the bus stop. I waited there for Bobby to come in
from New York. Scotty and Murph were there, with our car and theirs. We
drove to Gerry's house and picked up my suitcases.

Gerry said, "Your mother called and wanted to know what was going

I lied and said, "I don't know."

"She sounded real mad."

We packed the car with my clothes. Poor Bobby had only one pair of
pants, a sport shirt, and a jacket. We then drove the two cars to city hall in
New York City. Scotty bought me a bouquet of flowers and a flower for Bobby's lapel. When the judge said, "If anyone here knows why these two
should not be joined in holy matrimony, let him now speak or forever hold
his peace," I held Bobby's hand so tight, I almost drew blood. I expected
my father to burst in and say, "No!" But nothing happened-and we were
married at 3:45 P.M., June 19, 1946.

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After we got married, we went outside to say thanks to Scotty and Murph
for standing up for us.

Murph said, "You better get going and get out of here fast."

Bobby said, "You're right. We're gonna stop in Trenton to see my
mother and sister. We'll probably stay in Philly overnight."

Hugs and kisses and off they went. I called my friend Judy Applebaum
in Philadelphia and told her I had gotten married. She almost jumped
through the phone.

I said, "Please make a reservation for us at the Sylvania Hotel-we're
staying overnight."

Judy said, "Sure thing, but I am going to throw you a wedding party."

I laughed and said, "Okay. I'll call you when we arrive."

We got into the car and we were off. I couldn't believe we were really
doing this.. .but I was happy. We stopped at Bobby's sister's house-my
new mother-in-law lived with her daughter and son-in-law. Everyone was
around the radio listening to the Joe Louis-Billy Conn fight.

Bobby said, "Hi, Mother. We're here and we're married."

They looked at us and said, "Great," and went back to the radio.

I said, "Aren't you going to wish us luck?"

They said, "Oh sure... yes... congratulations," and so on, and back to
the radio.

I said to Bobby, "Let's go."

His mother came over, gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, "Make
him happy and I'm sure he'll make you happy. He's a good man."

I said, "I know. I'll do my best," and we were out of there.

We drove to Philly and went to the Sylvania Hotel. Judy and her
parents were in the lobby waiting for us.

Hugs and kisses. "We're so happy for you," Judy said. "Get changed,
we're going out for dinner and a party."

So we went upstairs and changed. We had a lovely room. Every time
I worked Philly, I stayed at the Sylvania, so they knew me. They all said,
"Congratulations." It was nice... it sort of made it special. After changing,
we came downstairs, met Judy and her folks, and went to Bookbinder's for
lobster. We had a ball. We ate lobster until it was coming out our ears. The
owner had a cake made with wedding bells and doves. It was so sweet.
They ordered champagne, but since Bobby and I both don't drink, we just
had to sip to be polite.

Joe, Judy's father, asked "What are your plans?"

Bobby told him, "We're driving out to the coast. We bought a car
and we're leaving tomorrow."

Joe owned some garages, and he said, "Stay another day. I want to go
over the car and make sure it's all right to drive for such a long trip."

We said, "Okay, sure." We had nothing in view and no time limit as
to when we had to arrive in California. After our little wedding dinner
party, we all went back to the hotel, said our good-nights and went to our
room.

To tell you about my wedding night. . .well, it's too much to describe.
But I was so dumb. I knew nothing of sex! Bobby was so wonderful. He was
very gentle and kind and only worried about how I felt, if I was all right.

I kissed him and said, "I do love you so much."

He said, "I'm with you, Mommy" (his nickname for me...and I always called him "Pap"). "I love you with all my heart and always will."

The next day we had breakfast in the room. I said to Bobby, "I think
we better do a little shopping. You need some clothes." We went out and
bought a couple of shirts, two pairs of pants and a pair of shoes. I had all
the clothes I would need, so we came back to the hotel.

Judy called and said, "We'll have dinner."

I said, "Okay," and told Bobby the plans.

We met Judy and her parents and went out to dinner.

Joe said, "Your car will be ready tomorrow morning. I put four new
tires on and went over everything. The car is now in ship-shape order!"
The tires were hard to get at that time, so we were grateful.

Bobby said, "That's wonderful. Thank you, Joe."

Before Bobby could say anything else, Joe said, "That's my wedding
present to you both."

Judy's mom, Annie, said, "You don't need a piece of silver at this
time, so here's my wedding present." And she gave us a check for $350.

Judy said, "And here's my wedding present." She gave me a check for
$250 and said, "Use it as best you can for what you want."

Bobby and I were dumbfounded. We couldn't thank them enough.
God, I have such wonderful friends. We took off the next morning after all
the good-byes-and we didn't get a bill from the hotel. They said that was
their wedding gift.

Bobby had gotten a map from the auto club, and it laid out where we
should stop and the names of the hotels where we should stay. We were
going to drive about 350 to 400 miles a day until we got to the coast. We'd
make reservations a day ahead to be sure we had a room, since it could be
very difficult in those days to get a room.

Next stop: Pittsburgh. Bobby said, "Kay's band used to play here a
lot. Let me go in and see what I can do." It was the William Penn Hotel.
Bobby came out in fifteen minutes and said, "We're all set. We got the
bridal suite!"

I said, "How come?"

Bobby said, "I was waiting in line when this man came over to me
and said, `Are you Bobby Guy?' I said, `Yes, why?' The guy said, `Don't you
remember me? When Kay Kyser played here, I used to bring the instruments to the stage so you guys could set up. After the show, I would put
them away.' `You were the band boy!' The man nodded and smiled. `What
are you doing here?' `I just got married.' He pulled me out of the waiting
line and snapped his fingers to the guy behind the desk and said, `The
bridal suite for Mr. and Mrs. Bobby Guy.' Well, the band boy is now the
manager of the hotel." Of course, we didn't get a hotel bill. So far, we were
batting a thousand!

We left the next morning on our way to Cincinnati. We made good
time. We were not rushing. We took it day by day, with not a care in the
world-until we were outside of Chicago.

I called my girlfriend, Marty Dawson. She and I had worked together at the Chez Paree and kept up our friendship. She sounded very
frightened when she said, "Bypass Chicago. Your father has called everybody here. They're just waiting for you to come to town."

I said, "All right, we'll go on to St. Louis. How did you find out
about him calling everybody? Who did he call?"

She said, "All the guys at the Chez Paree. One of them called me and
told me because he knew we were friends. So, get going! I'm really happy
for you, honey. Have a wonderful life."

I told Bobby and he looked a little frightened. We drove to St. Louis.
On the way there, we stopped for gas and I called Jim Scarpelli, the "Big
Boss" of St. Louis. His wife, Kay, answered.

I said, "Hi, Kay, it's Rose Marie. I just got married."

She said, "We know, your father called, but Jim wants to talk to you."

Jim got on the phone, "Where are you?"

I told him, "Outside of St. Louis, about twenty-five miles. Should we
keep going and not stop in St. Louis?"

He said, "No, I want to see you...and I want to meet him. Are you all
right?"

I said, "I'm very happy and we love each other very much."

Jim said, "Where are you gonna stay?"

I told him, "The Chase Hotel. I worked there and I thought maybe
we could get a room there."

Jim said, "I'll make the reservation. We'll have dinner. We'll meet you
in the lobby about seven o'clock, okay?"

I said, "Fine."

Bobby looked at me and said, "Are you kidding? Why do they want
to have dinner with us?"

I told him that they wanted to meet him.

He said, "Fine. We'll eat, and then he'll kill me!"

I said, "Don't be silly," and away we went to the Chase Hotel.

We arrived about five o'clock. Everyone was so kind-the desk clerk,
the bellhops, everyone. It felt good to be fussed over. The room was nice,
nothing special, just a nice double room. We got dressed and went to the
lobby at seven. Kay and Jim were waiting for us. I introduced Bobby. Kaybless her-hugged Bobby and kissed me and we went upstairs to the roof
for dinner. We had a beautiful table and each of us had our own waiter!
Talk about class! Jim was a big man.. .about 250 pounds. Kay was about a
size 14, petite, very warm and loving. During dinner, we had the usual
conversation: "You look good," "Are you happy?" "How did you get here?"
"Where are you going?" and so on. It was very friendly and enjoyable.

The show went on. Romo Vincent, the star, announced that I was there and I had all the stale marriage jokes thrown at me. It was really great
fun. When the show was over, I said I wanted to go to the ladies room. Kay
said she would go with me. In the ladies room, Kay said, "He's nice and
he's very much in love with you. You two look so happy together. I'm glad
for you."

I said, "What about Jim?"

She said, "Don't worry, he's on your side."

That made me feel a hell of a lot better! We went back to, our table.
Bobby had a white line around his mouth and looked kind of pale. I knew
something was up.

We finished our dinner and Jim said, "I wanna see the room they
gave you." We went to see our room and Jim looked around and said, "It's
okay."

We said, "Thanks fora lovely dinner, so good to see you," and so on.

Jim looked at me and said, "Take good care of him. He's an all right

Bobby and I both breathed a sigh of relief and then they left. Bobby
fell on the bed and said, "Whew! I have never been through anything like
that in my life." I asked him, "What happened?"