Photo by Lupe Vélez.
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We present below a text published in number 23 of the magazine, on June 8, 1930, where the author tells a visit to the famous Mexican actress, dancer and star, Lupe Vélez. The Hollywood star, whose real name was María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez, was famous for her performances where she displayed an imposing character, colossal energy and extraordinary beauty. A “wild and irreverent” woman who earned the nicknames of: “Mexican dynamite”, “La Chinampina” and “Chica Chile Picante”. At the age of 36, after a hectic existence and the victim of several fateful romances, she took her own life at her Beverly Hills home on December 13, 1944, by ingesting a deadly dose of seconal, a drug that depresses brain activity. and produces an inhibitory action on the nervous system in a generalized way.
By The Knight of the Orchids
I have a crazy fondness for knowing what it costs to go out with a movie star on the street; And it’s a hobby, it has already cost me some pesos, in addition to many mishaps. This time, he was trying to make a phone appointment with the beautiful Mexican Lupe Vélez, when these two questions crossed over the telegraphic wires:
- So what you want is to hang out with me? Well, where will we go and what will we do?
The question was direct as an arrow and was not suitable for evasion.
Would Lupe, being Mexican, like to attend a bullfight? But, no, it was impossible, since bullfighting is prohibited in Hollywood. Absurd difference, I thought: if everyone has the right to fight, why are bullfights destined to disappear? In Mexico it is something very different, but in Hollywood a bull is just the husband of a cow and stop counting.
- Well, how about a Mexican bullfight to begin with, Lupe?
- I don’t like that show.
- What if he promised to take her to a Mexican theater in the city of Sonora?
- I wouldn’t say no. But look, come to my house to eat first. I will give you a splendid meal and it will be better than going to any other part of the city. After this, we will decide what to do.
I left the house nonchalantly not knowing if the party would end with a friendly dance at the “Roosevelt” or the “Ambassador,” or if the epilogue would be an innocent field trip. He had enough money on him to amuse Lupe, satisfying her every whim, unless she didn’t fancy him buying the United Artists film company.
When I left his house he had more money than when I entered, or at least he should have had more. She couldn’t resist the habit of playing a game of solitaire for a nickel a letter. It is the first date in which when I leave, the girl friend has left me to owe money.
He had always wanted to know who was the person who inhabited the most beautiful house of pure Mexican style in Beverly Hills. Now, my dear readers, I am going to put you in the secret; but by God, don’t discover me. Lupe Vélez lives there.
A colored servant ushered me into the hall.
- Who eees eeet? Lupe asked in detestable English, peering from the top balustrade of the staircase. – Oh, is that you? Do you know Gary? Talk to Gary until I come downstairs.
Up to now, I still haven’t been able to figure out if my date was with Lupe or with Gary Cooper. Gary was present when I arrived, and he was still in sight when I left at one in the morning.
Lupe Vélez with Gary Cooper.
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After a very long period of time in which we were talking about golf, airplanes and fifty things without interest, Lupe yelled from above:
- Come up to see my room.
I was stunned. In that room, two teams as complete as those from Yale and Harvard universities can play a football match, and there would still be room for a game of golf and another of tennis. Even the bed is large at eight feet square. The room is decorated in an extremely modernist style. It’s a nice room… for Lupe. I would not like to sleep in it, because it would seem to me to be in a movie theater.
Lupe is prouder of her home than anything else, except for Gary’s compliments. The house is new. There is nothing in the library but a stuffed owl that Gary hunted in Montana. But this is not surprising, because in Hollywood there are many private libraries that have nothing, not even a stuffed owl.
The servant began announcing the meal at eight. At eight thirty, he was still announcing, albeit in a slightly faint voice. Gary at last led the procession to the dining room. I sat at the head of the table in the chair reserved for the guests. Gary sat on the other end. To my right, Lupe. Fortunately there was nothing to carve.
- I don’t like these damn high chairs, – said Lupe- They’re so uncomfortable.
The food was excellent and substantial, and served perfectly.
Fruit cocktail, soup, chicken, Lima beans, chocolate pudding with whipped cream, cookies (small sweet buns) and coffee.
We refresh the gasses with mint cream, which burns like our famous Bacardi.
- Isn’t this better than going outside? Asked Lupe.
- Well, – I replied with one of my best smiles, and looking out of the corner of my eye at Gary.
- I always like to stay at home better, because I can do whatever I want. When I go out, they immediately assault me to take pictures. I was born to be a lady. Here I can sing and dance and hang out fun. I have free admission to all cinemas and theaters, and yet I don’t go. I haven’t been for “Mayfair” in a year. And if I go out with Gary, people say I’m doing it for publicity. We are friends, very good friends; But don’t listen to anyone if they tell you we’re dating, because it’s not true.
- If that is friendship, may God come down and see it, I thought to myself; since Lupe does not receive anyone without having Gary as an escort in the house.
Before we got up from the table, Lupe gave us a few impersonations of La Goudal, Gloria Swanson and Dolores del Río. Lupe deliriously likes being told she looks like Swanson.
After lunch we went to frolic a little with the dogs in the garden. Have you ever played with dogs in a garden? I, at least, since I was born, had never done it.
Lupe’s collection of animals is varied and numerous. There are two Chihuahuas, a Persian cat, a Canary, a Danish dog, and a bulldog puppy.
The latter belongs to Gary, but he knows all the twists and turns of Lupe’s garden by heart. At every moment you have to be fishing in the pool.
The “bull-dog” is comical from birth. Because its shape makes it look like it is glued to the ground, it gives the impression that it is always sitting. He amused us for more than half an hour trying to catch the rays of light from an electric torch.
- Look at this damn dog. But how ugly it is! I hate it barbarously. And because she hated him so much, she held him on her lap for a long time. Eternal spirit of contradiction of the feminine soul!
Lupe also says she hates Packards, but when she’s sitting next to Gary in his big chocolate-colored touring car, she doesn’t seem to be in great agony, by the way, Lupe also has two cars: a white Cadillac and a closed car for the city.
- For a long time I longed for a Rolls-Royce more than anything in the world, – she said – But I no longer care. Now I spend all my money on the house and on diamonds. I like jewelry with delirium. However, my predilection is not surprising. In a given case, you can’t sell the cars but you can get rid of the diamonds, giving them ninety percent of their value.
I did not know that detail, because I have never been able to buy or sell diamonds.
The charming Lupe has bought precisely in these days, two valuable diamond bracelets. His ambition is to have seven of them.
Another ambition that dominates her is to have $ 300,000.
- Why will the stars keep working after they have enough money? She asked. “If I had three hundred thousand pesos, I would go to Paris and buy all the dresses and all the furs.” For five years I would live to my full satisfaction. After this, I would hardly care what happened. Five years of well-being, fun, luxury, joy, laughter … What more could you wish for, right?
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