Marie Dressler - Marriage Question

Question

So Marie Dressler, the actress (aka Leila Marie Koerber) was married to a guy (George Hoeppert), they divorced or he died (still checking it out), and then she got married to a James Henry Dalton... or did she? Dalton paid off a guy to pretend to be a minister and they got sort of "married"... but then later she finds out that he's still married to another woman. By the time this all comes out, they've been together for over 10 years, he's on his deathbed or heading towards it, and he's begging his separated wife for divorce. She refuses to give it to him.

So, it gets worse. He dies and Marie wants to bury him in the plot next to where she will go, and the wife takes custody of the body and has it shipped back to where he's going to be next to her. The lifestyles of the rich and famous...

So the question - should I list him as her husband, as for all intent and purposes they were husband and wife, or because technically they never were married but did everything they could to get that way, then not list them together at all.

My thought is to list them as husband and wife in the system links, but annotate the biography to ensure that it's clear of the story that happened. As always, history will judge for itself as to whether they were technically married or not. They had no children together, so there are no genetic concerns with this one way or the other. Thoughts?

Answer 1

Of the thngs that I'm grateful for, top-ranking would have to belong to being neither rich nor famous, at least after this story! It's gonna take a whole barrel of lawyers to straighten this one out, I fear!

My personal solution (but definitely not definitive) would be to list the "spouses"  each of these people sequentially on their individual profiles.  Thus, Marie Dressler would have george listed as a spouse with the date of the end of the marriage noted. She then would have her putative spouse, James Henry Dalton listed as spouse number two.

Dalton would have his first wife listed followed by his putative spouse, Marie. Annotation on the profiles in the narrative of all four profiles would provide sordid but entertaining details of the events. (If Hoeppert remarried that would be listed too.

That's my solution. But of course, I am definitely not wedded to it!

Comments

Of course, her life was more difficult than that. Her first husband married her, I think they tried to have a child, their daughter died at birth. They divorced, and then he died.

Her father refused to allow her to use his (and her) last name, so she had to choose another name. Her sister was the one who really wanted to be a star - but she wasn't the one who made it big. Her sister flopped and ended up married and relocated to England.

After her second husband died, her career took a downturn and she declared bankruptcy. She became penniless. At one point, she tried to make a comeback. Then she came down with cancer, and before she could try another comeback... she died.

But through all that, she had high points. She became a respected actor. She appeared in a number of movies. She won an Academy Award. She made a lot of money (and lost a lot of money). And through it all she learned that making people laugh is a good thing.

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If it hasn't happened already, this story would make a great docu-drama! If its been done, I want to see it!

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Alright - it's a bit lengthy, but I've added the spouses and also a bio of Marie's life. I hate turning these things into a filmography, so I've avoided the whole starred in xyz film and focused more on her and her life. She has a lot just in the wiki and a few other online resources, so there was a lot left out, but at least it gives you a feel for her and her life.

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Beautifully done, Scott! I'm wondering about wallpaper. Perhaps her face or a still from one of her movies? Not necessary, of course. Also, perhaps you might consider project protecting it. I probably would, though I've never requested this status before.