Virginia Bruce With Friends At Wedding Party 1937
At Reception Following Bruce-Ruben Nuptials
Beverly Hills, Calif. – Virginia Bruce is pictured above with three of her screenland friends at the reception following her marriage to director J. Walter Ruben. From left to right are; Dolores Del Rio, Virginia Bruce, Mrs. Jack Warner and Mrs. Gary (Sandra) Cooper. The newly wedded couple’s honeymoon has been delayed until sometime after Christmas when they will be able to take a respite from their screen duties. 12/20/1937 credit: International News Photos
The wedding itself was small by Hollywood standards with only Virginia Bruce’s parents, her grandmother, her brother, her four-year-old daughter, an aunt and a cousin attending. Following the ceremony, Jack Warner and his wife Ann along with the Countess Di Frasso held a party for the couple at the Warner home at which this press photo was taken.
Virginia Bruce (born Helen Virginia Briggs, 1910-1982) is a name some Hollywood film buffs might be familiar with. She appeared in starring and supporting roles in dozens of films from the 1930s until the 1940s.
Virginia reversed her first and middle names at an early age never going by her given name of Helen.
Though Virginia could sing, play the piano and dance, previous to entering films she had never appeared in a high school production, let alone a motion picture.
Stardom Comes Relatively Easily
There are two versions of how Virginia broke into pictures. The first story comes from a 1928 newspaper story. Virginia’s aunt, Harriet Miller, brought along Virginia on a business deal to the home of Mrs. Marguerite Beaudine, the wife of noted director William Beaudine.
At the meeting, Virginia made an impression upon Marguerite and she alerted her husband about Virginia. William Beaudine promptly signed Virginia in December 1928 to a contract paying up to $50,000 over a five year period if she met star development expectations. Virginia Briggs was rechristened Virginia Bruce.
The other story, reported in a 1930 newspaper says Virginia was enrolled at UCLA in and was being rushed by her sorority. Two sorority sisters disagreed about the possibility of entering the motion picture industry with no experience. Virginia decided to see which of her sisters was right and registered at Hollywood’s Central Casting Bureau. After a couple of months and not hearing anything from the casting bureau, Virginia began to visit the other studios and was spotted by assistants for a Paramount production, Why Bring That Up, (1929) starring George Moran and Charles Mack.
Virginia was cast as an extra. Paramount executives upon viewing the rushes found her appealing and ordered a screen test. The test came off well and she was then offered a contract. Though this 1930 story does not say who offered her the contract it may have been William Beaudine who was working for Paramount. Over the next couple of years Virginia appeared in a number of films, mostly uncredited and without receiving a breakout role.
Showman impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was so taken with Virginia’s looks that he brought her to New York in the Fall of 1930 to add her to the chorus of “Smiles.”
Virginia then went on to the legitimate stage appearing in a two act musical “America’s Sweetheart” at the Broadhurst Theater. Virginia returned to Hollywood in 1931 after securing a contract with MGM.
Among Bruce’s more popular films are The Murder Man (1935) with Spencer Tracy, Pardon My Sarong (1942) with Abbott and Costello; and appropriately for an ex-Ziegfeld girl herself, The Great Ziegfeld (1936) with William Powell and Myrna Loy.
A Natural Beauty
During test filming for Here Comes The Band (1935) MGM chief cinematographer John Arnold determined that Virginia Bruce photographed better sans cosmetics. For that film Bruce did not use any make-up.
In a 1937 syndicated newspaper beauty profile “Be Beautiful” by Elsie Pierce, Bruce was asked about her beauty secrets. Not surprisingly, there were very few.
Bruce said to keep her complexion clear she used almond oil to remove make-up. A key to keeping her eyes looking fresh was to get enough sleep. When Bruce did use make-up she advised a dash of ice water over the eyelids before applying make-up. The five-foot-six and a half foot actress maintained her 128 pound figure without dieting, but by exercising with swimming, tennis and riding. Pressed about keeping her waistline so slim, Bruce said “more tennis.”
She also said every women should have a hobby to keep you “enthusiastic and interesting” and hers were collecting first editions, painting and raising lilacs.
Marriage To Ruben
Bruce’s marriage on December 18, 1937 to the relatively obscure Jacob Walter Ruben followed her divorce in 1934 from screen legend John Gilbert. The marriage to Gilbert lasted less than two years. When John Gilbert died in 1936 at the age of 38, he left the bulk of his $250,000 estate to Bruce and their daughter Susan Ann Gilbert.
J. Walter Ruben (1899-1942) was a producer – director – writer who was graduated from Columbia University and began his entertainment career on the stage. Once in show biz, no one ever called him “Jacob” and he exclusively used his first initial and middle name in all walks of life.
Ruben turned to writing for the movies in 1924 and later directed 19 films including, Success At Any Price (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Riffraff (1935) with Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow and Trouble For Two (1936) with Rosalind Russell and Robert Montgomery. In 1939 Ruben became a film producer for MGM and would go on to oversee 18 films over the next four years.
Bruce’s and Ruben’s marriage ended with Ruben’s untimely death on September 4, 1942 at age 43 from complications of a streptococcus infection that turned into pneumonia. IMDB.com mistakenly lists Ruben’s death as August 16, 1942, which is actually the day Ruben entered Good Samaritan Hospital.
Post-Stardom
After Ruben’s death, on August 27, 1946 Virginia Bruce married Ali M. Ipar a scion of one of Turkey’s richest families. When Ipar was called upon in 1951 to do his Turkish military service, the couple reluctantly agreed to divorce due to a strange Turkish law that officers were not allowed to be married to foreigners. When Ipar left the military in 1952 the couple remarried.
Virginia appeared in a few television programs during the 1950s. Virginia’s role as Kim Novak’s mother in Strangers When We Meet was probably her last appearance on screen.
In 1960 Ipar was convicted in Turkey for foreign fees irregularities and spent 19 months in jail.
The couple divorced for good in 1964.
In 1968 Virginia Bruce became seriously ill and former husband Ali Ipar flew from Turkey to be with her.
Virginia’s final credited film, was as the title character in director Paul Morrissey’s Madam Wang’s (1981). Some viewers say it is not the same Virginia Bruce. Director Morrissey insisted it was. It seems unlikely that a star who was probably very ill and had not appeared anywhere on screen in over 20 years would agree to do a film produced by Andy Warhol, but who knows.
Virginia Bruce was never approached to clear up the mystery and she died of cancer in Woodland Hills, CA on February 24, 1982. She was cremated and her ashes scattered.
