Lawrence Tibbett’s Married Life Reveals Unique Triangle (1931) 🇺🇸

Isn’t her successor the only woman she knows who’s “worthy” of being the famous singer’s wife? All three of them are friends — and probably always will be. Here is not only an unusual triangle — but an intelligent one!

by Ruth Dryden

In every movie, there is always Another Man or Another Woman — there has to be, for the sake of drama and suspense. But you have never seen a triangle like the one in real life involving Lawrence Tibbett, Grace Mackay Tibbett, his first wife, and Jennie Marston Tibbett, his second. It has the elements of drama by its very unexpectedness. It is, moreover, a highly intelligent triangle — with sex, for once, practically left out of the matter. It is as unusual as Lawrence’s voice, which has carried him literally from rags to riches, and made him the foremost American singer of his time.

The two women are surprisingly similar — as no two women in a man’s life in a movie ever are. More than that, they are friends — have known one another for years — and speak highly of each other. They are such good friends that they could lunch together just before one divorced Lawrence, and such good friends that the other could invite the first, without affront, to her wedding to Lawrence.

In many respects, particularly from the standpoint of behavior toward each other, Tibbett and his ex-wife are Holly wood’s most amazing couple. Their conduct could easily be described as super-civilized. Hollywood’s divorced couples are usually excessively sentimental about their parting (like Betty Compson and director James Cruze) or else bitter enemies (like Helene Costello and Lowell Sherman). The triangle composed of Lawrence Tibbett, his former wife and his present wife is utterly without precedent in the film colony, so far as graceful bearing, tolerance, understanding, broad-mindedness, sympathy and sportsmanship are concerned.

Lunched together before divorce

You could demand no stronger proof of this than the fact that Grace Tibbett and the Mrs. Tibbett-to-be lunched together one day at the Embassy Club in Hollywood, prior to Grace’s departure for Reno, where she divorced Lawrence on September 15, 1931. Undoubtedly, the two women discussed more personal matters than the Hoover moratorium.

It takes rare sporting blood and intelligence for any woman to recognize in another woman attributes of character that she feels would be commendable in a wife for the man who had been her husband for twelve years. It becomes something more rare when the woman who has been wife for all those years is absolutely sincere in her appraisal of the “other” woman — as Grace Tibbett is. “If Lawrence should ever choose for his second wife a woman as clever, charming, companionable and capable, I should never suffer any humiliation,” Grace Tibbett said a few months ago, speaking of the present Mrs. Tibbett. “A less worthy woman might embarrass me.” She even went so far as to add, “She is a far finer woman than I am.” (Could there be any finer, more sporting tribute?)

It is, perhaps, very singular that the second Mrs. Tibbett resembles the first Mrs. Tibbett both physically and in many qualities of personality. Mutual friends say that the formations of the lower portions of their faces are almost identical. They both have firm, resolute chins that bespeak strength of character. Their directness of manner and personal force have also been compared. And they both have two children.

How friends rate both women

“Grace has the courage and aggressiveness of the pioneer woman,” a mutual friend explains.

“Jennie has the courage of her convictions, whatever they may be, and possesses the fearlessness of the thoroughbred. She has never known privations such as Grace, since she is the daughter of a millionaire, but she could forego much for the sake of an intention or ideal.”

Maybe Lawrence’s choice of a second wife who resembles his first so closely bears out the saying that, when a man marries the first time, he unconsciously seeks in his wife the virtues of his mother. And that when he marries a second time, he unconsciously looks for some of the qualities of wife Number One in wife Number Two.

Conventionally-minded persons might find it difficult to understand the psychology of Lawrence Tibbett and his former wife, who have only praise for each other and are going out of their way not only to convince the world that they are friends, but to be friends. But both Grace and Lawrence are extraordinary mortals — their lives, their work, their achievements have made them so.

Three days after Lawrence got out of the Navy in May, 1919, he married Grace Mackay Smith, a Los Angeles school teacher. They were both young, both poor, both ambitious. Lawrence knew that -he had a voice, but didn’t know if he could ever do anything about it; he didn’t know how to go about getting the training he needed; he lacked purpose and drive — and money. But Grace was determined that he would develop that powerful baritone. They conserved rigidly, they lived “the simple life” in a mountain cabin at La Crescenta to save money (though they called it “honeymooning”). Then the twins — Lawrence, Jr. and Richard — arrived. Lawrence was all for becoming a garage mechanic, or chauffeur, or taking any kind of job, just so long as it gave him enough to feed and clothe and house his family; maybe they could save a little, and he could take voice lessons later on. But Grace would have none of it — and that’s how Lawrence became what he is to-day.

He gives Grace the credit

She sensed the future that lay ahead of her young husband, much more than he did. She insisted that he go to New York and study, getting a night job and studying music in the daytime, while she remained behind in Los Angeles and supported herself and the twins by stenography. In 1923 he made his first operatic appearance in Aida — in the Hollywood Bowl. His triumph that night led to a try-out with the Metropolitan Opera Company, and everybody knows the rest of the story. Besides being the male star of the Metropolitan, he is the only male movie star that audiences will pay to see and hear because of his singing.

Lawrence gives all the credit to Grace — and you may be sure that Jennie does likewise. For twelve years, Lawrence and Grace were models of marital teamwork — and there never was a rumor of separation. This is unusual, too, for Lawrence often went on tour for four or five months at a time — and you know how the surge and lift of his voice appeals to women. Yet, no rumors.

However, last July, when Grace Tibbett announced that she was going to divorce Lawrence, all kinds of wild rumors did spring up — Hollywood was that surprised. In her statement to the newspapers, Grace said, “Fame and family happiness are not consistent. It is not anything more than that. Neither Hollywood nor another woman has played an actual part in our difficulties. It was the completing of a cycle of circumstances which culminated in complete incompatibility. Unspectacular, but true!”

Lawrence later confirmed this in an exclusive interview in Motion Picture. “It was certainly not Hollywood that precipitated our divorce,” he said. “There was nothing precipitate about it. Such an event as a growing apart of mature people is a slow process, and has nothing whatever to do with place or circumstance, legend to the contrary. Two people who are incompatible, are incompatible in a slum as well as in a mansion.”

Romance began two years ago

He said, when asked if he had given any thought to marrying again, “Heavens, no! But I probably shall marry again some day. I know I shall. I’m just the type —”

Lawrence, it now appears, wasn’t ‘fessing up. Friends say that he and Jennie have known one another about two years, and after their first meeting, were strongly attracted to one another. Moreover, Grace knew this. She did not become hysterical. She invited Jennie to her home, they went places together; she liked her, herself, and could understand how Lawrence would.

Another insight into the sportsmanship of both Grace and Lawrence is revealed by the statement of friends that for a year before the couple parted, a picture of Jennie adorned his dresser, alongside a picture of Grace. Grace did not smash the picture. In fact, she was the one who had it framed for him. Nor did Lawrence smash the picture of a devoted man friend of Grace’s, which reposed on one end of her dressing-table, looking at a favorite portrait of Lawrence in a beautiful lalique frame on the other end. There was no jealousy, on either side. Jealousy, after all, is a primitive emotion — and here were a highly-civilized man and woman.

Grace Tibbett divorced Lawrence very quietly and on mild grounds. It was obvious that there was no bad feeling. Two months later, almost to the day, a Reno dispatch carried the news that Mrs. Jennie Marston Burgard, society woman of Burlingame, Cal., a San Francisco suburb, was divorcing her husband, and that there was a report that she would soon marry Lawrence Tibbett. Both she and the singer denied it. But on New Year’s Day, at the New York home of her brother, Hunter S. Marston, the former Mrs. Burgard quietly became the new Mrs. Tibbett.

Both invited her to wedding

And how did the former Mrs. Tibbett feel? A week after rumors of her exhusband’s coming marriage first broke, Grace told Lawrence’s aunt in Los Angeles that she was going East to attend the wedding “by invitation of Lawrence and- Jennie.” And on the day of his second marriage, friends report, Lawrence visited his twin sons and the mother, who were in New York for the holidays — and himself invited the former Mrs. Tibbett to the wedding.

A year ago, Grace Tibbett was offered twenty thousand dollars by a woman’s magazine for a book telling of her life with Lawrence Tibbett. When she had it half-written, she read the manuscript to her husband. He listened in silence, then said, “It’s very interesting, Grace, and very well written. But what’s the use of publishing it? I’m going to ask you to give me a divorce.” It was as simple, as friendly, as that — and this was the first she had heard of his desire for freedom. It is doubted now that she will ever publish the book — lest she embarrass her former husband and his new wife, both of whom, after all, are her friends.

This is Jennie Marston Tibbett’s third marriage. She was first married, in 1917, to Robert J. Adams, son of the chewing-gum manufacturer. It was a big San Francisco society event. They were divorced in 1919. Two years later, she married John C. Burgard, San Francisco stock broker, reputed to be a handsome and charming man. They were divorced last December.

Since her divorce from Lawrence, Grace Tibbett’s name has been linked with that of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. (whom she met in Reno) and, most recently, with that of Ramon Novarro. But she smiles away all romance rumors. And besides, you must remember that second picture on her dressing-table.

If Grace Tibbett does remarry at any time, it would not surprise Hollywood and New York if Lawrence and his new bride were invited to the wedding. It also would not startle Hollywood in the least if, when the newlyweds come back to California, where Lawrence intends to build a new home, Grace would be the first to wish them happiness by way of a basket of roses.

Amazing persons like the Tibbetts do these things!

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When Lawrence Tibbett married the former Mrs. Jennie Marston Burgard, friends believed that he had unconsciously chosen a second wife who had many of the characteristics of his first

Photo by: Acme

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Above, Lawrence Tibbett — America’s greatest singer — as he looks to-day. Left, with his former wife, to whom he gives all the credit for his success and who didn’t get hysterical when she saw his new romance coming

Photo by: George Hurrell (1904–1992)

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Collection: Motion Picture Magazine, April 1932