Alicia Darr Profile

Alicia Darr

	(Barbara Alice/Alicja Kopzynska)
c. 35	is born in Poland of Jewish-Polish descent
40	is raised in Lodz, Poland
c. 50	goes to the States under the Displaced Persons Act
?	lives with her mother in Boston
c. 51	meets young John F. Kennedy
February 53	columnist Harrison Carroll notes her and Hugh O’Brian a new twosome
March 53	columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes: “Gary Cooper continues to get around in high speed. His latest darling? Alicia Darr, a Viennese actress…”
September 53	Carroll reports that she had her nose bobbed
March 54	is at Prince Mahmoud Pahlavi’s table, ringsiding the Billy Daniels–Benny Payne act at Ciro’s
December 54	columnist Walter Winchell knows: “Ty Power’s un-huney is Alicia Darr…”
February 56	Winchell writes: “Her friends report that the former Mrs. A. Corning Clarke is captivated by the Maharaja of Cooch Behar in India…”
December 56	Edmund Purdom squires her to the Harwyn
February 57	the press reports: “Edmund Purdom says he plans to marry Alicia Darr, an ex-sweetie of Tyrone Power, whose most recent wife also made quite a few headlines with Purdom!...”
Early April 57	columnist Earl Wilson reveals: “Ed Purdom and Alicia Darr toasted their marriage at the Living Room, then smashed the expensive champagne glasses…”
6 April 57	she and Purdom obtain a marriage license in New York but don’t disclose their marriage plans
9 April 57	tagged an artist or art student, she marries Purdom in a civil ceremony at Hampshire House in New York. The press give his age as 29, and hers as 26. They will leave shortly for London and Florence, where he is making a television film series. It’s the first marriage for her and the second for him.
21 September 59	waits outside while her estranged husband visits a Via Veneta nightclub with Linda Christian and her friend French actor Pierre Brice. When Purdom emerges later with a young woman of Swiss or Swedish nationality, she starts “hurling insults at them.“ Purdom and the girl whirl off in a car. Mrs. Purdom waits for Linda Christian and gives her the same treatment.
Late September 59	the press cables from Rome: “What now has come to be known in Rome society circles as ‘the Purdom squabble’ began last week in Capri when Mrs. Purdom, whose stage name is Alicia Darr, filed a complaint with local police charging her husband with ‘concubinage, insult and assault.’ Early Friday, Mrs. Purdom attempted to attack her husband as he emerged from a Rome nightclub with an unidentified date.”
Early October 59	Norma Clark, American resident on the Italian Isle of Capri, formally charges her with housebreaking and slander. The charges result from a raid by Alicia on Mrs. Clarke’s villa on September 20. Alicia claims she “found what I had expected to find” and brought penal charges against Purdom and Mrs. Clark.
?	Purdom charges her with adultery
Early 60s	dates actor Ben Gazzara in Rome
April 60	in Rome, she charges her estranged husband with non-support, defamation and battery, telling an Italian state prosecutor that Purdom beat and threatened to kill her
15 November 60	gets a peppered eye after an incident with Purdom and his new companion, Linda Christian, at the La Fontanella Restaurant in Rome. She claims Purdom and Linda threw the pepper after insulting her. Alicia goes to a hospital to have her eye treated and is released later.
31 January 61	describes an early relationship with John F. Kennedy in an interview with the Italian weekly Le Ore and declares she could have been the first lady. The FBI attaché in Rome tells J. Edgar Hoover that the article indicates that Alicia “was considering the release of further information.”
February 61	columnist Walter Winchell headlines: “Europe hussing and so am I over the interview in a Milan magazine quoting Edmund Purdom’s estranged wife, Alicia, as stating she could have been America’s First Lady. She was quoted as saying she was engaged to JFK before he married Jacqueline. She blames Joe Kennedy for the break-up. As soon as she gets her divorce, she plans to marry Prince Markantonio Borghese…”
17 August 61	files for divorce from Purdom in Juarez, Mexico, and announces she’ll marry Singer sewing machine heir Alfred Corning Clarke of New York. She charges Purdom with incompatibility. Her attorney, Luis A. Trias, says Purdom refused to sign the usual waiver and this might delay the granting of the divorce approximately three weeks. Clark, reached by phone at his country home in Cooperstown, New York, confirms his plans to wed her in Cooperstown later this month.
16 September 61	becomes the 6th wife of Alfred Corning Clark. He’s 45; she’s 33. Clark’s the grandson of Edward Clark, who co-founded Singer sewing machines with Isaac Merrill Singer. He attended St. Paul’s School and graduated from Yale in 1939.
29 September 61	becomes the widow of Corning Clark, who dies at age 45 of natural causes at his home after a marriage of thirteen days
24 November 61	is named principal beneficiary under the will of her late husband. She will get a lifetime income from two trust funds and up to $100,000 a year from the principal of one of the funds, if she desires. In Rome, Purdom is reported having labelled her marriage to Clark an adulterous act and grounds for him to obtain a Swiss divorce from her.
Early December 61	columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reveals: “She came here as a refugee from a Polish concentration camp and made the Cinderella story all the way. Her meeting with wealthy Alfred Corning Clark was unconventional, but within six weeks after they’d said hello he gave her a $95,000 diamond engagement ring. After Alfred’s sudden death, Alicia remained quietly close to his mother’s side until the announcement of her big inheritance was made…”
	Winchells reports her “the only widow in town who wears green…”
June 62	columnist Earl Wilson tells she’s “in a hassle now with Simon Metrick, her lawyer, over fees…”
August 62	Kilgallen informs: “Multi-millionaire Alicia Purdom Clark is taking twist lessons from ‘Killer’ Joe Piro to get in shape for her entry on the café society scene in Paris. She leaves any day now for a long visit to the continent, and the twist is frightfully important among the chic people over there…”
October 62	columnist Louella Parsons explains that Alicia “wants to adopt Bebenedetta, the small daughter of the Italian artist Novella Parigini in Rome, where she’s recently resumed residence…”
	columnist Earl Wilson reports she discovered actor Richard Beymer
February 63	Winchell brings word that she “has a new thrill. He is New Yorker Stewart Wallach, her guest at Nassau…”
Summer 63	Edgar J. Hoover warns President Kennedy that she could be named in a disciplinary suit against her lawyers Simon Metrik and Jacob W. Friedman. Allegedly there is proof that she became pregnant by Kennedy in 1951.
June 63	Jim Mitchum is noted meeting her at the airport
August 63	Kilgallen reports: “The big gossip in Rome’s glitter circles stars the ‘togetherness’ of Roberto Rossellini and Alicia Purdom Clark, the one-time bit player and ex-wife of Edmund Purdom who inherited $10,000,000 or so when she was widowed by sewing machine heir Corning Clark a few days after their marriage. Roberto, certainly the liveliest old party on the continent, is seen everywhere with her, and it’s reported that Alicia is going to star in a picture masterminded by Ingrid Bergman’s former spouse….”
	her new love is French guitarist Oliver Despax, “who made news a few months ago when he stole Brigitte Bardot from Sami Frey for a brief but exciting spell. There are Paris rumors of the effect that Alicia will dramatize her affections by financing his new career as a screen actor.”
September 63	Harrison Carroll says that she “had a row in Europe with Rome shopkeepers. They went to court and demanded clothes and jewels back…”
February 64	Carroll notes her “calling Bo Belinsky long distance from New York…”
May 64	columnist Earl Wilson tells that “she was rushed from her hotel by ambulance to a hospital suffering violent pains. Condition satisfactory. She admitted only one visitor: ex-State Senator Andrew Quigley of Massachusetts…”
June 64	is “still in Polyclinic after a week, accepting no calls nor messages…”
October 64	is noted doing the Watusi with Dr. Stanley Vogel at the Gogo
December 64	is seen with a William Morris agent at Jerry Tukofsky’s party, “and English actor James Fox, whom she used to date, was with Jill Donahue…”
January 65	her “newest beau is Armando Lisi, an aspiring film actor…”
February 66	Winchell knows: “Very rich Alicia Purdom Clark and young movie actor James Fox amaze friends the way they ‘date’ each other in various world capitals. Truluv…”
May 67	is seen out with Omar Sharif
December 68	Carroll reports her back in town. “She told me she broke her engagement to Marco Borghese…”
December 77	the press reveals that J. Edgar Hoover told then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1963 that the FBI had information his brother John had paid a $500,000 settlement and had court records sealed in a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed to have been engaged to marry the former President in 1951. Allegedly the $500,000 was paid to drop the case in 1961. Alicia can’t be reached for comment.
	resides in Manhattan
?	marries Dr. Norman R. Gay, Minister of Health of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. He’s approximately 6 years her junior.
78	as Alicija Gay, she is married to Dr. Norman Gay, a politician in Nassau, Bahamas
?	she and her husband reside in Nassau, Bahamas
?	divorces Gay
15	as Alicia C. Clark, she resides in New York City
10 February 16	as Alicia Corning Clark, she dies at age 79 in New York City

Sources: John Fondas, James Fanelli, The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh, The Abilene Reporter, Wisconsin State Journal, The Newark Advocate, The Monessen Daily Independent, Pottstown Mercury, The Era, The Lethbridge Herald, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The Newark Advocate, The Lima News, Ogden Standard-Examiner, The Daily Oleander, Oakland Tribune, Nevada State Journal, The Abilene Reporter-News, Oneonta Star, Mansfield News-Journal, Reno Evening Gazette, The Coshoctone Tribune, Albuquerque Journal, Lebanon Daily News, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, The Times Recorder, The News Tribune, The Salt Lake Tribune, New Castle News, Wisconsin State Journal, www.Ancestry.com
Recommended Books:
Links: Three Fifth Avenue Doormen Could Inherit $3M From JFK's 'Ex-Fiancee' by James Fanelli