Ellie Janssen - David Janssen - My Fugitive

Copyright 1994 by Eme Janssen

All rights reserved. Published by Lifetime Books, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Janssen, Ellie.
David Janssen, my fugitive/by Ellie Janssen, as told to J.D. Michael Phelps,
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8119-0797-X: $18.95
1. Janssen, David. 2. Janssen, Ellie. 3. Actors United States Biography. I. Phelps, J.D. Michael. II. Title.
PN2287J36J35 1994
791.45028092--dc20
[B]

94-24713
CIP

I never considered the difficulties I would experience when I began this book. I kept going in spite of some painful and haunting memories. I also reveled in so many, many warm and good memories of my life with a great man. I feel this book is necessary for his loving fans, to know the truth, to know the real David Janssen.

David would be enormously pleased to see that Harrison Ford has brought the character of Dr. Richard Kimble, The Fugitive, and his search for justice, to the minds of millions of people once again.

What has been satisfying to me, and what would have made David secretly happy (although he probably wouldnt have shown it), is that even now so many people still remember and celebrate the original Dr. Richard Kimble that they have a national convention every year to commemorate him.

Even so, with all the fame The Fugitive movies are bringing to Dr. Kimble, I wanted to make sure that David continued to be remembered and was given his proper place in the entertainment industry. Thank you from my deepest feelings for remembering David Janssen so long, and so lovingly.

E LLIE J ANSSEN
N OVEMBER 1994

There have been so many kind and generous people, our friends who have helped me put this book together, far too many to name on this page, but each knows I am very grateful for their time and loving support.

I do want to express here my special thanks to Bemiece Dalton Janssen, Davids mother, for all her contributions. To Fran Caldwell for her many hours of help and to our Editor, David Kohn of Deerfield Beach, Florida, for his masterful work and patience in helping us meet our deadline.

To the members of the various David Janssen and Fans of the Fugitive clubs, worldwide, please see the back of the book.

E LLIE J ANSSEN
N OVEMBER 1994

I wish to give special thanks to my attorney, Frank X. Gliozzo, of Coral Gables, Florida and his Administrative Assistants, Alicia Ramos and Stephanie Slater. With their help this book was finalized. Special thanks to my godson, Attorney Miguel A. Rodez, of Coral Gables, for his support and contributions.

J.D. M ICHAEL P HELPS
N OVEMBER 1994

Ellie and David Janssen were married on August 23, 1958 in Las Vegas Nevada. David was starring in his first television series, Richard Diamond-Private Detective.

Their love and happiness grew, nurtured by their constant support for each other. They were inseparable.

On their tenth wedding anniversary, David shocked Ellie by telling her he was leaving her for a Hollywood starlet.

After months of agonizing, hoping against hope that David would come to his senses and return to their marital home, Ellie filed for dissolution of marriage.

With their marriage ended by a judges order on August 27, 1970, Ellie made efforts to structure her life without David. She has traveled around the world, and today lives in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

I convinced Ellie to write this book, commencing in 1987. David had died in February of 1980. It is apparent to me, and all who know Ellie, that her love for David has never died. Writing this book has been both painful and cathartic for Ellie. There is much more to tell, but we have endeavored to bring to Davids millions of fans the most important facts of Davids life and their life together. Contrary to the tabloids reports, Ellie has told the truth for the benefit of his fans.

M IKE P HELPS
N OVEMBER 1994

The past is prologue. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
And it is with the past I must begin

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA November, 1955

T he airliner glided gracefully out of the early November sky onto the runway at McCarran Field. A few minutes later, I stepped out onto the tarmac and toward a new life. Thousands of sparkling stars, rarely visible in the New York sky I had left behind, twinkled from the blackness overhead.

During the flight, I had mixed feelings: the tug of separation from my daughters, combined with loneliness and fear of the unknown. On the approach to the Las Vegas airport, these emotions yielded to a rising sense of excitement as I looked out the window of the aircraft at the lights of the Oasis in the Desert. It seemed a million lights of every hue were stabbing their fingers into the sky, then crooking them, seemingly to entice me.

Come to my pleasures, they said. Forget your burdens, your everyday tedium. Come live in fantasy for awhile.

I paused in the terminal long enough to claim my luggage. Hailing a cab, I directed the driver, El Rancho Hotel. In November, 1955, the Las Vegas strip was in its embryonic stage. There was the El Rancho Hotel & Casino, the Flamingo Hotel & Casino, the Desert Inn, the Sands Hotel & Casino, and only a couple of others. All had huge gambling casinos and top-name entertainers in their plush supper clubs and lounges.

I had left New York with only the laws of Nevada as my destination. I was in a highly emotional state of mind, a combination of hurt, anger and confusion. I had no hotel reservations and to my surprise, there were no rooms available. I pleaded with the desk clerk for a room. Friendly and courteous as he tried to be, he could offer me no help.

Standing nearby was Carl Cohen, a top executive of the El Rancho Hotel, who was preparing to join Jakey Friedman as a shareholder and senior executive of the Sands Hotel & Casino. Sympathetically, he noted my distress. He approached me while holding out his hand and introduced himself. He asked where I was from, whether I had ever been to Las Vegas and how long I intended to stay. I was embarrassed when I divulged I would have to be there six weeks.

Im here to get a divorce, you see, I told him, my face flushing.

Nevada is a barren state, with the good sense to attract revenue as it can by accepting human realities as they are. Side by side with the gambling and tourist industry was a lesser, but nonetheless lucrative one: divorce. The state required six weeks to establish residency. Once residency was validated, a divorce could be had in a matter of days. Nevada laws at the time allowed the quickest divorces in the country.