Mistress Manifesto: ISABEL ROSARIO "DIMPELS" COOPER : FILIPINA ACTRESS and MISTRESS OF FAMOUS MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR,

Thursday, March 2, 2023

ISABEL ROSARIO "DIMPELS" COOPER : FILIPINA ACTRESS and MISTRESS OF FAMOUS MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR,

General Douglas MacArthur is the American Military leader who was in the Army, and successful in what was called the Phillipine Campaign, an effort to keep the Japanese out of East Asia. He uttered the famous words "I shall return." (And he did.) But when he left the Phillipines in 1929 between World War I and World War II, he asked Isabel Rosario Cooper, his much younger Mistress to come back to the United States with him.

ISABEL ROSARIO COOPER

"Dimples Cooper"

1914* to 1960

In 1929 when the General was recalled to the United States, to San Francisco, and left Manila, he sent Elizabeth love letters. In 1930, MacArthur was asked to serve as as U.S. President Herbert Hoover's Chief of Staff. MacArthur asked Elizabeth to move to Washington, D.C. so they could continue their romance. She was a film actress and singer, who performed in vaudeville acts also as a dancer, and is sometimes called a showgirl. She first appeared on stage at the age of five.

Born to a Scottish father and Chinese-Filipina mother, called Eurasian, Isabel was young - about eighteen or twenty (she may have fibbed about her age a bit) and he, born in 1880, was fiftyish. They were introduced at a party where he is said to have fallen in love instantly at the sight of her beauty and femininity. Called "Dimples Cooper" she was famous for being the first actress in the Philippine films for performing on on-screen kiss in 1926, daring at the time but just a kiss. For her his invitation was a decision to leave her home country and a promising career. His love letters to her survive but hers to him do not. Actions speak louder than words. She moved to D.C. He set her up in a 'love nest' in the nation's capitol.

The General came from an American pioneer family and spent his life in the military; begining with a military school education and top of the class at West Point; World War I, World War II, and Korea. He married a woman named Louise Cromwell Brooks, called a socialite, in 1922, and divorced seven years later, childless. His military career was illustrious, however, it seems he had little time to be a husband. And so he met Isabel Rosario Cooper at a time when he was leaving a marriage. Or was she the reason for the divorce?

According to author Vernadette VIcuna Gonzalez, Isabel has been erased from any recounting of Douglas MacArthur's life. I muse that perhaps this is because his international fame was so much greater than anything she achieved or perhaps it is because he himself did not openly admit to having had her in his life. He wrote a book about his life and did not include her. I went on numerous sites about him, and these sites detail his power and might in military actions, but it's true there's no mention of Isabel in them. Some do not even mention he was ever married. Britannica, Wikipedia... Perhaps it's because he came from a culture, a time and place, in which only legal wives were honored with acknowledgements. Or he intended to always keep her hidden away. I did watch a number of YouTube videos that were uploaded after this book came out, and I'll be posting one that quotes from a few books about MacArthur that do include at least bits and pieces about Isabel. Sadly, it's suggested she was only in place for sexuality. It's even said that he only bought her clothes to wear indoors and in bed.

There is another aspect to this story and that is Isabel Rosario Cooper also only spent about ten percent of her life with this man, but her only claim to fame is because of her association with him. Make no mistake about it, she was with a national hero in the United States but also her native Phillipines. One wonders if or who knew about Isabel during their involvement and if there was a conspiracy or silence or his fellows just thought it was none of their business what he did when he was off work. (If so, I agree with that. I don't believe we should take our personal lives much into our working life.)

I wonder if Douglas meant to shelter Isabel, to have a private life that was protected from media and fame for both of them, or if he was ashamed to have not married her. It could be said that she made a sacrifice to be with him. Certainly various authors have made their claims and assumptions about his sexuality or even his relationship with his mother.

Sadly, it seems that the General wanted to hide her away. Reading this story I was reminded of another Mistress that I profiled here at Mistress Manifesto Blogspot, Marita Lorenz, who as a young woman was involved with Cuba's military and political leader, Fidel Castro. She too was left waiting for his visits, almost a captive. Well, Douglas was gone a lot, and so Isabel went out to night clubs and kept herself busy. She was a young vital woman and perhaps also the thirty years in age between them has become a problem.

Their relationship is estimated to have lasted five years. (However, I do think that is an estimate!) May of 1934 is marked as the time in which she finally moved out of the hotel and into a rooming house; this has to be a downgrade and perhaps suggests he's no longer keeping her. Much of their relationship was spent entertaining herself, even traveling to Cuba for vacation, as he is gone, out of the country, in Europe, taking care of business and accepting accolades, without her by his side. He may also have been offended at her pleas to him to help certain of her family members. One article I read (not this book) suggested she had actually been evicted from the hotel and moved to New York City and into another hotel due to an enemy of MacArthur's who wanted to expose him for political reasons. Be it that she was angry with him or she needed money, according to this book, she showed her love letters and managed to get $15,000 from him which she was supposed to use to move back to the Philippines.

In 1937 MacArthur married Jean Faircloth, a marriage that brought an only child into the world a year later - in Manila!

After MacArthur, Isabel did not have an easy life. She didn't move back to the Philippines. She did not succeed to become an actress in American films though she had a number of minor background roles as a servant and minimal speaking parts after the end of their relationship. By coming to MacArthur, she left her entertainment career behind. She had two husbands and died of a sleeping pill overdose that was considered suicide at the age of forty-six.

Isabel's body rests in an unmarked grave in Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles (the burial ground for Hollywood greats such as Bing Crosby and Rita Hayworth) while MacArthur rests in a Norfolk, Virginia mausoleum which is a pilgrimage site.

As Vernadette Vicina Gonzalez brings Isabel back to us in her book, I will attempt to also honor her here as our Mistress of the Month.