THE END IS A NEW BEGINNING : A NEW MARRIAGE AND A MOVE WEST

Isabel Rosario Cooper moved out of the hotel in D.C. and may have been evicted from it. Soon she was living in another hotel in New York City.  A investigative journalist who was interested in exposing MacArthur to criticism for political reasons found Isabel and she showed him the love letters. It seems that this journalist was integral to a negotiation in which MacArthur didn't get away with stranding Isabel financially. $15,000 is said to have been the amount of settlement. Using an on-line inflation calculator this would be about $325,000 today. General Douglas MacArthur wanted the woman he once wished to possess to move back to the Philippines but she did not.

Now she did sail back to Manila for a visit. Then in 1936 when she was about twenty-six, she arrived in Seattle, Washington state, from Manila and she would never again set foot in the Philippines. She claimed American citizenship based on her father's American citizenship.

"It is telling that MacArthur's last communication with Isabel Cooper includes both a ticket and a job ad.  The classified ad column - "For women" - lists a variety of occupations deemed appropriate for women in 1934, ranging from commission sales and demonstrations of various products (food, Christmas cars, cosmetics), care taking for a young attorney and son), food services, nursing, and office work.  It reflects his thinking that Isabel Cooper was a kept woman, no more, that there would be no more generosity to support her life of leisure. Isabel Cooper could get a job. (Excerpt pages 25-26)

************************************

Missy here:  This makes my blood boil. It tells me that General Douglas MacArthur was a narcissist. He was the seducer and he was the one who abandoned her. However beautiful or charming she was, Isabel was very young and he was old enough to know better. He wanted to use up her youth and vitality and derail her career and the way he treated her, the whole Go Get a Job thing is insulting and horrible. 

*******************************

"The domestic arrangements are tacit, but clear; MacArthur relies on his mother to provide him with the comforts of home while he ensures her well being. He turns to Isabel Cooper for sex and emotional fulfillment, but also to buttress his fragile ego.  Her role is not just to be adored but also to admire him.  Her presence is an indicator of his virility. Even though she is not officially his hostess, enough people in Washington know of her presence to conclude that MacArthur's sexual prowess must reflect his military rank."  (Excerpt page 26)

Instead, in 1938, she married a law student who she had met while living in Washington D.C. Franklin Kennamer. The Great Depression had begun in 1929 and World War II is coming. The marriage doesn't last. She has gone from being Isabel Kennamer to Belle Cooper.

But by 1941ish Belle Cooper was living in Hollywood, ready to give her career as an actor, dancer, and singer another whirl and took on another name for acting. She asked the same journalist who had helped her get a settlement from MacArthur for any help he might have - any connections he could offer. She continued to report into him and by 1951 when she was 40ish she had finally landed a film role of some significance in "I Was An American Spy." The film's story touches her personal life with MacArthur because he was the person who gave the Medal of Honor to the woman who was the spy during World War II. This worries her and she begins to reinvent the relationship, considering him to have been a father figure. However, the film was not successful and this was the best role she ever got.

Three months after her divorce from Kennamer, she married again, in 1944, to Milton Moreno. And then again in 1946 - no divorce between them recorded. She is thirty-seven. There is no record of this man in her life. Her may have been a batterer. There were reports of her showing up to work with bruises. Did he take off?

C 2023 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.