"Dimples" General Douglas MacArthur's Smiling Mistress

...Isabel Rosario Cooper, a Scottish-Filipino-Chinese mestiza more popularly known as "Dimples” in 1929, General Douglas MacArthur fell head over heels for this 16-year-old actress who appeared in B-movies; one of which “Ang Tatlong Hambog” featured the very first kissing scene in Filipino cinema. But more interestingly, Isabel Rosario Cooper aka “Dimples” was to become the general's mistress. When MacArthur was appointed Army Chief of Staff and moved to Washington, the general’s mother Mary “Pinky” Hardy and Dimples followed suit. While his mother lived in Fort Myer, Dimples was ensconced in an apartment near MacArthur's office adjoining the White House. All along Pinky must have remained oblivious to Dimples' existence, as well as her son's torrid relationship with her.

According to one biographer of MacArthur, William Manchester, MacArthur "showered Dimples with presents and bought her many lacy tea gowns, but no raincoat. She didn't need one, he told her; her duty is to lay in bed." Dimples eventually got bored with the setup and enrolled in law school where she met many interesting young men. Learning this the general immediately ended their relationship.

When the secret affair was discovered by a Washington Post gossip columnist, Drew Pearson wrote about it, MacArthur sued him for libel. But when Pearson revealed that he had obtained very intimate correspondence between McArthur and his young mistress, including having her as a witness to be deposed, McArthur withdrew the suit and paid Pearson a substantial amount of money in exchange for the letters. 

Dimples, with the $15,000 received from the general, allegedly delivered by his aide Dwight Eisenhower, opened a hairdressing salon somewhere in the Midwest, before moving to Los Angeles some years later. In 1960, unable to recover from the lingering emotional anguish of her failed relationship with MacArthur, she committed suicide.

The general, on the other hand, with his second wife, Jean Marie Faircloth, spent the last years of their life together in the penthouse of the Waldorf Towers (a part of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan). It was a gift from Conrad Hilton, the owner of the hotel. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington, DC, in 1964.
- ka tony