Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Dimples Cooper
Immortalized by his famous line “I shall return,” General Douglas MacArthur was assigned to the Philippines twice: from 1922 to 1924 and from 1928 to 1930. During the latter, MacArthur’s marriage with his wife was already over, and the great general was probably longing for a romantic affair. He soon met his paramour, a budding Filipina actress named Isabel Rosario Cooper.
Also known as “Dimples,” the beautiful mestiza was the recipient of the first on-screen kiss in Philippine cinema. She did the said kissing scene with actor Luis Tuason in the movie “Ang Tatlong Hambog” (The Three Blowhards). However, it was the moment when her beauty caught the eye of General MacArthur that changed Dimples’ life forever.
In 1930, General MacArthur returned to the United States, having been appointed chief of staff by then president Herbert Hoover. He then secretly made arrangements for Dimples to follow him, making sure that his mother, Mary Pinkney Hardy, would never know anything about his affair. Dimples flew to the US, and was subsequently lodged at an apartment in Georgetown district of Washington, D.C.
Dimples lived a life of luxury, although everything was kept in secret. Since she was not expected to go out, Dimples spent most of her time inside the apartment with only a pet poodle as her companion. The boredom soon took its toll on Dimples so she began travelling around the city in style and had affairs with several prominent men. Or so the story goes.
Trivia: General Douglas MacArthur served as Manila Hotel’s “General Manager”
In 1934, MacArthur sued two journalists, Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen, for a libelous piece which appeared in the gossip column “Washington Merry-go-Round.” He eventually ended his relationship with Dimples after the journalists were able to track down his mistress and bought love letters from her.
Lest the news about the affair would reach his mother, General MacArthur dropped the suit and simply paid Dimples a total of $15,000 to disappear for good. He also gave his mistress tickets that would bring her back to Manila. But instead of returning to her home country, Dimples moved to the Midwest to start a hairdressing shop. She later tried her luck in Hollywood where she landed very small roles in films such as “The King and I” and a Charlie Chan feature.
Disappointed by how her life and career turned out, the middle-aged Dimples Cooper committed suicide with an overdose of barbiturates in 1960.