Hollywood (Jan - Mar 1943)

and letting someone have it. How does she get by with it so many years? Why does Hollywood allow her to act up as she does and get away with murder? The truth is this: Those who know Lupe and have worked with her adore her. They know that Lupe appears to be a spitfire, but she's really a softie. They know, too, that Lupe has never picked a fight unless she was fighting for someone who wasn't big enough to fight for himself. Then Lupe really hauls off. Like the time she was working with a well-known actress who specializes in sedate, lady-like roles. This actress was wearing a black velvet gown when a young prop boy, bringing her a glass of water, accidentally spilled it on her dress. The woman flew into a rage. "You stupid lummox," she screamed at the terrified boy. "Get out of here!" And with that she slapped him. The boy was hurt and humiliated, but he could do nothing. To answer back might cost him his job. In a moment Lupe jumped up. She yelled at the woman, "Why did you heet him? You know he can't talk back to you. But I can. And I'll geeve you what you geeve him." And Lupe slapped the actress. The next day the incident was whispered about in Hollywood, but the story ran that wild Lupe smacked the actress out of a savage urge. Only the grip workers and extras who had watched and silently applauded the scene knew that la Lupe had risked criticism and gossip again for the sake of another person. That happens all the time. There was the time Lupe was telling off a certain foreign star in front of a whole company because she had insulted a chorus girl for using her chair. "Have you forgotten your past when you were a chorus girl, and a bowlegged one at that," sneered Lupe, as the star writhed. The highhanded actress was so upset she couldn't work for three days. Lupe was called to the front office. "Aha, I get a bawling out," thought Lupe, but instead she was presented with a case of champagne by the studio. "Thanks for bringing that star down to earth," she was told. "We've been wanting to tell her off for a long time but we didn't have the nerve." No wonder Lupe seems to get away with murder. She may be blunt in her technique, but her principles are sound and commendable. She fights only with those her own size or bigger, never with inferiors. A seamstress' assistant, against Lupe's orders, applied a certain liquid to a fragile evening gown Lupe was wearing in a picture and it burned a large hole at the neckline. The director was waiting for her to step before the camera wearing that dress and Lupe could understandably have lost her temper, but she didn't. She walked over to the director. "Look," she said ruefully, "I am so stupid. I tear this dress. Can I not do the scene with my hand near my throat? That will cover the hole and it will look graceful, too." The director agreed and the unhappy girl escaped blame. "I am a common person," explains Lupe, "and I'll always be one. For years I have been a Hollywood star, but I have never forgotten the time when I was a shopgirl in Mexico years ago. I was selling shoes, and once a rich customer got angry and threw a shoe at me. I could say nothing but 'Yes ma'am' to her, but I have never forgotten it. Since then I have hated conceit and pompousness and I get very, very angry when I see examples of it. "Sure," she grinned wickedly, "I always fight in front of a lot of people. That is the ham in me. Sometimes when I feel a fight coming on and there is no audience I go to the telephone and tell some people to come over. "I get criticized for my temper, but really it is not such a bad one, for right after I lose it I apologize and the whole thing is forgotten. My temper is destructive only to me. I hurt my throat by screaming." It's been destructive to her in another way. Lupe's much-vaunted hotheadedness has kept her from doing the roles she wants to do. It broke her heart when she wasn't even considered for Tortilla Flat. "I don't only want to play parts where I scream and throw things. I want to do human people. But the studio says those parts are too serious for me. They forget Resurrection which was so successful, where I was a soulful type." Lupe usually manages to have the last word — and a mighty loud word at that — but once she was topped. It was at a dinner party. At her left was a newlyarrived Englishman who wasn't quite hep to Lupe's jive. Something he said irritated Lupe. "Oh nuts," she said. The Britisher blinked, then unperturbedly reached out for a glass dish on the table and calmly passed some salted almonds to her. For once, the volatile Velez was squelched. | Brian Aherne and his wife, the exquisite Joan Fontaine, attend one of the town's biggest premieres. Brian appears in Columbia's A Night To Remember * #.' <** CAN a girl be too beautiful for her own good? So dazzling thlt her beauty is a blight on hpr life'' That was Clarices u-agedy Destined for glittering success in a glamour-loving world, her exquisite loveliness attracted to her a man she could not havea man with whom she was madly initiated! She could have had any other man— but she only wanted him. It was then that ^ark tragedy struck, destroying once and fofall the gay. easy life she had known. Read the fascinating story of this girl whose face you have seen and invied in the hundreds of ads, posters and paintings for which she has posed-but whom you will see no more. Courageously, she bares the secrets of her P"vate ?ife and draws a lesson no beautiful woman can afford to 1?"°^°? U find her confession, "Too Beautiful'" in the January issue of ROMANTIC STORY, now on sale. Also you won't want to miss the many other true-to-life stories in this thrill-packed issue of ROMANTIC STORY! Among them are "Night Nurse's Tragedy "To Protect My Child," "Selfish Brat'" and the revealing, Hollywood expose, "Hollywood Madness^' the new book-length novel n^plete in this issue. Don t Hplav' Buy your copy or xne January ROMANTIC STORY today! NOW ON SALE AT ALL NEWSSTANDS 59