Hollywood (Jan - Mar 1943)

My Most Thrilling Moment Head the most thrilling moments in the lives of Joan Bennett, George Montgomery and Maureen O'Hara — as confessed by the stars themselves Joan Bennett -Appearing in Margin for Error ■ I suppose a really thrilling moment always comes after a long period of doubt and sadness. Mine certainly did . . . many years ago. It was the turning point in my life. I was eighteen, but I'd already been married, divorced and had a baby — and for months I'd been carrying on a losing battle to support little Diana and myself. I was a Hollywood extra, and hungry half the time. But I was too proud to ask the family for help — they were all Broadway stars. So when I got an offer to do the ingenue role in a Broadway play called Jarnegan, I knew I had to make good. It was that or nothing — it meant keeping up the family tradition, and more than that it meant food for Diana and me. I can't tell you how hard I worked during rehearsals, fighting back an inferiority complex. I'd come home dead at night and lean over Diana's crib (who couldn't understand me. of course!) and tell her, "Your mother has just got to succeed in this play!" My most thrilling moment came right after the curtain fell opening night. It came in one sentence from my father. He rushed back-stage, grabbed me in his arms and said, "Joan, you're going to be a great actress." That was it — after all those months of doubt and trouble. I've never had another moment since then that gave me quite such a thrill as that did. ■ By I I i VVOIt HARRIS | The most thrilling moment of my life concerns my husband, Will Price. We were being married at his parents' home in Jackson, Mississippi. I left Hollywood on Christmas Eve, expecting to reach Jackson the next morning. We ran into a wild storm and the stewardess told me, "We're over Jackson now — but the weather's too bad to land!" On we went to Atlanta, Georgia. A telegram from Will said, "I have gone to New Orleans to meet you. Fly there at once." I immediately flew to New Orleans . . . where the stewardess again informed me that the weather prevented us from landing, so we went back to Atlanta. There was another wire from Will: "Know you couldn't land in New Orleans so meet me in Jackson." I rushed around the Atlanta airport, and rounded up five other passengers bound for Jackson. Together we chartered a plane and started off again. The plane was bouncing and bumping, when the pilot shouted back at us that we were over Jackson, but he didn't dare land in such weather. Then I got frenzied and screamed, "You've got to land — I'm getting married!" That settled it. He grinned at me, nodded, and dived down. The most thrilling moment of my life came a few seconds later, when, after 26 hours of flying, I walked out of the plane into Will's George Montgomery — Appearing in Coney Island H I was fifteen years old when I had my most thrilling moment — and I've never forgotten it! I lived with my family on a huge cattle ranch in Montana, and it was my brother Maurice's and my job to round up the cattle that had strayed into out-of-theway pastures every day. On this particular afternoon we started off on horseback, all bundled up in heavy clothes. We'd been gone a couple of hours when a terrific blizzard hit us. It was freezing — 33 below zero, and snow was whirling so heavily in the wind that we couldn't see our horses' heads. We decided to make a run for a deserted cabin five miles away up a river. Somehow we reached it and struggled inside, pulling our horses in after us. We were there all night long and all the next day, while the wind shrieked and the icy snow piled up outside until the windows were completely hidden. And we were cold — so cold both of us had our fingers and toes frozen. We knew, too, that if the storm didn't stop in a few hours we'd be dead. We'd been there 28 hours when suddenly a faint light began to glimmer through the snow-packed windows. I remember Maurice saying, "Look's as if it's letting up." That was my most thrilling moment, right there. An hour later we dug our way through six feet of Maureen O'Hara — Appearing Land Is Mine This 34