Modern Screen (Jan-Nov 1944)

St. Christopher medal, supposed to protect all travelers, here in America, which he promptly fastened to the dashboard of his automobile. He had a few narrow escapes driving across the country to Hollywood, but the St. Christopher carried him through safely every time. So Turhan was sure it was strong medicine. Then, about a year ago, Turhan saw a car he liked better than the one he had. That's his big weakness, automobiles. He drives a sporty, light gray Lincoln Continental now, which he calls "my second hand Ford." That's because, as a young blade in Europe, he indulged his motor urge to the fullest, and today he has deluxe custom-made buggies sitting in storage (he hopes) in half the cities of Europe. There's a Lancia in Turin, for instance, a Mercedes in Paris and a RollsRoyce in Vienna that Turhan could certainly use in Hollywood. None of those are exactly flivvers, and Turhan used to cut a fancy figure at the wheel on the boulevards of Europe. Anyway, when he saw this new car, Turhan promptly traded in his old one and drove it off, forgetting all about the St. Christopher fixed on the trade-in's dashboard. Well, believe it or not, he'd hardly had the new car a day when everything began to happen. Three tires went flat a few miles from Hollywood. Then he skidded off the road and banged the fenders into accordion pleats. For a while Turhan couldn't understand it, then suddenly he knew. The St. Christopher medal wasn't around. Sherlock holmes bey . . . He rushed down to the used car place. His old car, they said, was gone. Somebody had snapped it up like a pair of nylons on a bargain counter. That didn't daunt the Bey. He pulled a Sherlock Holmes, and even if it did take him a week, he traced the old car and got his good luck medal back. He hasn't had any car trouble since. Of course, it's just one of the many contradictions of Turhan Bey's existence that he should tote around a St. Christopher medal in the first place. He isn't a Christian, but a Mohammedan, although he doesn't work much at it. In fact, he has been inside a mosque only once in his life — at St. Sophia's in Istanbul, his dad's home town. That was when he was a moppet. Since then he has traveled around so much that Turhan doesn't know what religion he is at heart. But still certain Moslem hangovers grip him. One even threatened to nip his first picture part right in the bud. That's when Warner Brothers spied Turhan in a Ben Bard School drama and tagged him as the type to play a Hindu servant in an Errol Flynn picture. But when Turhan heard he had to be a Hindu, he said, "No" very firmly. Mohammedans and Hindus just aren't a bit chummy, that's all, and Turhan regarded such a deal as a disgrace. However, in the end they managed to tag the character as some other kind of Indian servant that wasn't too icky for a Moslem to take. Turhan's movie break, by the way, has been painted as "just a lark." But it wasn't at all. Turhan took a fling at acting when they invited him, not because he wanted to show his mother and grandma that, like the Americans all around him, it was possible for him, too, to earn an honest dollar. Up until that moment, he had never scratched together a dime by his own efforts in his entire life. And that explains much about Turhan Bey today. Why he likes the best that money can buy, why he likes service and leisure and wit and sophisticated surroundings. Because that's all he's had from the time he was in didies. I'll just skim through this briefly HOLLYWOOD STARS YOU KNOW USE Wallt Westmore, Director of Make-up at Paramount Pictures, Hollywood — the famous expert using Overglo to make up Claudette Colbert for the picture "Practically Yours." COMES THIS SENSATIONAL NEW MAKE-UP FOR A LOVELIER YOU! NOT A CAKE . . . NOT A CREAM DOES NOT CAUSE DRY SKIN FOR the flawless-looking complexion of the stars . . . one drop of Overglo . . . and presto! Quickly, evenly applied with your fingertips, this new liquid-cream foundation of the Westmores camouflages large pores and little lines. Adds youthful smoothness under powder and rouge. Keeps make-up fresh all day. Never gives a masked appearance. Non-drying, definitely! Its emollient lanolin and oil base helps defy dust and weather, too. One bottle lasts for months. Six flattering shades. $1.50, plus tax. FOR WESTMORE PERFECTION in a heavier cream-type base — Westmore (the largest-selling and original) Foundation Cream. Fifty cents, plus tax. At all good stores. Complete your make-up with Westmore 's famous Lipstick, Rouge, Face Powder and Creams. PRODUCTS OF THE HOUSE 101