Modern Screen (Dec 1949 - Nov 1950)

ANNIE, GET YOUR GUY (Continued from page 47) *lt you are 5' 5'/2" or under check vour equivalent haK-srze: I4'/? = 1<5 161/2 = 18 ,8*=B 20'/2=40 271/2 = 42 24«/2 = 44 BOW-TIME Charming bows and self embroidered bodice and skirt to flatter you in this fine rayon crepe dress. Holiday colors: Winter Navy, Cherry Red, Emerald Green, Peacock Blue. Sizes: i4l/2 to 24^/2 74 FASHIONS/ I NEVER COSTLY I FINE NAME IN VOGUE I ALTERATIONS I FABRICS MAX WIESEN & SONS CO., INC., 443 7ih Ave.. N.Y.C. more pleased than her long-time dancing partner, Cesar Romero — who is sort of a male Sheridan inasmuch as he seems to demand nothing of his dates but fun. It's been my painful experience that if you don't want too much from men, you usually get nothing. If you want to keep him all your own, you have to work hard, or some other female will trot off with him. All you get for sitting back complacently is a complacent pat on the head. That's what Ann gets — and I'm not counting the jewels given her by Hannagan. And apart from a few genuine pieces, Ann's jewel-box contains mostly costume jewelry, anyway. That's the only phony obsession in Ann's make-up: she loves bright jewels, real or false. Otherwise, she has absolutely no chi-chi, none of the usual feminine coyness. The boys can call her at five minutes of eight in the evening and ask for dinner and she'll go, unless she actually has something else to do. Every other movie queen I know in Hollywood feels insulted — or pretends she is anyway — if called so obviously at the last minute. But not Annie. always available . . . That's why Ann is so popular with menabout-town like Bruce Cabot and Pat di Cicco. These boys hate to make dates in advance. They keep themselves wide open right up to the last minute, for the latestand most delicious feminine tidbit they can get. If she fails to materialize, they call Annie. Nine times out of 10 she's available. And they know they won't have to put on a big act for her. They can relax, too. All they have to give Ann are a few jokes. And that's all she gets. It turns out that Ann didn't love diskjockey Johnny Grant at all — only his disks. For awhile there, it looked like the beginning of a new big romance. But then Ann and Johnny decided to play their records separately, and she insisted, "we were just casual friends." ^So I guess Johnny failed in the chief Sheridan requisite — he didn't amuse her. Her dates with Franchot Tone have me puzzled. Franchot is such an old sobersides. He takes life very seriously. But perhaps he has a joke book. When Ann and Cary Grant were in Europe making / Was A Male War Bride, there was a fantastic rumor that Cary was also making romantic whoop-de-do with Ann. Fantastic, because Cary is a strict believer in the theory that the girl must do all the chasing. Ann wouldn't even chase her own shadow. Besides, Cary had Betsy Drake with him most of the time. And one of the reasons why women like Ann, too, is because she never tries to offer competition — -even conversationally. I remember a party when Loretta Young was at the same dinner table with Ann and Clark Gable. Loretta talked brilliantly. Ann made no attempt to take the spotlight. In fact, she didn't speak more than half-a-dozen words. She offered nothingjust laughed loudly when Loretta or someone said something amusing. Ann has never given a big party in her own home. She goes to other parties, but she prefers the more casual atmosphere of night clubs. When she does have people up to her house, it's usually a few of the comparatively small-income people who have worked for her in the studios — such as Martha Giddings, her hairdresser. But even at these soirees, Annie insists on being amused. She arranges for dancers or a Mexican orchestra to appear at midnight and perform until dawn. Ann loves everything Mexican. She has real enthusiasm for bullfighting, the on sport she chases. Unlike Paulette Goddar who talks only to the famous matador* Ann prefers the common, every-day bul fighters. She knows them all by their fir names and travels all over Mexico to s> them in action. Such effort seems uncharacteristic easygoing Ann. Her inertia goes 'way bac to when she won a Search for Beau competition that brought her to Hollj wood in 1933. Ann, herself, didn't go to ti trouble of sending in her own phot< graph. A pal did. And if she hadn't bee practically carried to Hollywood by tl j Paramount representatives in Texas, Ar might still be in that great and glorioi state, following her planned profession school-teaching. When she failed to make the grade Hollywood in those early $50-a-we« years, Ann lacked the inner motor-pow< to leave and go home: She stayed on ar she married Eddie Norris, a beginm like herself, with a serious-looking pu but with an Irish sense of humor. Ann finds it hard to resist the Iris brand of humor. The only men who ha\ held her for any time at all have bee Irish -Americans — Norris, George Brei and Steve Hannagan. George Brent likes his girl just to liste and laugh at his stories. So he fell har for Ann and became her second husbarr Then George discovered he had marrie the entire troupe of Annie's studio pal Ann likes these people around becaus she doesn't have to make any effort wit them. Mr. Brent, who had happily be lieved that life with Ann would be a mono logue twosome, found himself standing u as best man at the wedding of his wife hairdresser. And he resented it bitterh Ann was just as bitter when Brent final! gave her an ultimatum— she could choos between him and his patrician seclusior or her friends, without him. Of course Ann will get another mar maybe another husband — but will she kee him? It's hard to imagine that the lov parade could pass Annie Sheridan by. Bv it could — unless she changes her tactic and develops a bit of romantic guile. You can be humorous and down-to earth with some men some of the time But not with all men all the time. An above all, you cannot be lazy in love. The End MODERN SCREEN don't know when I've enjoySd a movie so much."