Modern Screen (Dec 1949 - Nov 1950)

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RELIEVES PAIN OF HEADACHE • NEURALGIA sex or babies (Continued from page 33) wouldn't seem glamorous enough to many movie-goers if they weren't able to convince themselves that the stars, even the married ones, have nothing on their minds but pleasure. They like to think that Shelley Winters chases after men in a Cadillac convertible, that Joan Crawford tails in love every Tuesday, that Farley Granger keeps buying and returning engagement rings. Most of all, the public .ikes to delude itself into thinking that movie stars get married not because of their desires for family and contentment, but because they are too passionate to remain single long, and are anxious to legalize their love-making. Every marriage authority in the world agrees that sex is the dominant motive -.vhich brings men and women together, but to suppose that sex is the only thing movie stars care about when they get married is to overlook the truth. It may surprise doubting Thomases, but there are only a handful of childless movie stars. Greer Garson, Claudette Colbert. Katharine Hepburn,Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable and Gene Autry, are among the few top-flight stars who've been married but, to their sadness, have no children. What better answer to the question of sex or babies can there possibly be than this: In the past few months, June Allysen. Esther Williams, Jean Hagen, Cyd Charisse. Lana Turner, Jeanne Crain and Mrs. Ezio Pinza have all announced their .mpending motherhood. A theory was once held in Hollywood that an actress was not good box-office if she was a mother. Every time a movie star or an actor's wife gave birth to a child the news was hushed up. When Jennifer Jones arrived in the screen colony, few people knew that she was married to a boy named Robert Walker, and had two sons. It was felt that an announcement of this sort would detract from her allure. A little over a decade ago, when Ingrid Bergman landed in New York, publicity men again failed to mention that she was a mother. When Gary Cooper's wife gave birth to ' her daughter, when Alida Valli had her second child, when Irene Dunne presented her dentist-husband with Mary Francis — the news was classified as top secret. " You see," a veteran publicity .man explained, "you can't let the public realize that movie stars are just like other human beings. To begin with, they're not. You know that. They're prettier; they're handsomer: they have more money, more 1 clothes, more talent. If you let the public know that Betty Grable has babies just like any other married woman, do you think ten thousand G.I.'s in the Pacific are going to write in for her picture?" "Do you think they will?" the publicity man was asked. He scratched his head. "Personally," he said. "I think so. Only some producers don't. Take David Selznick. He likes to give all his stars the glamor build-up. He couldn't even call Alida Valli by her full name. He had to have her called Valli. "Nowadays, things are changing, but for years, the producers kept asking, 'Who's going to go to a movie to see a dame who has three kids?' " The fact that Betty Grable became ten times more popular after she had children, and that the most popular actresses at the box-office today are mothers, has done much to change the producers' attitude. Jeanne Crain says that each time she gives birth to a child, her career improves. "I get better roles," she explains. "After I had my first baby the studio starred me in Apartment for Peggy, and A Letter To Three Wives. After my second son, Michael, was born, they put me in Pinky. Who knows? After this one, I may get the best part of my career."' Jeanne didn't wait for the studio's goahead to become pregnant for the third time. She took the production staff at 20th Century-Fox by surprise. She'd been scheduled to go to Georgia on location for I'd CZimfa the Highest Mountain, when she announced her news. Fortunately, Susan Hayward. another mother, agreed to substitute for her. June Allyson, too, didn't let her career stand in the way of motherhood. After six years of marriage, she was on the verge of adopting a second child when she discovered that an adoption would be unnecessary. She notified the studio, was taken out of Royal Wedding, and went home to enjoy her condition. Judy Garland was given the part, but got a suspension, and Jane Powell stepped in. For a while it was thought that she, too. had become a member of the Metro Stork Club, but that turned out to be a false alarm. "Next time," Jane says, "I hope it's the real thing." Jane's hoping so hard that she and her husband Geary Steffen have just added a nursery to their home. Almost every newly-married couple in Hollywood wants a family. Elizabeth Taylor says that a family and a happy marriage "mean more to her than her career. "If mv career ever interferes with Nicky and me. out it goes." "The sooner I have children." Jane Russell (Mrs. Bob Waterfield) says, "the better I'll like it." These youngsters know what Hollywood couples and couples everywhere found out long ago — those marriages which have the most children usually last the _ longest. Protecting one's marriage doesn't fit in with the myth about Hollywood stars, but here are some more facts that destroy the myth: Maureen O'Sullivan, married since 1937, has six children, as does Don Ameche, married since 1932. Steve McNally, married in 1940, has five offspring. Bing" Crosby. Bob Hope, Teresa Wright, Pat O'Brien. John Wayne, Alan Ladd. and Joan Bennett (who's a grandma, too) have four children each. Fred Astaire, Bill Holden. Gregory Peck, Burt Lancaster, Loretta Young and a host of others have three children each. If anyone still thinks that motherhood deprives a girl of her sex appeal, just look at Hayworth, Bergman and Turner. These three 'hold their own against any unwed siren you'd care to mention. Early in the game, when producers were outspokenly opposed to hiring mothers, actresses like Mrs. Spencer Tracy, (Louise Treadwell), and Mrs. Bing Crosby, (Dixie Lee), who disagreed with them, retired from acting and began raising families. Others like Joan Crawford and _ Eve Arden compromised by adopting babies. In time, the box office receipts proved that marriage and families made no difference to movie-goers and the stars began marrying without consulting studios. They began having children, as many as they wanted. These stars realized that they were confronted during the course of their careers with many sexual temptations. They felt strongly that family ties would keep them settled, responsible, and capable of resisting temptation. 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