Modern Screen (Dec 1949 - Nov 1950)

Wonderful Urge. Jane Meadows got it. Again I did my stufi. this time for Good Sam. Joan Lcring got what I was after. I got the smaller role. At 20th CenturyFox I made what I thought was me best rest of my life, a Technicolor scene for 3urlesque. After seeing it I was sure I was in. I wasn't. The contract was handed -.o Jean Wallace. I tested and tested and tested, and when got through all I had was a long list of -ascinatir-glv tirtinterestfrg verdicts: '•Not contract material." "Not beautiful enough." "No name (meaning at the box office)." "Well let you know in about three weeks (translation for three weeks is 'never'") ." "Don't call us. we'll call you.'' 'Too tall." "Too short." (This makes sense all right because you can be either too tall or too short depending on who the leading man is to be in the contemplated picture.) "Don't do a thing until you hear from us." I couldn't do anything about the too tall or too short business, nor about the not beautiful enough decisions. But there cne test report that did guide me. "Can't understand this girl's speaking voice." the report read. "Where does she come from?" I came from Boston and while in New York I had picked up a little bit of Brocklynese. I* decided that I needed the help of a phonetician and found one who put me to work rounding out syllables so they would sound more pleasantly and understandably on the ears of the directors --r.i producers. \ SB in the meanwhile, because nothing A too sensational was happening, and I was experiencing those long waits which make vou feel completely useless and unwanted, the experts got busy with me again. "You should circulate more ... go out to night clubs and be seen around!' I passed that one up. I don't like night clubs to the point where I don't have to think of any reasons for not liking them. It's just instinctive . . . like I don't like rutabaga, croquet, writing with chalk on the blackboard, or mountain climbing. ""Maybe it's because you're a brunette. You ought to bleach your hair:' Well. I had so much time on my hands that I did. I was a blonde once and a redhead twice. As a blonde I looked awful, as if I had a yellow pot inverted over my head. As a redhead there was more hope but not enough to stay that way. I tried ft the second time only to make sure I was right about the first time. I was. I am quite sure I will never be anything but a brunette from now on. "Do something crazy to attract atten j tion." I thought about this but decided it was not for me. There was the girl who picketed cne of the studios in brief ies; I realized I had never heard of her again once she gave up. There were a dozen other attempts by kids to break into the limelight and they only succeeded in breaking their hearts. "Be more confident about yourself. I tried. In one of my first picture bits I was suuDCsed to walk up to George Brent say "Hello, Darling!" and kiss him. I walked up, spoke my line and then froze. It was the closest I had ever been to a star and I just couldn't take it. ""Well?" barked the director. "Do you want him to beg for it?" "Do I really kiss him?" I whispered. The director threw himself back on his deck chair and the company howled. I would have run away never to come back if George hadn't caught me and talked me back into some command of myself again. "There's nothing to it" he told me. Nothing to it! He should have been where I was, looking up at him, my throat so dry that I could feel it crumbling and my breathing re-circuited so that the air was Dumping into nry head and making my ear-drums pop instead of flowing into my lungs where I needed it. We made the scene all right but I learned then that confidence is something that becomes instilled gradually, as you learn your trade and gain command and power over yourself. You don't just say "I have confidence." You work for it \ fter I got my first real role, in The A Window, I knew I was started, but only started. Shortly afterward I had to choose between going into Champion. which was made on a comparatively modest budget, or taking a top role in a million dollar-plus picture at one of the biggest studios. The" pressure from the experts to chcose the second of these w"as terriffic but it was no effort at all for me to combat it The reason was that ever the years my anti-expert resistance powers had just naturally developed. Today, if there is one thing I am immune to, I am happy to sa37, it is the expert! The End . . .without girdle, garter belt or separate panties! ALL XYLON garter brief how 1 found faith (Continued from page 39) for others. We knew that she wasn't looking ior any reward for her self-sacrifice, but we seven boys vowed to ourselves that if we were ever successful, we would make her later years— and my father's, happv ones, and give them all the comforts "they'd been denied while struggling to bring us up. There came a day when it looked as if ail those rosy dreams would be fulfilled. I made good "in Chicago, where Td finally been booked as master of ceremonies at the Stratford Theater. The act was supposed to run for three days, but it ran for 'six months. After that, I never had any trouble getting bookings. Things looked so wonderful I knew that mv mother and father would never have to worry financially another day in their lives. After I became successful, they were able to get a really lovely home in Cleveland. . . I was a hapDv guy. I had faith in people, faith in mvs'elf, and faith in a Higher Power. The world was pretty wonderful. Then suddenly the bottom fell out of my world. \ ll her life my mother had had one A idiosyncraey. "She hated to go to doctors. "I haven't the time," she'd say. If she had a headache or a backache, she'd laugh it off. She had frequent backaches, but she would just put a piece of plaster on the spot that bothered her. "What do I need a doctor for?" she'd laugh. "There's nothing serious the matter with me. I'm too busy to bother with doctors." One day when the ache in her back was particularly severe, I finally talked her into going to a clinic in Cleveland. When she walked out of the consultation room. I had a talk with the doctor. The sight of his face sent my heart plunging. "Bob," he said, wasting little time on preliminaries, "make sure she's happy. We can't do anything for her. It's too late." Then he said simply, "She has cancer." Make sure she's happy," he'd said, and of course I tried. I was appearing in Lux-eez is the garter pantie for smooth lines — without an inch of pinch! Here's nylon tricot specially woven for 2-way-stretch •■give." Holds hose securely. Stays put. worn with or without garters. Long on wear, quick to wash and dry. W hite. Shell Pink, Blue. Maize. Black. Sizes 22 to 32, 9 to 19. About ?2.50. garters extra. 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