Modern Screen (Jan-Dec 1960)

reluctant to offer long contracts. "'Ten years ago." Mrs. Bernauer explained sadly, "the studios would have given a child like Evelyn a contract. Today, they don't" So, where Shirley Temple had a long-term contract and a studio that was anxious to put her in one picture after another, and where Shirley had the rights and royalties to all the Shirley Temple products, the case was different with Evelyn. She didn't have a long-term contract — she had to get one role after another by herself. She didn't get any money from the sale of the Eloise products, because she was. actually, Evelyn Rudie and not Eloise, and Miss Kay Thompson was getting the money. And since she had no contract, there was no particular studio who felt they just had to get a story property for this bright, precocious little moppet. And TV was suddenly going Western. And a pilot that Evelyn had made hadn't sold. And for nine months, Evelyn didn't do any work. No longer were stacks of fan mail pouring in at the frame house on Hollywood Boulevard where they lived. No longer were fantastic invitations coming to her — invitations that no other child, no other child but a child star, would dream of receiving. Like the time, two years ago, when she had been invited to "the White House and had met Mamie Eisenhower. Evelyn had made a Savings Bond short film and was invited on a tour of Washington, and had been invited inside the White House. She had walked right into the White House (other kids her age read about the White House, but she was actually inside it), and she had met Mamie Eisenhower. Mrs. Eisenhower had been so warm and friendly. She had told her that she and her grandchildren had enjoyed Evelyn in Eloise on TV. She became listless at home. "I want to act again,"' she told her parents. Her parents were helpless. They begged Evelyn's agent to find her a job. The agent told them that Evelyn had a certain salary level that she had to stick to, and they couldn't help it if there just were no calls at this time for a child actress of Evelyn's fame and salary stature. Evelyn missed the thrills of acting and the excitement. She was nine years old. and the ordinary things a nine year old has in her life bored her. How could she be thrilled at doing a school play as •'Cinderella" with the English teacher in charge, when she had done a picture with Alfred Hitchcock in charge. She tried to be excited about school and ordinary normal living, but she couldn't. She just couldn't. How does a child star suddenly turn into a little girl again? Evelyn Rudie found that she couldn't. No wonder she was restless and unhappy. All she talked about at home was the fact that she wanted to act again. She recalled those glorious, golden days when she was a real, honest-to-goodness child star and had met Mamie Eisenhower in person. "Maybe Mrs. Eisenhower can help me get a job in pictures or television again?" said Evelyn. (This is the account Evelyn and her parents give). "Yes, yes, darling," said Mummy and Daddy, to "reassure her. Because life was pretty dull, comparatively speaking, Evelyn and her parents began to live in a world of makebelieve. "We'll travel all over Europe — we'll go to the White House — they'll all acclaim you again," said Mrs. Bernauer to her sad little daughter. The Bernauers say they were only making-believe. Evelyn says she took them seriously when they said "Yes, darling, you may go to the White House." Mr. Bernauer became very ill with pneumonia and was taken to the hospital. He wasn't around to reassure Evelyn any more. Even her mother, whose whole life and attention was wrapped around Evelyn, now had to spend some of her time with the father. Evelyn loved her father and was frightened when he became ill. She was also desolate because of lack of the assurance from her parents. At least it was something when they'd all sit together on the couch in the living room and talk about Evelyn's great gift and how she had been the greatest child star since Shirley Temple, and how. if it weren't for Hollywood's changing pattern, she would still be the biggest child star, and how sure they were that if she were given another part she would come back as a child star. "This time not only as a comedienne in Eloise, but as a great dramatic actress capable of playing tragedy," Mr. Bernauer had said very earnestly many times. When Mr. Bernauer came home from the hospital, he was very weak. They still talked about going to the White House, but Mr. Bernauer was too weak to make any kind of trip. Evelyn was afraid they might change their minds. She was getting more and more restless. Evelyn told me. "I felt I had my parents' permission to go to the White House. We had talked about it many times. Maybe they were pretending, but I was sure they meant it. If I asked their permission again, they might not give it to me. One night I decided I must get to the White House to see Mrs. Eisen hower. I was sure that the First Lady of the land could get me a job." The rest is newspaper fact. Eloise set her alarm for 6:00 a.m., picked up the ticket, got on the plane, her parents notified the police, etc., etc. Was it on the level or a hoax? The Bernauers say it was not a publicity stunt. "People forget that Evelyn is not an ordinary child. An ordinary child would not get on a plane and go to the White House to try to see Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower. It never occurred to her that what she was doing in trying to get to see Mamie Eisenhower again, was unusual." Did Evelyn get a spanking for running off? "No," said the Bernauers. "We felt that it was our fault in encouraging her to think that we approved of her going. We had gone along with her thoughts on this, never dreaming that she might do it herself." Evelyn said she had written a note to her parents when she ran off, but had forgotten to leave it, Evelyn is back in school again. She is also up for a Warner's TV show, and for other things. She still wants, more than anything else, to be what she once was: a child star. She wants fame and the excitement of the camera. She will never be an ordinary nine-year-old girl. END