Modern Screen (Jan-Dec 1960)

You want to be popular You grieve when you aren't But can you recognize WHO IS THE POPULAR GIRL? IT CAN BE YOU! Find out how in INGENUE (Ari-je-noo) the magazine for teen-age gir BUY IT NOW 35* We Have A Right To Be Married (Continued from page 41) a few words— it means so much to them, you know Sammy." Sammy saw her at that moment, even before he reached the corner where she stood with others. She looked familiar, this loveliest-looking of girls — tall, pale blonde, green-eyed. Instinctively, Sammy smiled at her. And she smiled back. Of the group, she was the last to introduce herself. "I'm Joan Stuart," she said, when her turn came. "Hi," Sammy said, shaking her hand. "Ahem," she said, embarrassed, when he failed to let it go. Sammy laughed nervously, jerking his hand back to his side. "Excuse the old worn-out line," he said, "but haven't we met before?" Joan nodded. "Sort of, in Toronto, a few months ago," she said, "at CBC — when you did your television show. I was doing a show, too. My parents came to visit me one day. We passed you in the hall and said hello." "Well!" Sammy said, laughing nervously again, and then turning back to the others. For the next ten minutes, excitedly, the others asked him all sorts of questions; about himself, show business in America, Hollywood, Vegas, about friends of his like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Curtis. And then, suddenly, a waiter sang out "Last call for drinks!" — and they excused themselves and were gone. "Some friends you've got," Sammy said, lightly, smiling, turning again to Joan Stuart, the only one of the group who'd remained behind. "Very polite, I mean." "They're just excited," Joan said. "It isn't often we get invited to parties like this, with big celebrities, fancy canapes, drinks, everything. It's a little hard knowing where to turn first." Strangely uneasy How come you didn't go with them?" Sammy asked. "I've had a drink," said Joan. "I have two shows to do tonight. One drink is enough for me." "You sing? Dance?" Sammy asked. "Dance," Joan said. "Right now I'm working a club down the street." "I'd like to come and see you some night," Sammy said. "Would you?" Joan asked. Sammy reached into his pocket for a cigarette He was feeling strangely uneasy. "Sure," he said, "you just name the night." His manager came over to them now, before Joan had a chance to speak again. "Sammy," said the manager, whispering hoarsely, "the people who're throwing this blast, they want you to go to dinner with them tonight. I've been telling them how pooped you are, but they won't listen. Will you go over and tell them yourself — please?" Sammy lit his cigarette, briskly. "Pooped?" he asked. "Who's pooped?" His manager looked at him, stunned. "Well, it ain't me who's been doing the complaining," he said. "You're the guy who was just — " "Listen," Sammy said, cutting in. "I've got a great idea. If it's dinner we've got to have, why don't we have it at the — " He looked over at Joan. "Where'd you say you worked?" "The Chez Andre," Joan said. "Chez Andre, that's it," Sammy said. "We can watch Miss Stuart's show first," he went on, "and then, if it's all right with Miss Stuart, she can join us for dinner after the show ... Is that all right with you, Miss Stuart? Joan?" She hesitated a moment. Then she nodded. "See," Sammy said to his confused manager, "it's all settled. Now go tell the people. . . ." After dinner that night, Joan did a second show and then went with Sammy and the rest of the small party to a coffee house not far from the club. Sammy remembers "We sat next to each other," Sammy remembers, "and we talked. We felt close to each other right from the beginning. Joan told me about herself. She was twenty-one, from Toronto. Her folks were conservative people, who didn't want her to enter showbusiness, but who gave in after a while, after they saw how much she loved dancing, how it meant practically everything to her. She'd led a pretty sheltered life, she said. She hadn't gone out on dates much, she hadn't ever had a real boyfriend. When she was fifteen, the age most other girls start going out with Next M 072 th I 77 MODERN SCREEN: Scoop . . . LANA TURNER'S love life Exclusive report of LIZ TAYLOR'S fight for her life boys, Joan was beginning to dance with the Canadian Ballet. This was a rugged life, a strict life, with little time for having fun. Now that Joan was out of the ballet and doing club work, she had more time to herself, she said. And she spent most of her free time reading, or taking long walks up and down streets she'd never walked before, or going to a park and sitting and watching the other people there, the kids mostly. She loved kids, she said. "Me, when I began to talk to Joan. I felt like a different person. I found that this was the first time I ever sat with a girl and was myself — talking about myself as I really am, not as Sammy Davis Jr., nightclub star. I was serious. For once, with this girl, I felt I could let go of the clown face I've had to wear all the time, the clown face people always expect me to wear. I didn't have to be flip and cute. Boy, it was a wonderful feeling, me talking to her, her talking to me. Once we got started, we didn't seem to ever want to stop." It was dawn when he and Joan finally did stop. They looked around. The others had all gone.