Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1943)

BIG PICTURE HEAR THE YEAR'S TOP SONG HIT! Buy Wir Bonds and Sl«mp» It's a REPUBLIC PICTURE FOR YOURSELF Ginger Rogers's marriage to Jack Briggs annoyed one reader; she getsafive-dollar answer right back $10.00 PRIZE Salute from Skeezix I AM not writing this letter to enter your contest but for a reason I will now explain. Last December on the boat on which I came across one of the sailors who was a transport gunner with me gave me your magazine. I took it and put it in my barracks bag. Today, in the month of March, I took it out. What I'm trying to say is that your magazine brought a lot of joy to my buddies and me. Out here in the Middle East where there isn't anything civilized we appreciate magazines. When I opened Photoplay, it was actually the first time I saw a white woman's picture in a long time. I have been waiting for my girl friend's portrait since December. You can tell the folks back home that we're okay. The one thing we care for out here is mail — tell them to write more. By the way, I'm one of those guys who come from Brooklyn and who is proud of it. Have to be closing now, there isn't such a thing as time off here. We work seven days a week and twenty-four hours if we have to. "Skeezix," Pvt. Sol Teplitsky, c/o Postmaster, New York City. $5.00 PRIZE That Rogers-Marriage Quarrel C ICKLENESS, thy name is movie fan! Or 'so it would seem. Really now, Photoplay, was that an honest-to-goodness "fan" letter in the May issue, lambasting Ginger Rogers all over the place, or just a dummy? I can't imagine a real fan becoming so incensed against her favorite (or should I say former favorite?) that she would make the statement — "I am through," etc., etc. On first reading that Ginger (who herself is certainly a grand "kid" at heart) had married someone much younger than herself I admit I felt a slight, selfish disappointment, but not for long. Too many memories rushed back to me of all the wonderful parts Ginger has portrayed for our enjoyment — as a charming youngster and lovely young woman, dancer (oh, happy days!), as a clever yet natural comedienne, and so much more, so very much. Your letter writer was right in one respect — private lives are a person's own business and any so-called "debt" is paid in full by the various stars. Certainly for all the happy hours Ginger has furnished her fans (is it too much to venture "friends"?) in the past she is entitled to no such harsh words as "never again." Ginger Rogers still holds a large portion of my entertainment world heart. I sincerely hope her many other fans in the past will be grateful enough to come through for her now. She deserves that kind of treatment at any time. Miriam Barr, Tucson, Ariz. $1.00 PRIZE Seeing the Movie Light I N THE last three months I have discov' ered that I owe the movies an apology and I offer it forthwith, a little shamefacedly, but sincerely. During my years in college our little group of supersophisticates, as we liked to think of ourselves, had only scorn for the motion picture. The plots were fantastic, the acting bad, the backgrounds were ridiculous, we thought. Since that time, however, I have changed my way of life. With the war I accepted a government job in Washington and was transferred to Cleveland. I came to this town as a stranger and, out of sheer loneliness and boredom, began to go to movies by myself in the evening. Then I discovered how wrong I had been. Of course, not all motion pictures are on the same level, but I learned that many of them are fine, sincere stories, well directed and authentic, and in many ways outdoing the stage. I found for the first time such splendid actors and actresses as Greer Garson, Ingrid Bergman, Glenn Ford. Richard Whorf, Bette Davis and Spencer Tracy. I am surprised myself at what a devoted fan I have become after all my previous narrow ideas. Anne Garden, Cleveland. O.