Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1943)

Mr. Steinberg determined to play Dan Cupid. He had a new table waiting for Brian, right under the orchestra. And sitting at the table between numbers he had the orchestra's singer, a beautiful redheaded girl named Marjorie Lane. Brian fell in love with her the minute she said, "How do you do?" But she, of course, was just as contrary as she's been ever since. She barely noticed him and when he asked her to go out with him after hours that night, she nodded absently. He rushed home to change from tweeds into tails for the occasion — but once back at the Trocadero in his shining splendor, he found she'd gone to a party with Robert Taylor. But the following night he was back at the orchestra table and he asked her out again and again for the next year. Most of the time she accepted. He discovered that her family had moved to Hollywood from Kansas six years before, that her father was head of public relations for the Sante Fe Railroad, that she had two brothers, and that she sang for Eleanor Powell in the movies as well as the Trocadero at night. And once every three dates he said, "Will you marry me?" and she answered, "I should say not." DUT finally, three days before Christmas, when they were sitting in his living room after dinner, Willful Marjorie said, "Let's get married, Brian." "Let's indeed!" shouted Brian. "Before you change your mind!" Ten minutes later he had piled Marjorie into his extra-long roadster and they were headed for Ensenada, Mexico. There the actor from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, married the singer from Manhattan, Kansas — with a Spanish-speaking Mexican priest presiding. "Nice marriage ceremony, wasn't it?" said Brian happily. To his horror Marjorie burst into tears. "No!" she sobbed. "It was awful — I couldn't understand a word the priest was saying. Why, I don't even feel married!" You can guess what had to happen. A week later on New Year's Eve they were remarried — this time in the Wilshire Methodist Church in Los Angeles, where Marjorie (and for that matter, Brian) could understand what was going on. Coming out of the church once more — which was beginning to seem a habit now to Bewildered Brian — Marjorie dimpled up at him, "Now at last I feel legally your wife!" "And well you might!" growled her spouse. And well she might, indeed, baby Judith Ann would say. For your ready reference, Judith Ann put in her appearance at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 20. As soon as she and Mother Marjorie could be moved home from the hospital, the baby was ensconced in the guest room, which by this time, you may rest assured, is no guest room. It's loaded down with every sort of new-fangled infant contrivance Father Brian, shopping between shots of "America," could find in the market. In fact, Papa Donlevy has gone pleasantly berserk over the baby. He is now engaged in trying to talk his wife into buying a cow for her — for milk, as you might surmise. But Mrs. Donlevy is set against it. She claims, not without justice, that they already have a zoo, what with ducks, chickens, cats and dogs. But that is the only point on which she has been able to stop Brian's buying. Fatherhood has gone straight to his pocketbook. And now you know the tale you'd hear if you should ask William Holden, George Tobias, Lloyd Nolan, Robert Preston or John Steinberg, "Tell me a love story!" We've told it to you. The End Yours, of course. The most beautiful, the most lovable, the most . . . but who are we to describe this new baby of yours? Perhaps we can be helpful about this youngster's wash. We have it on the best authority, the word of thousands of mothers, that for washing baby clothes, there's nothing like Fels-Naptha Soap. Those rich suds, made from gentle naptha and mild soap, get rid of all dirt and stains with practically no rubbing. They save wear and tear on dainty garments — -and on dispositions, too. IMPORTANT! In spite of war-time difficulties and greater demand, we are doing our best to keep your grocer supplied with Fels-Naptha Soap. If he does not have it in stock today — please keep on asking. FELS-NAPTHA SOAP_banishesTattle-Tale Gray" 79