Radio-TV mirror (July-Dec 1954)

fortable places to sit, and big gold-shaded lamps and bookcases and tables, and with one of Sharon's dolls guarding a pile of Teri's radio scripts. (The rest of her dolls and toys have overflowed from her bedroom into an old cradle in a corner of the dining room, a room which is lovely in Early American furnishings.) Teri and John fell in love with the fireplace at first sight, and could hardly wait to use it after they moved in. So one night they made quite a rite of laying the fire, and then sat down to enjoy it, thinking how cozy and homey it was going to be. Suddenly, great billows of smoke began to flow over them and, coughing and sputtering, they hurried to put the fire out. They learned later that the flue is even smaller than the average, and that the trick is to build the fire 'way back, which works out just as well from the standpoint of enjoyment, once you have learned about it. But it amused them, and still does, to see that all this size was just so much show! Teri was born in New York, grew up in Florida and in Ohio, and came back to New York to be an actress. She played a dramatic role at nine in "Swing Your Lady," on Broadway, then went into the Singing Lady radio show for four years, on which she sang with a group of children. She even substituted as the storyteller on the show when Irene Wicker, its ''Singing Lady," went on vacation. From the very first, she was able to go from one role to another, on radio and on stage, because someone had seen and heard her and recognized she was a little girl with great talent. "I never had to pound pavements to look for work," she said. "That didn't spare me some of the heartbreaks and disappointments that inevitably go with this business, but it did smooth some of the rough places. I got my chance for the role I loved on Life Can Be Beautiful because someone recommended me for an audition. I won the chance to audition as Loretta Cole on The Romance Of Helen Trent through another recommendation. It has always been that way for me, and I am very grateful. "Playing in Helen Trent is actually a homecoming, because quite a long time ago I did a part in it and everyone was very kind. Julie Stevens, who plays Helen, went out of her way to recommend me for other jobs when my role was finished. It has been wonderful to come back to them, after some success, feeling I justified their faith in me — at least a little, I hope. "I love the role of Loretta. She isn't a very nice girl. She schemes to get what she wants and doesn't mind whose life she messes up in the process, but it is for this very reason that she is interesting to portray. Loretta is driven by ambition for money and power, and she goes after these things in the only way she feels is open to a woman — by trying to snare a man who can give them to her. A few years ago, I was still playing nice little ingenue roles, but Chichi in Life Can Be Beautiful, and Loretta in The Romance Of Helen Trent, have been much more than that. Roles like these are a real challenge to an actress. "When Sharon gets a little older, I shall have to explain to her about some of these parts I play and to point out that — just as life isn't all black or white, but has shadings of gray — so have people. I hope I shall be able to impress on her that the real object of living is to keep as much gray out of character and heart as possible, and to let your light shine brightly through to illuminate everything around you. If I can help my daughter to do this, I shall be a very happy mother indeed." _ Star is Born ! You're his star wit WESTMORE maSSe-up ALL YOURS— the same Westmore Cosmetics made to give stars "close-up perfect" complexion beauty even in giant-screen close-ups— all color-matched by Westmore brothers, most famous make-up artists. WESTMORE Ess-Tested' lipstick j| 59**' and 29«* PROVED BEST in movie close-ups. "A STAR IS BORN" A TRANSCONA ENTERPRISES Production Color by Technicolor Filmed in CinemaScope Distributed by WARNER Bros. Thrilling ALL-DAY complexion RQ** beauty— for movie stars and YOU. At all variety and drug stores 'Prices plus lax. Slightly higher in Canada House of WESTMORE, Inc., New York 11 • Hollywood 71