Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

ders for the skin, you are what you eat. Proper diet is most essential. Then rest. And too much sun can do untold skin damage," says beauty expert Dahl. Often she interviews male stars on what they find fascinating about women. Always Arlene does the interviewing, and Ann Helming, who has had newspaper background, takes notes and roughs out the copy, then busy Miss D. does the final editing. Her cosmetic venture is still in the formative stage, but she believes it will be ready for introduction sometime in 1953. "I have my fingers in so many pies, I feel I'm not really expert at anything yet," says she with candor. "But at least I'm trying and through trying I may become expert. I find designing is a relaxation and never dreamed that hobby would turn into a money-making venture." Acting, of course, is still her primary interest and she finds something "fascin In looking back over the trio's association, Jackson remarked, "of all the people you'd never have picked Jimmy for stardom, he was always so shy — he never seemed to be able to push himself." Even now, when an actor pigeon holes Jimmy and asks him to put in a plug for him for a certain role, Durante begins to suffer. He just can't ask for favors, so he will call Jackson aside, hand him a couple of dollars and tell him to see if he can help the guy out. "Of course," Jackson explained, "there are a lot of fellows who give out with trumped-up stories, so I and the rest of the guys try to take the moochers aside or to warn Jimmy. But what can you do with a guy who looks at you and says, 'well I was going to give him $50, but now I'll just make it $25.' " Away from the cameras and mikes, Durante 's pals may try to "big brother" him, but on stage it's the comic who is the boss and who sets the pace. "I would 72 ating" in every picture she does. In "Jamaica," for example, she is acting for the first time with Ray Milland, who was her big crush back in her school days around 1937 after she had seen him in "The Jungle Princess." "I told Ray about that the other day and that I had written to him for a photograph. After it arrived I framed it and admired it every day. He seemed amazed and asked 'Did I sign it?' I assured him he had signed it 'Most sincerely' and to me at the time it was as exciting as if he had written 'With all my love.' " One other thing Arlene plans for her immediate future: a trip to Europe, probably after she finishes the Bob Hope picture. Want to make a bet she'll return with an idea for some new project to fill a little more of her time? Work, work and more work. . . . We're tired, just writing about this working Dahl no more think of singing a song he thumbed down," Jackson confided, "for he knows the business and he's always right." A lot of others seem to go along with this theory including such "first ladies" as Ethel Barrymore, Bette Davis and Margaret Truman, who have done some very unusual things on Durante's show. Although Jimmy tries to be helpful to his star guests, he never advises or "bossdirects" a program. With his musician cronies, however, it is different. He always instructs, 'get out there and level with the public, give it everything you got, and if you got to sweat don't just perspire." "Whenever Jimmy feels something is wrong, here," Jackson said, tapping his heart, "you can't talk him out of it. I used to live with him for a while and when something was wrong he'd get up at two or three in the morning and go over it until things were right." If you asked him if he was nervous about a show, he'd snap "sure I'm excited, anybody that coasts along and doesn't feel keyed up ain't playing square with the public. That's part of the business." "Once-in-a-while we still get together for these early morning chinnings," Jackson continued, "although I now live four or five blocks from Jimmy's Beverly Hills home." Like most show folks, security to Durante is symbolized by a house, which he bought on Canon Drive, just a few doors away from the Beverly Hills shopping district. The neat gray-and-white stucco abode has one distinguishing attraction, a glass-enclosed music room built atop the garage. Here, anytime that Jule Buffano and Jack Roth want to check a number the comedian did in a Broadway show or in a film, they need only to refer to the fantastically accurate filing system of the comedian. Although the boys visit Jimmy often, Durante lives alone, with a housekeeper coming in at 10 a.m. to prepare his meals for the day. Unlike some comics, Jimmy makes no demands on his friends. When Christmas or a birthday rolls around, he shrugs off pals inquiries with "Oh, send me a card." Generally Jimmy waits until the "big day" and then sends out a barrage of telegrams. "Yet," explained Jackson, "let him walk down the street and run into a pal . . . "What are you doing now?" asks Jimmy. "I'm running a men's shop," the fellow says. "That's a coincidence," Durante remarks, "I am all out of shirts." "So," Jackson continued, "they go into the store, he buys a dozen shirts, then looks over at me and says 'Eddie ya need some shirts.' " "Na," I says, "I got plenty." "He comes over, looks at the shirt I'm wearing and says, 'Get some shirts from my pal, here. The one you are wearing looks awful. Who picked it out?' " "You did," I says. "Next day, he calls me up and asks who needs a dozen shirts. He's overstocked." "Jimmy does everything quick like that," Jackson explained, "he goes to Chicago calls up a tailor and orders three $185 suits in a couple of minutes", does a few guest appearances on radio, and then checks in for some business appointments." When he is in Chicago he also has a yearly check-up with his doctor. Durante's a fanatic about keeping up his good health. His pet prescription is "watch the waistline, more guys have trouble from overeating than anything else." His favorite food is corn flakes and he eats it at all times of the day. Otherwise he is not too fussy about what he eats; he doesn't particularly care for desserts and he doesn't drink. Following his TV show, Jimmy has one week off, and if he doesn't play a benefit {he once "played eight in one night) , he likes to go to races or to Palm Springs Catching Up With Profile No. 1 Continued from page 30