Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1959 - May 1960)

EXCLUSIVE^ Unhappy Rebel continued from page 31 'And then Kim began to feel her oats, p was no longer the frightened, half-ned child that Columbia had molded ) a movie star during five painful Irs. She was no longer hampered by the a of Kim Novak. Movie Star. Told by studio she could not see Trujillo arried and the father of six children) in, an emancipated Kim evaded her dio guards and met Ramfis (her pet oe for him) at Don Loper"s exclusive |rn shop where he bought her a farewell — $1700 worth of clothes in her favorlavender shade to go with the lavish s of jewelry he'd already given her. j when Ramfis left town Kim defied studio by meeting him in his private way car for a tender. 30-minute ■?well . . . One thing Kim has learned 0 say 'I won't!" She can set her beautiface in a blank Slavic expression and , 'I won't!' with more conviction than one in Hollywood." Earlier. Kim seethed inside but rened outwardly silent while Harry Cohn t;rily informed her many times that a . is not born — but made, invented by . radio. "If you want to bring me your , er or your aunt, I'll do the same for ':m," he said. And he proceeded to out: the fantastic amount of effort necesf to turn a small-time, overweight, ve model, utterly lacking in acting exience, into a Hollywood movie star, n's teeth were leveled, straightened and tened by experts; a rigid diet and lly exercise in a gym took off 15 ^nds; her hair (shrewdly judged her lemark) was bleached and shaped to head in a fluffy corona of lavender! 5ed silver platinum. Acting, singing. , lion, body control, dancing lessons, unipfeity extension courses (partly at her i l expense) filled her days. IM herself explained how she felt about this studio "treatment." '"Some'es," she said, "'I wonder how I ever ■d through it. But there is one thing like to make clear. It wasn't just Mr. in who made me a star. I respected 1 tremendously even though he was an atic, emotional man. He'd beat down ego and make me cry in frustration. ?n he'd say, 'Tell me, why are you ing?' And then he himself would an■r and tell me why. TO grant that Mr. Cohn made my aldy blonde hair a little blonder and •d me up a bit and and gave me optunities and things like that, but I ent people saying that it was he who de me what I am today. I think I had re than a little something to do with After all, you can't make a star out somebody just because you say you're ng to. The person has to have someig to start with.*' erry Wald. who was a producer at umbia when Kim started her build-up, told this reporter that he agreed with Kim's views. "'It's absolutely nonsense for a movie executive to say he can manufacture a star. There's no Univac or Geiger counter that can point out star material. Cohn gave the same build-up, the same opportunities to 50 girls and came up with only two stars — Kim Novak and Rita Hayworth. Kim had something — fantastic eyes, wonderful Slavic cheekbones, a melancholy little-girl quality coupled with a hauntingly beautiful face and a delectable figure. And that made her a star. "Webster defines a star as a self-illuminating body. That's what Kim has. Still, she was terrified by those who called her "a dumb, no-talent blonde.' by those who told her, 'Listen, kid, if you don't do so and so, you're out! You've got no acting ability — only a pretty face. We can buy hundreds of pretty faces. Who needs you? You owe everything to our genius.' No wonder the poor kid was crying all the time. She was up against the Hollywood System. Overnight, she found herself a star, a member of royalty, with fantastic demands made upon her. Unfortunately, we have no basic training for movie royalty. Some run away like Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Diane Varsi. Some stay and cry like Kim Novak." Stardom thrust so heavy a weight of pressures on Kim that she's become afflicted with chronic unhappiness. "They put you up there at the top," she explained in her low, husky voice, "playing opposite top stars like Fredric March, Frank Sinatra or the late Ty Power and leave you on your own. I'm taking acting lessons as often as I can. I really want to be an actress, not merely a beautiful woman. By some lucky fluke I was good in my first picture and got wonderful reviews. I was petrified that never again could I live up to it. And I felt it couldn't happen again. Today. I'm worried because I didn't enjoy it on the way up and now maybe I'm on the way down." Kim begins the first day's shooting on each picture with panicky hysterics, suffers from hives and nausea, chews on her nails and sometimes develops a nervous tic in her lips from pure terror — a difficulty which often makes it necessary to reshoot the first several days' work. Emotional tension causes her to overeat and she adds poundage on thighs and hips — unwelcome weight which must come off as the picture progresses. An actress who's appeared with Kim said, "The frightening job of being a fulltime movie queen consumes her and she knows little inner peace. Her only confidence is her face. Repeatedly, she holds up shooting by stopping to examine her face in a little hand mirror which she carries in her bodice. Her greatest dread in life is the appearance of the first continued on page 68 FEEL ALIVE ...tot WORK ... for PLAY and LOOK GLAMOROUS! JIFFY JUMP-IN Exclusive, Exciting and Smart Zip the full length zipper and you're STYLE ready for house cleaning, shopping or NO gardening, while you look your glam_ orous best. Easy care cotton in gala K"^OJ plaid, with wide leather-look belt' fashionable side pockets, alluring neckilne. You'll feel alive and so comfortable in this predominating plaid. Black & White, Black & Red, Black & Maise. Black & Pink. 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