Hollywood (1938)

St. Nick is Just a Nightmare [Continued from page 24] became a star — getting pretty big money — I stopped by Joan Crawford's house one scorching October afternoon (and you know what scorchers October afternoons can be in California — in New York, everything is crisp and the air is wine-like). What I wanted was a nice dip in Joan's pool but I found la belle Crawford hip deep in red and green ribbons, little tinkling bells, Santa Claus faces. I thought she had gone crazy and started to back away, but she explained brightly, "Just wrapping up a few Christmas things. You see, my schedule is such that I'll be working from the middle of November right up until Christmas day. So I had to do my shopping and wrapping now. I'm tying up just a few things." I give you my word that an undersized fly couldn't have found breathing space in that room. Joan was muttering and wrapping and checking off from a list that looked like a ticket to Tibet with stopovers at principal cities. Finally, I ventured a question, "How many people are you — er — remembering this year?" She ran her eye down the list and did some lightning mathematics. "Five hundred and eighty-two," she said. I was growing incoherent, "But who — what — I mean." Joan disentangled herself from the tissue paper factory and proceeded to tell me the facts about Christmas in Hollywood. She couldn't make many gestures, as she talked, because her right arm was bound to her side by 1600 yards of ribbon. "It's like this," she began, "First, besides your family, there are your friends at the other studios and all the people on your own lot people who have been terribly nice to you all year, prop boys, electricians, wardrobe people, all have to have special presents. It's work, but it's fun. I love Christmas." In my ignorance I said, "Well, take those people you work with — you can certainly buy in job lots for them. I mean you can give every electrician a couple of ties, can't you?" The minute I had said it I saw the withering look Joan gave me that you couldn't. "But, darling," she explained, as one explains to a child who can't pass from the first to the second grade. "You can't possibly give duplicates because everybody in Hollywood knows everybody else and they all show each other their presents. It would hurt their feelings if they thought you just ordered in job lots and didn't give them any personal thought." I left then and took a swim in the YWCA pool. It's not so pretty as Joan's, but I didn't get all tangled up in Santa Claus' beard. ■ It was then I decided I wasn't going to become involved in Hollywood's type of Christmas. No indeed, I would do as I had always done — give only to my intimate friends and family. Oh, sweet innocent girl that I was. Next year I was working on a picture right up until Christmas Eve. (You're always doing that, incidentally. They seem to plan it deliberately. An ordinary girl works until the last minute, too, but at least she can get a little shopping done during lunch hour. But not us. Studios are invariably far from the center of any town and besides we're usually done up in nine hundred beads and a G-string which is hardly a suitable shopping costume even in Hollywood.) So, thinking I was very cagey indeed, I asked one of those personal shoppers to come to my home in the evening. As you know, that's one of the fine services Hollywood merchants render the busy movie star. Bright people come to your house with a line of merchandise and you can select what you want right there without the bother of going into the shop. It seemed wonderful to me. But I didn't know. I just didn't know. The shopper said, "Now just turn your Christmas problems over to me, dear." Here is tkellew 'iMt Corrtfi/&um7/hsA IN FOUR QUICK STEPS *lst STEP Mixing Takes a Minute 2nd STEP Applying Takes a Minute Look how easy it is for you to make the Unit Complexion Mask at home: *Simply mix three tablespoons of Linit (the same Linit so popular for the Bath) and one teaspoon of Cold Cream with enough milk to make a nice, firm consistency. Apply it to the cleansed face and neck and relax during the twenty minutes the mask takes to set. Then rinse off with clear, tepid water and pat the face and neck dry. 3rd STEP Resting For 20 Minutes 4th STEP Rinsing Off Completely UNIT IT'S NEW I HIT ALLPURPOSE POWDER I for every member of the | family. Delightfully different. TRY IT TODAYI NATIONALLY ADVERTISED BRANDS WEEK At Your Favorite Chain Variety Store— November 5th-l2th