Hollywood (1942)

ladies whom nobody ever heard of much, although one of them actually appeared with him not in four pictures but in eight. All they know at the studio is that when they came around to putting Gene in a South of the border extravaganza called Down Mexico Way, they decided, as a matter of good neighbor policy, to make the heroine a sultry senorita, well-bred but addicted to the rhumba (hot) . No one on the lot seemed to fit the bill, so Republic shopped around, sent out its scouts, queried dozens of applicants, and settled on Fay who had just returned to her native Hollywood from an 18-month tour with Meet the People in which musical she was a dancing sensation— on Broadway especially. Fay sang a few songs, did the hot rhumba, dismissed the whole affair, and stood by for her next assignment. In two weeks the returns began pouring in from the exhibitors. Down Mexico Way is a terrific picture. Ditto this McKenzie girl. Republic officials blinked, hurried her into Sierra Sue, in which Fay did what she calls "a McKenzie hula." Sierra Sue did something that two score of Autrys haven't been able to do. It implied that at long last the crooning cowboy had become hep to the facts of life. In a scene at a shooting gallery, Fay, seductive and scenic, leans over to show Gene how to shoot a gun. "Don't look at me like that," Gene tells her, obeying the script. "I can't take it." Heavenly days! Deferring to Gene's admirers who de manded to know how come at finis in Down Mexico Way he rode off with his fat friend, Frog, leaving Fay behind, studio officials instructed the scripters to see to it that Gene never behaved like that toward Fay again. In Sierra Sue, the two rode off together. And in Cowboy Serenade, he looked at her very tenderly just before they walked into the sunset. In Heart of the Rio Grande, they will probably hold hands. Give them a few pictures and there will probably be a clinch. And an explosion. It is high time to clear up a point or two about Fay McKenzie. While it is true that Fay has a figure that artists like to draw but Nature hardly ever turns out, she is not a whoopsedaisy cutie who will sparkle in Westerns until the customers have had enough and then slip into permanent oblivion. For one thing, Fay can act. Sam Wood tested her for the lead in For Whom the Bell Tolls and was very much impressed, although he's reserving decision. Any number of studios would like to borrow Fay but can't get her unless they lay real money on the line. Republic says confidentially, they don't mean to keep her in Autrys any longer than Mr. NEXT MONTH Don't miss the hilarious story "The Care and Feeding of Abbott and Costello" Public demands it. Right this minute they are considering her for their huge-budget picture starring John Wayne and Ray Middleton, a sure-fire epic based on the Commandos, those devil-may-care British soldiers who raid Nazi-occupied France and Denmark by night and worry Hitler gray. There is good reason why Fay should become the rage of Hollywood. She comes from an acting family. Her father, Bob McKenzie, directed the first "Our Gang" comedies for Hal Roach, ran tent shows for twenty years or more, and retired to the easy life of character actor which he still follows. Her mother is a veteran stage actress, with a sizable list of screen credits. And her brother-in-law is Billy Gilbert, who, by the way, is Fay's idea of a real actor as well as sneezer. Labeled the "Girl with the Blitzkrieg Eyes" and the national "Camera Appeal Girl," she does next to no promenading off the lot in Hollywood. She's been to the hot spots once and mostly that will do her for a dozen years. Glamour boys she can do without, unless one should happen to be Glenn Ford. She likes to window shop. Her idea of a good date is a good chat over a good dinner topped off by a good movie. A patriot, par excellence, she is constantly chasing out to some army camp to croon and wiggle for our boys. They think she's terrific. They send letters to Republic asking for more McKenzie. Apparently our boys haven't heard about the Hays office. | Jofr ffands win we poufvefcf" HINDS forHANDS /* and wherever skin needs softening _! J & 51