Hollywood (Jan - Mar 1943)

to settle for a job with a wholesale grocery firm, married his childhood sweetheart, settled down in Orange, New Jersey, and sired a daughter, 'Lorraine. Things were rocking along nicely, when the depression hit the grocery business, and he was out of a job. Casting about for such work as his desultory schooling had qualified him, he discovered that acting was just about the only thing open. So he hustled over to the office of the New Jersey Federal Theater Project, and sketched an imaginary theatrical background covering a dozen years. To his astonishment he was accepted. To his further amazement, he discovered that he could act. He did two years with the project before he decided to cross the river and investigate Broadway. His Thoid Avenoo accent and personality intrigued the first producer he looked up. but the producer's play intrigued nobody. It was a miserable flop. He had been party to six successive flops when he approached William Saroyan. the mad Armenian playwright, then engaged in casting his play. Time of Your Life. Saroyan took one look at the rugged, battered face and the huge pair of shoulders, got a load of that Thoid Avenoo accent and yelled for someone to bring him a contract form. Which is how Bendix landed on Broadway in a smash play, as Krupp, the philosophic and talkative cop. He was so good that Metro promptly signed him to play the tavern-keeper in the Hepburn-Tracy epic, Woman of the Year. His first movie experience almost threw him for a loss. "Here I am a mere amachoor, and the director takes it for granted that a guy with a weather-beaten puss like mine must have been around Hollywood for quite a while. He doesn't so much as give me a pointer. And I'm panic-stricken. In fact, I don't find out where the camera is until I've finished playing my first scene." At that, he did a honey of a job. Hal Reach let him cavort as a whimsical character in The Brooklyn Orchid. He was doing turns for Roach when John Farrow, assigned to direct Wake Island, began casting about for the right man to play Aloysius "Smacksie" Randall from Brooklyn. An inspired underling shoved a picture of Bendix under his nose. "Well, if it isn't old Smacksie, nose and all!" Mr. Farrow exclaimed. Wake Island was a pleasure. Always a hand for guns. Bendix enjoyed spraying the desert set, which was supposed to be a replica of Wake Island, with machine gun bullets. He tells about his experience as a gunner with fiendish relish. "There I am letting go with a gun that tosses out 750 bullets a minute, and every third bullet a tracer, and the real marines looking on, sad as hunting dogs in offseason. " 'Them actors,' one of the real marines who appeared in the picture, was beefing one day, 'get all the breaks. Do we get to fire guns with real live bullets in them? No! A helluva picture this is.' " Bendix sighs. " 'Mushky' and the boys should-a got a load of me behind those steel-spitters. Maybe they'd have forgotten all about how I let 'em down as a baseball player." ■ r -' : I'm the mechanic with the soft, white ^ U hands ! • Working in grease and grime — that's all in the day's job. Ruin my hands? No, ma'am! I use Hinds before and after work. Hinds creamy skin-softeners help guard my hands against drying, groundin dirt. After work, Hinds gives my hands a whiter look — soft and nifty! HINDS hand cream CREAM tXHN * n*K HONEy.Beauty Advisor, says; EXTRA-SOFTENING ! Hinds is an emulsion. WORKS FAST! Gives chapped skin a softer, whiter look, a comfy feel. EFFECT LASTS! Hinds skin -softeners help protect your skin through work and soapy-water jobs. DOES GOOD! Actually benefits skin. Also— Hinds Hand Cream at toilet goods counters BUY WAR SAVINGS BONDS AND STAMPS NOW! HINDS A HANDS and wherever skin needs softening! 49