Modern Screen (Dec 1935 - Nov 1936)

MODERN SCREEN Let your own mirror and the flattering comments of friends prove that last season's dress can be a smashing success today — with Rit! Tinting and dyeing with Rit is so easy, so sensible, so economical, you'll find dozens of uses for it. For tinting, use only warm water; even for dark colors, you need NO BOILING. Try Rit today— you'll be grateful for the introduction! Kit is a concentrated wafer: easier to measure than powder; won't sift out of the package; dissolves instantly. Ill II II ' : White Rit Color Re. ^»5y»>;;;; i . i mover . . . takes out ^^^^i-sk^ .s J color without harming the fabric — really AT ALL DEALERS whitens white goods. and sincerity about the lad that is truly touching. It shows through in his work. It shines through his eyes, which are the bluest blue you could ever imagine. He's a good-looking youth, but seems totally unaware of it. He's very tall and slim and diets in a mild way. If you accused him of this, he'd say, "Don't be redick," but if scrambled eggs and stewed tomatoes every luncheon is a pleasure, then there's no such thing as a key to the calories ! Mr. Fonda spends his evenings at home. Which is another source of wonderment to the city of glitter. There are so many places to go when the sun goes down, gay places with guh-rand music and celebrities and beautiful girls. Henry doesn't take them in. He's not interested at this point. He doesn't care to be rumored about. He says, "If the right girl comes along, she'll never believe I'm on the level if she's read I've been here and there with this beauty and that." Being on the level is very important to Mr. F. Things are as they seem to him. "I've got to sing in Lily Pons' picture," he said. "At least it's in the script. Maybe when they hear the play-back, they'll cut out the song, which should spare the audience no end. There's no need of torturing nice people, you know, when all they want is good, clean fun — a little honest entertainment." Which, we suppose, is fair enough, even though it is said factors who decided that what this country needs — besides a good 5-cent cigaris more connubial osculation. So they took the following pledge : 1. I solemnly pledge myself daily to embrace my wife, kiss her and tell her that I love her. 2. I promise to compliment her at least once each day on some particular part of the menu she prepares. 3. I promise to perform at least one kind and unexpected deed for her daily. Latest news reports attest that, after a fair trial, the wives of these reformed husbands declare it to be a marvelous idea, and insist that the Club be continued. . . . (Did some of these smart husbands perhaps hear of the wonderful results of the Gibbons-del Rio marital experiment in romance ? ) AND," continued Dolores, breaking in . on my reverie, "you can't imagine how I anticipate that nightly dinner date with Cedric. That's the advantage of being absorbed in my work all day long. I'm sure, if I didn't work as hard as I do now and if I had the empty time on my hands I used to have in Mexico City, I couldn't make a go of my marriage. But beingcompelled to see other people all day long makes coming back to Cedric both a soothing tonic and a wonderfully fresh adventure. "Then there's another important rule we observe which makes ours an out-of-theordinary marriage. The question of finances never enters into it at all. "I earn money enough to be financially independent of Cedric — and I spend it as I like. I've always thought it shameful for women to have to go begging to their husbands every time they want a new dress or coat. To be made to realize that they're dependent, body and soul, on the man they marry. Ugh ! It's humiliating. I could never bear it!" But Dolores admits that Cedric doesn't allow her too much independence. That's that Henry can hit a mean musical note. OFTEN Hollywood does strange things to people. Sometimes it gives them the big head. There are those skeptics who claim that when Fonda begins reading his very excellent press notices he's going to think, "Pretty good, this Henry — eh, wot ?" That it would be only human. Our guess is that no such thing is due to occur. He says of himself, of course half kiddingly, "I must be pretty hot stuff. Why, the producer who signed me to make pictures has loaned me out ever since the day I put my name to the contract. Yep, two for Fox and one for RKO. Some fun, hey ?'' The very fact that other companies bid for the services of a movie newcomer shows what faith the powers that be in the Celluloid City have in Henry. He really has about everything, you see. Youth, good looks and acting ability. A rare combination to turn up in a town where if you look the part, you're apt to be blah and if you're a swell actor, the profile isn't anything to be taken seriously ; in fact, it should be somewhere on the comedy lot. Yes, we think if we had any shekels to bet, we'd place them on Henry Fonda's very straight nose and, so, would come in the winner of the cinema sweepstakes. never good for women. As the old grannies say : "It gives 'em ideas — puts foolish notions into their heads." Cedric insists on paying all the household expenses. Which indicates clearly to all concerned whose house it is and who's the master in it. There should never be any doubt about that, he firmly believes. And Dolores quite agrees with him. So with the salary Dolores earns (which is no slouch these days) under her new contract with Warner-First National, she buys all her own clothes, pays the wages of her secretary, and does lovely gracious things for her parents — such as building and decorating a new home for her mother to occupy during her annual six months' stay in Hollywood. DOLORES is exceptionally proud of that house because it is completely her own brain-child — every spot of color, every stick of furniture in it. It was her way of showing Cedric how much she'd learned from him in the matter of artistic selection. She admitted all this to me one day in her dressing-room — which, by the way, is also very modern — a sparkling affair in white and tomato red. When I admired it and remarked how perfectly it suited her personality, she said, "I'm glad you think so. To do one's best work and to be happiest one should always manage to wear a touch of one's personality color, or have it in one's surroundings. Red is my color — just to see it makes me feel alive and gay !" Actually, Dolores looks up to Cedric's intelligence with something of awe, as an adoring pupil regards an adored and splendid teacher. "I know he's mentally superior to me, and I'm certainly not sorry !" she declares. In the past four years, since her marriage to Cedric Gibbons, Dolores del Rio has learned more about life and the right way to self-expression and the achieve Romantic— Never Routine (Continued from page 37) 76