Modern Screen (Dec 1938 - Nov 1939 (assorted issues))

MODERN SCREEN should be seen apart, as well as together. When they gave me those first pictures without Fred, between my pictures with him I had to try to be what they thought I could be— worth seeing by myself. Now they're saying, 'We believe you can hold, as an actress, the public that liked you as a dancer.' It's a new chance, a new challenge. I didn't bring it on by years of careful planning. It just happened in the course of events. But now that it's here, I'm eager to try to make something of it. "That's the way it has always been, all the way along. I've never been able to be ambitious along any line until I've actually had the chance to work along that line. "I didn't decide to do comedy, as a starter. I didn't have a thing to say about it. The studio did the deciding. What the next step will be, I don't know. Straight drama, perhaps. But I'm not planning on it. As I said before, the future is in the lap of the gods." "Yes, Ginger is a fatalist. This isn't something new, however. She has always had the habit of not worrying— just as she has always had the habit of sitting with one foot wrapped around the other. What changes has she seen in Ginger Rogers in the past year. She glanced in her dressing-room mirror, as if that might help her to answer. "I'm more rested. I've even given up night-clubbing, I've become so sold on the value of sleep. I've gained a couple of pounds — which I sort of needed. Maybe if I'm a good girl and eat all my spinach, I can gain a couple more, especially now that I'm not dancing. "I still live in the same house, still see the same people. But I've got a new form of relaxation. Sculpting. Picked it up one Friday afternoon, just like that, and I've been at it ever since. Even if nobody has told me, to date, that I missed my real calling. "Somehow, I seem to have picked up the title of 'Rogers, the Recluse.' That's what you get in Hollywood when you go in for nice, quiet relaxation. The last time I took a vacation, the local papers printed that I was 'hiding out' somewhere. Do you know what I was doing? Going to the '21' Club in New York for lunch every day and seeing every show on Broadway. If that's hiding out, I'm a buffalo." The director was calling her back to the set. But before she escaped, I got in one more question. What did she want to do besides carve a career by herself as an actress? She smiled. She couldn't resist a final quip, "I want to acquire wisdom." — -f You're right — it's Vivien Leigh registering coquetry for her role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind." 'I hate to discourage you. Miss Ostrich, but I've never noticed anything to eat in that sand . . .What? You're not looking for things to eat? Then why? . . . Oh, you're hiding! . . . H'm . . .Well, it seems to me you're making a mistake . . ." "First place, there's no danger, so why hide? Secondly, if there were some danger, you aren't very well hidden." "Attagirl! Now look— sand in your beak —and all scratchy down your neck! . . . Never mind— we'll soon fix that . . ." "Hocus-pocus— just like magic your chafes and scratchy places and prickly heat will feel soothed . . ." '"Cause, see? Here comes my Mother with some soft, velvety Johnson's Baby Powder! ...Me too, Mother? Me too?" "Crazy about it? I knew you would be. Everybody is. Such wonderfully soft, fine talc in it! And such an inexpensive way to make a baby comfortable!" JOHNSON'S BABY POWDER Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N. J. 81