Modern Screen (Jan-Jun 1945)

look very virile and romantic on the cover, but when you had to hold that pose for an hour it was tough going. ' There must be an easier way to make a living," he said plaintively, at last. "Look, chum, this picture will be a work of art. It's likely to land you in Hollywood," the photographer assured him. At which they all laughed merrily. The funny part was that it did. A talent scout who saw the cover had also caught one of Bob's performances in summer stock. "Photogenic and can act, too," he wired his studio, which happened to be Warner Brothers. So pretty soon, Bob was given a screen test in New York. They ran the result off for him a few days later, and he was in despair. Boy, was he lousy, he thought gloomily. If only the test had been good! If only he hadn't looked like a wooden Indian with occasional attacks of St. Vitus dance! Fortunately, the powers that be at Warners' took no such dim view of the affair. Mysteriously, they liked the test. In fact, before Bob came out of the fog, he found himself with a contract and a ticket to Hollywood in his hand. He was in! You would have thought he'd be in a rosy delirium of happiness, wouldn't you? But not Hutton. Worries flew around his head like a swarm of mosquitoes. "Here it starts all over again," he thought miserably. "The stage fright, and making a damn fool of myself." When his friends congratulated him, he looked at them with a graveyard expression and said, "I'll be back in six months. Eating at the Automat." He wasn't, of course. He made "Destination Tokyo," and he was a hit. He played the soldier in "Janie," and fans began asking for more Hutton. Gosh, they raved, he's so good looking! He looks like Jimmy Stewart, only younger and handsomer. He was shy and sort of sweet, and when he looked at you, you melted into a romantic daze. You wanted to give him the world, and a spoon to eat it with. When he was making "Janie," little Claire Foley, who played the demon kid sister, adored him. She got in the habit of spending most of her time between takes sitting on his lap. Then, quite suddenly, she stopped speaking to him. "Say, what goes with Claire?" Bob asked her mother, puzzled. She laughed. "She's found out you're married. She thinks you've been trifling with her affections!" Even at Claire's age, a girl wants no rival for Hutton. Of course, after she met Natalie, his charming bride, things were different, but Claire never went back to sitting on his lap. By the time Bob married Natalie, a Beverly Hills socialite, he had really arrived. He went around in a dreamy state of unbelief at his own luck. Gosh, what a change from those days in New York when he used to munch crackers and milk (nice and cheap) at a lunch counter and watch Wistfully through the window while a crowd of autograph hunters mobbed Sinatra. Now they asked Bob for his autograph when they saw him, and his hand shook so he couldn't even write straight. forever broke, forever blondes . . . "Didn't you ever have any fun in New York?'' his wife would ask incredulously "Were you broke all the while?" "No. It just seemed like all the while. Sure, I had fun now and then." He grinned mischievously. "Like the time I took out that gorgeous blonde." The gorgeous blonde had been the receptionist at dramatic school. Bob, absorbed in dreams and worries, hadn't noticed her particularly, till one day he happened to be sitting in the reception room. She was standing in front of the wall DURA-GLOSS^ uniH VJVYL Got a date tonight? Let Dura-Gloss kelp make it gay and* sparkling. And tke Dura-Gloss you put on for tonigkt's date will stay on for days. A smootk-flowing, lustrous polisk tkat adds romance and beauty to all your nigkts and days. In demand at keauty counters everywkere. 10$ plus tax. Cuticle Remover Polish Remover Dura-Coat LORR LABORATORIES, PATERSON, N. J. • FOUNDED BY E. T. REYNOLDS 99 i