Modern Screen (Jan-Jun 1945)

midnight reading notes and jotting down ideas for replies. Many a Sunday and holiday he has spent signing pictures and doing a million things his fans have asked him to do. And there's another explanation why Alan can do all this. You may be surprised to know that a whole lot of Alan's fan mail comes not just to him— but to "The Ladds," a whole stack of it to Sue Carol, and even scads to Baby Alana! Yep, Alana has her own growing file of notes and, of course, she still gets the biggest loot when it comes to giftsbooties, dresses, caps, rattles, dolls — every baby gadget you can imagine. Alana can't write quite yet, but Sue certainly can and does. She helps Alan out with his correspondence constantly. They're a real team. And that's a funny thing, too — Alan Ladd's friends have adopted the darndest family attitude toward him any star in Hollywood has ever known. They tell him how crazy they are about him — and at the same time they direct half their words to Sue. They never forget his wedding anniversaries, and they know as much about Sue's special remembrance days,; birthdays and such, as they do Alan's. No wonder Sue can pitch in on the replies. Half of them are hers, anyway. And then, too, Alan has had a couple of years' experience, and by now he's developed into a quick letter-reader. He can spot a sincere letter right away, like he can spot a sincere admirer in public Naturally, like all Hollywood stars, he gets crank notes, mash notes, bawdy notes, insulting letters, gag mail. Frankly, he pays them short shrift. Would you take the trouble to answer a smart-aleck or poison-pen pusher? Luckily, most of Alan's mail is sincere, and it gets sincere answers —even when his friends ask questions impossible to answer, like "How do you get in the movies?" Occasionally he gets stumpers— like the teen-age girl in the Midwest who was unhappy at home. "I want to get away," she wrote, "I want to be an actress. If I leave this home I'll never be able to come back. Shall I? I've decided to do exactly what you say!" Well, Alan stewed a long time over that one before he dared answer. Putting a girl's fate up to him— a girl he didn't even know! He finally decided the only thing he could conscientiously do was duck any advice there. It wasn't fair to himself or the girl. But he worried about the darned question for over a week. Alan's a good worrier anyway, by nature. But with all the ins and outs and changes in his life during the last year, I think the time he got most upset was when he'd spent a week writing some fans, and then the post-office notified him there'd been a transit fire and the letters had all burned up! What worried Alan was that a flock of fans would think he'd ignored them. asking for trouble . . . I wish I had enough space to print a few of the swell letters Alan Ladd keeps carefully stacked at home. But this is only a magazine article— not the Encyclopedia Britannica. Here are a few flashes thoughsome touching, some tickling, that stick in my memory, and particularly in Alan Ladd's — The despondent young man in the South who planned to end it all and wrote Alan life wasn't worth it— and the airmail special Alan shot him back arguing him out of it —and the letter he got back saying the gloomy guy was looking up at the sunshine again. And the boy in the New York school for the mute who couldn't hear Alan on the radio and who asked for a picture so he could see him when everybody else heard him. . . . The six young girl patients in the TB sanitarium at Santa Barbara who formed a fan club and kept TAKES ONLY 10 MINUTES Whisk away grime, oil and hair odor in 10 minutes with Minipoo Dry Shampoo. Think of it — no soap ... no rinsing ... no drying. • This fragrant powder leaves hair soft, lustrous, delicately scented ...with wave or curls enhanced. Ideal for the sick room. At drug or department stores. 100 SHAMPOOS WitB Mitten Applicator I COSMETIC DISTRIBUTORS, INC. NEW YORK 17. N. Y. DRY SHAMPOO AN ADVERTISEMENT OF PEPSI-COIA COMPANY 'He says as long as he's going to be tied to a desk for the rest of the war, he may as well relax and enjoy it." 125