Modern Screen (Jul-Dec 1946)

(Continued from page 83) castle from the rest of the world. Other additions to the Briskin house are a new room for Teddy and an extension on the room that is to become the nursery. Betty, showing visitors around the portion of her house that is completed and indicating the extent of improvements still to be done, is a happy, happy character. It would be impossible to describe the thrill Betty is getting from being a housewife. For the first time in her life she has a home of her own, after years of living in apartments. gotta have it . . . Now that she has finished "The Perils of Pauline" (about which officials on the Paramount lot are frankly jubilant), Betty has been arising with her husband each morning at six. The maid doesn't arrive until eight, so Betty gets Ted's breakfast, then settles down to shopping lists. These have become gay topics of conversation, not only in the Briskin household but among Betty's friends. Not long ago Betty stopped at the home of a friend and was admitted by the maid, who thought Betty's friend would return soon. After ten or fifteen minutes' wait Betty left, saying that she would call later in the day. The maid was busy in the kitchen when Betty's friend reached home, so before the message of Betty's call could be delivered, the friend telephoned Betty, saying, "However did you get through your shopping? You left two of your lists on my lounge." Uttering a characteristic shriek, Betty asked that the lists be dictated over the telephone, with the explanation, "It took me an hour to think up all those things, and I certainly don't want to waste that time." Betty's "interesting condition" has not in the least inhibited her interest in food. Quite the contrary. Throughout the many months she has doted on describing the different ways in which chicken, turkey, steaks, chops, and all known varieties of vegetables could be cooked. In the midst of this occurred Vaffaire watermelon. Whenever the Briskins were driving along California boulevards, which are brightened by open air markets with their riotous pallete of fruits and vegetables, Betty would say, "How soon are watermelons in season?" After Ted had answered this question fifteen or twenty times, "Not for several months, dear," he decided that heroic measures were in order. When he was alone one day he noticed, directly ahead, a ramshackle truck loaded with the season's first watermelons. Maneuvering through traffic he managed to edge the driver to the curb. "What's the big idea?" demanded the driver, not allowing himself to get completely angry, on the chance that Ted might be an officer in civvies. Ted fetched up all the charm for which he is noted and explained Betty's condition and her craving for watermelon. "Look, bud," said the truck driver, "these melons are all sold. They're a special consignment — the first of the season — and I can't sell even one to anyone for any reason." There will be a slight pause for Mr. Briskin to exercise his eloquence. ... So Betty said it was the best watermelon she had ever tasted in all her life. She had watermelon three times a day until both melons had vanished. On another occasion Betty was awakened by her appetite screaming, "Fig newtons." Sternly, she said to herself, "Now this is silly. It's the middle of the night, and there isn't a fig newton in the house. Furthermore, all the grocery stores are closed, and there isn't a delicatessen within ten miles.' Besides, Ted is asleep. He had a hard day today, and he's going to have a hard day 86 tomorrow, and I simply won't awaken him." Teddy stirred, awakening as he always does when Betty is restless. "Anything wrong, dear?" he asked. Said Betty in a very small voice, "I want a fig newton." "All right, dear," said Teddy, struggling into his slippers. By the time he had hopped into his car, Teddy had solved the problem in advance. He drove directly to Romanoff's and secured a box of fig newtons. It was just before midnight when, with a courtly gesture, he presented Mrs. Briskin with a glass plate covered by a doily, on which was stacked an entire box of fig newtons. If the anticipated Briskin heiress is a girl she will be named Marian Lindsay; a boy will be named Teddy, Junior. Girl or boy, this lucky young person will come into the world well-equipped with interesting possessions. One is a pink plastic bank made in the form of a bootie. At the end of each day Betty entices from him whatever change Teddy has, and this goes into the plastic bootie toward a baby Briskin bank account. Boy or girl, baby Briskin will get many happy hours out of his red, rubber-tired push cart, viewed by the very young set as the last word in hot rod convertibles. A fast week after Betty was positive that she had been placed on the stork's waiting list, she talked someone into showing her how to knit a baby jacket. Doris Harris, Betty's long-time hairdresser and best friend, viewed the operation with disapproval. "It's unlucky to start a baby jacket until the baby is only three months away." Betty went on with her knitting, telling Doris, "Okay. It's not for my baby then. I'll make it for Marian.'" Marian, Betty's sister, recently became the mother of a nine-pound son, her second, who is to be called Phil Philbin. Teddy was as eager as Betty to prepare some tangible evidence of the gladness he felt. In discussing it further with Betty one night, he said, "Honey, I wish there was something I could make." Betty has seldom been caught without a good idea. Quickly, she told him, "I wish you would invent a camera that I — who know nothing of mechanical gadgets — could operate. I want to be taking pictures of the baby all the time, but you know me — unless the camera is simple I'll ruin ninety percent of the film." Ted got busy, working night and day for several months. The result of his dream, ingenuity, and devoted labor is the Briskin Eight, soon to be marketed. This camera . is small enough to fit into a man's coat pocket. It is loaded with one operation, using an Eastman eight millimeter magazine. Not only will it take motion pictures, but it is so set up that still shots can be snapped at will and separated from the moving sequences. An automatic light meter, focus, and timer is operated by one small push button. big business . . . It was a great day when Ted and Betty hopped a train bound for Chicago, where they were to market their camera. For months they had talked of little else, and during the trip the conversation continued to focus on the camera. For these reasons Betty was very close to the entire subject — a good thing, as she is vice-president of the corporation which will manufacture the cameras, hence, she participates in all business conferences with Ted. Betty was equipped by nature with great talent; she cultivated that talent by hard work, extended it by enterprise, and exploited it by one of the best senses of showmanship in the entertainment business. She has made the name, Betty Huttbn, an important adjunct to the American scene. But one of the greatest thrills of her life came to Betty Hutton when one of the officials of a nation-wide chain of stores, which plans to merchandise the Briskin Eight, turned to Betty in a conference and said, "At what retail price do you people plan to market your camera, Mrs. Briskin?" To this man it was of no consequence that he was talking to Betty Hutton, actress; it was important that she was the wife of the man who had invented the camera that will change the picture-taking habits of a nation, and that she was vice-president of the corporation manufacturing those cameras. In this emergency Betty was as resourceful as she had always been in handling problems which have arisen in her own profession. She and Ted had long discussed price. Some of Ted's advisers had said that the camera could be merchandised at a price well above a hundred dollars. During the developmental period, Betty had said nothing about this, but she had given it a good deal of thought. Finally, she said to Ted one day, "You know, honey, that I grew up in a poor family, so I know how people of moderate means feel about things. This camera is going to be so successful that everyone — no matter how big or small his weekly pay-check — is going to want one." JOAN LESLIE . . . starring in Warner Brothers "Two Guys from Milwaukee" is photographed ■for us here in a handsome wool novelty suit and coat -from the House ol Swansdown. We wish we could show you the pretty suit lurking under tha' well-tailored coat, but we can't. It has a checked yoke extending over the shoulders, and looks wonderfully brigh and fresh. We like the thought ol navy and yellow check for Fall, bu if that doesn't fit in with your ward robe plans, the outfit also, comes ir brown and white check with brown and in black and white check wit! black. For listings of where to buy th( fashions in this month's tvlODERr SCREEN Fashion Section, turn t< page 94. She hesitated, but encouraged by Ted', respectful silence, continued, "You see when people don't have much money an: item costing more than a hundred dollar simply seems too expensive, but if thi camera were under a hundred dollars an: person who wanted to buy it could say t< himself, 'I could pay two dollars a weel and I'd own it outright in a year.' Sc please, Teddy, could we keep it under I hundred dollars?" For this reason, when the executiv placed the same question to Betty, sh hesitated only a moment, then — as Mr Briskin — replied, "We haven't gone into : thoroughly yet, but we know it will b under a hundred dollars." Across the long table she sought and mt j Teddy's eyes. Their expression was prou ) and eloquent of his complete agreement. Afterward she said to him, "This earner means more to me than simply the fai that I'll be able to take pictures of ov\ baby. I like to think that our camera wi give millions of other families the san happiness." Teddy plans to be in on the picture taking deal himself. Some time in tr future he hopes to capture the expressic on the face of his infant as the fascinate child watches Betty sing "His Rockir Horse Ran Away."