Modern Screen (Dec 1948 - Oct 1949)

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Average month's supply slips readily into purse. Compare today's price of Tampax with the price of nationally-advertised external pads. Tampax Incorporated, Palmer, Mass. 9f> Accepted for Advertising by the Journal of the American Medical Association Cagney taught him a great deal about acting and said he had faith in him. But more than a year went by and still he had no picture for Audie to make. Finally Cagney loaned him out for a small part in Paramount's Beyond Glory. Then, after several months more on the Hollywood sidelines, Audie decided that a film career was not in the cards for him — that it was time to get out of Hollywood, to try to earn a living at something else, somewhere else. He might have left Hollywood and never have made another film if it hadn't been for another magazine cover — this time a portrait of Wanda Hendrix on the cover of the February 1946 Coronet. Pretty girls are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, as Audie would be the first to tell you. But something came through in this portrait — a lovely, wholesome innocence and warmth that stirred depths in Audie that he hadn't known existed. More than anything else in the world, he wanted to meet this girl. ingenious scheme . . . Then Audie had a bright idea. He talked Charles Leonard, who was then handling publicity for the Cagney Studios, into throwing him a birthday party on June 20th — to which Grace Fischler, who had arranged the Coronet magazine cover, was invited. Now, Grace is an attractive gal, but she knew perfectly well that the main reason she was being asked to the party was so she could bring Wanda. Wanda knew nothing of the Machiavellian scheming going on. She didn't dream that the whole party had been engineered so that Audie could meet her. . . . And then Audie and Wanda were sitting together in the guest house at the Cagney home, where the party was given, and the glowing firelight shone on her lovely, delicate face, on her blue eyes and her soft dark hair. A phonograph was being played. Audie wished he could ask Wanda to dance. But his wounded hip still gave him trouble, so he contented himself with watching her and talking to her, lightly, smilingly. Somehow she must have sensed that he was more than casually interested in her. After a while she said, "Would you like to come to dinner at my house Wednesday?" Would he like to come! All evening he had been working toward asking her for a date — and now he fairly leaped at the invitation. But on Wednesday morning, Wanda was on the phone telling him that she was terribly sorry, but Warners' had let her out — and she was so busy with her agent going to other studios to see about roles that she couldn't possibly keep their date — she'd be much too exhausted by the time evening came. Would he make it the following Wednesday instead? He made it the following Wednesday — and again she begged off. By the time Wanda had cancelled four dinner dates in a row — "Oh, forget it," he said through stiff lips. And then he set about to forget her. He did his very best. But the smiling, heartshaped face of Wanda kept wandering through his thoughts. He heard her voice, and wished he could see her. He saw her image in the movies, and when the picture was over, he found himself forgetting the plot, forgetting everybody in the picture, except Wanda. Three months later he found himself driving up to her house. As he walked in. he saw Wanda surrounded by a group of young marines. Her cousin had come in from a nearby marine base, bringing a bunch of buddies with him, and they were pleading with Wanda to accompany them to the Palladium, that jive-iumping dance hall which has been called "everybody's night club." Wanda said aloud, "Audie! I'm so glad to see you — I thought you'd never get here." And she whispered, "Make them think I have a date with you." So he did. But when the happy-golucky marines had departed, he said, "Well, I guess I'm just a prop to you — one that you use when you want, and drop when you don't. Now don't you want me to go, too?" "Of course not!" said Wanda. "Why do you say that?" "Well," said Audie, "I sort of thought . . . Well . . ." Wanda sighed. "Men are such strange people," she said. "How about some tea and cookies?" He grinned. "I'm sorry, Wanda. And I'd love some tea and cookies." Then, for the first time they really talked. Wanda told him of how she had been born in a logging camp in Florida, of how she and her father, who was quarter boss at the camp, used to go fishing together when she was a kid. They talked of the outdoors. She said she liked hunting and swimming — which Audie also likes. They discovered that they even liked the same books, and had the same favorite — Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel." Soon they were pouring out confidences to each other. After that they had many dates. Audie found that Wanda could fish as well as he, and shoot almost as well. "She does nothing right with a gun — except hit the target." he comments. Audie told Wanda he was fed up on Hollywood and planned to leave the town. "It doesn't look as if I'm ever really going to get anywhere in pictures," he said. "I've started to write a book about the men I've known in the war and their experiences — but I know nothing about writing, and that will probably turn out badly, too." "Let me read what you've written so far," begged Wanda. So he gave her pages of stuff to read, and watched the glow that came into her eyes. "Why — why, this is wonderful," she said. "Audie, you must keep on with it. It's real and it's honest, and I'm sure you'll find a publisher for it." (P. S. She was right. The bock will be published very shortly by Henry Holt and Company under the title. "To Hell and Back.") keep trying! . . . And as for his career in pictures — she continued to believe and insist that Audie would some day get a good part and make good. "Never mind what they're beginning to say about your chances!" she told him. "I know you'll come through if you keep on trying!" "I had no faith in myself either as a writer or as an actor," he says today. "Wanda had enough faith for both of us." If Wanda taught Audie to have faith, Audie in turn taught Wanda to have firmness, and to fight everyone who tried to mold her life differently from the way she wanted it. One of the things that upset Audie was the knowledge that Wanda, acting on others' advice to go out with as many eligible young men as possible, was being seen each night with a different date. This was stiictly for publicity purposes, but Audie felt it was all wrong. "If you're making money for a studio, no studio will cut you off its contract list because you go out with anyone you choose," he told Wanda. Since by this time they knew they cpred only about each other, she admitted he was right — and then stuck by her guns. The publicity dates were eliminated from her social life. There's no doubt that Audie puts Wanda on a pedestal and worships her. One of the qualities he adores in her is her appreciation of small things. Early in their courtship he discovered that whenever he