Modern Screen (Dec 1948 - Oct 1949)

Of course you can . . go in swimming . . with Tampax! why envy others at that certain time of the month? You can wear Tampax in the water on sanitary-protection days and no one will be the wiser! This summer at any popular beach, you are almost sure to find many women who go in swimming on "those days" — wearing Tampax without any hesitation whatever... .There is nothing about Tampax in the slightest degree embarrassing (or offending) under bathing suits wet or dry. WORN internally, Tampax discards belts, pins, outside pads — everything that can possibly "show." Perfected by a doctor, Tampax is made of highly absorbent cotton compressed in modern applicators for dainty insertion. The hands need never touch the Tampax. No odor forms. There is no chafing with Tampax. Changing is quick and disposal easy. comes IN 3 sizes (Regular, Super, Junior). Sold at drug stores and notion counters in every part of the country — because millions of women are now using this newer type of monthly sanitary protection. A whole month's supply will go into your purse. The Economy Box holds four months' supply (average). Tampax Incorporated, Palmer, Mass. Accepted for Advertising g0 by the Journal of the American Medical Association AVA GARDNER'S GREATEST GAMBLE {Continued from page 29) the studio's Number One sex-appeal star. The truth of the matter is that Ava has long been paralleling Lana's own meteoric rise. Whether or not she can maintain the pace depends not upon dramatic ability, for Ava has more than enough to warrant a spot at the top of the ladder, but upon temperament. All the dramatic ability in the world is not going to pull her through if she can't control her emotions. Early in her career, Ava was living proof of what can happen to a naive country girl dropped into the middle of the Hollywood maelstrom. Success and publicity went to her head with all the devastating effects of too much champagne. It was all so easy. She had only to flick her finger and people rushed to do her bidding. She was Ava Gardner, MGM's brightest new light, and she made the natural mistake of confusing a publicity build-up with genuine stardom. She had not yet learned that stardom carries with it the sobering responsibilities of hard work and getting along with people. danger signal . . . Here and there along the way, little warning signs cropped up, signs which she ignored simply because she could not recognize them. One night she had a dinner date with David Street, a date which she took to be part and parcel of her due as a star — out on the town with a handsome and popular young bachelor, out on display at all the right places. But right after dinner, David said he was sorry, that he had to work next morning and would have to take her home early. "But David," she pouted, "I want to go to Ciro's, and then to the Mocambo. It's much too early to go home." "I'm sorry, Ava," David said quietly, "but I have a heavy schedule tomorrow and I have to be fresh for it. And you have to be at the studio yourself in the morning." "I don't care," Ava cried, furious. "I'm not going home this early." But she went, for David had long since learned that work and play can be mixed only in the proper proportions. Ava was so angry she didn't speak to him for months. The little warning sign was lost on her entirely. It was shortly after that that Ava rushed headlong into her ill-fated marriage with Mickey Rooney. And perhaps one of the reasons for its failure was Ava's own failure to realize that her happiness depended on the happiness of others. Her thoughts were still centered on only one person: Ava Gardner. An incident at a luncheon one day with several of her studio associates threw this attitude of hers into bold relief. As they were leaving the restaurant, she noticed that several people at the next table had their heads together, whispering. She was sure they were talking about her. Out of earshot, she turned to one of her friends and asked anxiously, "Weren't they talking about me? What were they saying?" He looked at her oddly. "Do you really want to know?" he asked. "What were they saying?" she demanded. "They were saying," he replied drily, "that there goes Mrs. Mickey Rooney." ■ Not Ava Gardner, but Mrs. Mickey Rooney. Ava didn't know it, but that marked the beginning of the end of her marriage. Her disappointment at not being recognized for herself was the tip-off on her own estimation of herself. No marriage can last when a woman is not willing to be known as her husband's wife. Ava was still primarily interested only in Ava. Hollywood, meanwhile, had relentlessly cut the cloth of Ava's personality to fit its own design. Her delightful North Carolina drawl was put through the meat-grinder of voice lessons until her voice had lost every shred of individuality. She was taught how to walk, how to dress, how to express emotion with her face and hands. Hollywood was still a starry heaven to Ava, and what could be more divinely perfect than to have a "Made in Hollywood" label sewed tightly to her brand new personality? She reveled in it. What young girl wouldn't? But what young girl could survive it? Ava gave no thought to the hundreds and hundreds of girls who had walked this same path before her, sacrificed their individual personalities upon the altar of machine-tooled "glamor" and lost forever the chance to be a person instead of a product. Ava had never heard of them. | Perhaps it was just as well, for it mighthave undermined her confidence in herself. F She was still under the impression that0 Hollywood's way was the right way. It was Artie Shaw who blasted her out '■ of her happy day dreams, shook the com-f placency out of her as a terrier shakes a? rag doll, and taught her that emotions are ft not just a toy to be played with in front5 of a camera. Artie Shaw reached down into the very heart of her inner being and' breathed life into that spark of North Carolina individuality that Hollywood had almost succeeded in putting out. Artie: Shaw woke her up to reality with a jolt, In unlocking her emotions he uncovered ; an actress. The finishing school automaton disappeared once and for all. Their marriage lasted only a year, but itk was long enough for Ava to realize that there were other things in life besides night: clubs, glamor and adulation. She learned, that there were books to be read, music to be heard, history and art and philosophy to? be studied. She learned that home, not; Hollywood, was the true center of a 5 woman's life. Above all, she learned about" love. Whatever it was that broke up the mar : a midsummer's dream june allyson on the august cover of modern screen on sale july 8