Modern Screen (Dec 1953 - Nov 1954)

baby to be admitted to the nursery would be Mary Catherine O'Shea. It was a name chosen by Virginia and Mike as a salute to the grand old names. When they had discussed the problem they had concurred on the fact that people nowadays tend toward embroidery. Names like Snap, Clutch and Katch seem to be fashionable for boys, and girls are being snowed under with tags like Dawn, Sundown and April. The O'Sheas wanted something simple, a name that was a name and not a cereal slogan. "Mary Catherine" seemed to fill the bill. Where did the choice come from? "From nowhere," said Mike, "except from a couple of pretty good saints." Besides, they figured that eventually their child will be called Kate O'Shea, a monicker that tickles Mike because it is the name of the only illustrious ancestor he could dig up — the colleen who was the sweetheart of Charles Parnell, Irish Nationalist leader of years gone by. Standing near the door, he didn't have long to wait before a nurse wheeled a newborn infant toward him. Mike stepped into her path. "Whose little demon is that?" he inquired. The nurse stiffened. "This is no demon. This is a beautiful little girl — the O'Shea baby." Pop O'Shea grinned. "She's mine. Let me have a little look at her." He noted with pleasure that the baby had red hair. This would please Virginia. All these months she had said that, boy or girl, she hoped the baby would be a redhead. Once the nurse had taken the baby inside the warm nursery, she unwrapped her and held up a naked Kate O'Shea for her father's inspection through a big window. Across the baby's derriere was a strip of cloth labeled, "Girl O'Shea". Mike smiled. "Okay," he said. "We'll keep her." He went back to Virginia's room to wait I SAW IT HAPPEN In Los Angeles on vacation, we saw a grey convertible running right up on the sidewalk. A policeman was standing nearby. We were so curious about who could get away with that kind of thing, that we backed up to look. And there was Spencer Tracy, parked on the sidewalk. Carmen Allred Ogden, Utah for her, and when she was brought through the door he kissed her and she said, "Mike — she's a redhead." Mike told Virginia he had already seen their daughter and that her first performance had been a striptease. TTe wandered around a bit after that, visiting various new acquaintances who had become mothers since his first, meeting with them in the labor rooms. Being Mike O'Shea, he sat on the beds and shook hands and asked about their babies — and the husbands sat there and beamed. He went back and told Virginia about it — "What a place, a hospital!" When she laughed at him he suggested that if any strange men came into her room, she should throw them out. The next morning Mike mixed cement for the patio with the air of a man not quite in this world, and for the next few days kept himself so busy with mortar, brick and flagstone between hospital visits that he managed to talk himself out of noticing the emptiness of the house. Mrs. Young, the baby's nurse, .arrived before Homecoming Day, and he bragged a bit to her about having a daughter. "Girls are wonderful," he said. "Boys — well, men want sons as sops to their own egos. Give me a girl any day." He didn't give Virginia a gift. The O'Sheas are not gift-giving people, at least on holidays or occasions. They pick up assorted surprises for each other on odd days of the year, and dislike any custom that makes people obligated to buy presents. When a baby shower was suggested for Virginia, Mike had said, "No, please — she wouldn't like that." Nor did he give cigars after Mary Catherine's arrival, or send out announcements. "That's a corny bit," he said. "It's like saying 'Look at me — Look at us.' It's nothing special to anybody but us." And so, when asked if he gave Virginia a gift, he smiled and said, "I gave her the baby." That is Mike's way of saying that if a man gives his wife love and devotion all through his life, it is the best gift he can give. One day, several weeks after Virginia and Mary Catherine were settled in the "new" house, Mother O'Shea had a thought. "You want more, don't you, Mike? More children, I mean?" "Sure," said O'Shea. "There will be a space problem." "Oi-veh!" said Mike. "What would we do?" "This one," said Mike, "this one room cost us as much as a complete five-room house. Next time we'll build same, and make it all bedrooms to accommodate the influx." "Yes, dear," said Virginia. END KING SIZE iUMBO "TRIPLE-STAY" LIPSTICK •TRIPLE-STAY" LIPSTICK Discover for yourself the excitement of "Triple-Stay''... the thrill of more seductive, more alluring lips that stay lovely the Flame-Glo way. 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