Modern Screen (Dec 1954 - Dec 1955)

out toward the big buildings housing the various stages. "I only have to walk into one of those, just walk in, mind you, to get a real thrill," he said. "That's all I need so far. So I can't say I'm lonely yet as a man. Not really lonely when my work can give me such a wallop. After all, it's thrilling to be part of a business as farflung and colorful as this. "Just yesterday a producer told me that no minute of a twenty-four-hour day passes without one of my pictures being shown on a screen somewhere; be it in Hong Kong, Thailand, Nome, Alaska or in deepest Africa. I suppose that's because a number of my pictures have been released internationally within recent months. Now for a kid who used to think his was the kind of face anybody could forget, and who washed dishes once for $15 a week, this is rich stuff to take, and humbling, too. But I want to take it just a little bit longer. Then? Well, it'll only need the quickest flash from the right girl's eyes and there won't be any use looking for me amongst the stages any more — I'll be long gone John at the altar!" "But don't you think you should have a certain girl in mind?" his questioner asked. Bob smacked a hand against his forehead. "Oh, no!" he laughed. "If I had a girl on my mind where would I do my thinking about work?" Tt should be pointed out that the fascination the movies have for Bob involves more than just stepping in front of the camera as an actor. Even though he insists that he has no thought of ever getting into production he spends a great deal of time with people who are in the technically creative end of the business. He got started at this because he didn't like to get involved in studio discussions, feeling abysmally ignorant while others talked mystifyingly about such processes as "scoring," "dubbing," "pre-recording," and "looping." "What do you need to know all that for?" someone kidded him once. "All you got to do is look handsome. I bet you never took a girl out in your life who asked one question about dubbing or looping." "No," Bob admitted, laughing. "But if a girl should ask me, what a dope I'd sound like trying to explain if I didn't know!" Bob doesn't need anyone's urging in his quiet campaign to improve himself, nor is anybody's kidding going to stop him. When he was cast in Lord Vanity he was invited to discuss the story with Charles Brackett and Delmer Daves who will produce and direct the picture. As they dipped into the period and locale in which the action is laid (18th Century Europe and America), Bob found himself doing much more listening than speaking, and eventually he had to fall completely silent. Bob had gone to work right after high school, and hardly anyone would expect him to be familiar with the historical details. Bob is nevertheless not going to lean on this for an excuse. Many a night when he could be dating around town he is digging into books. When you add to this stint the other pursuits he must attain proficiency in before he can successfully fill a role in a picture like Lord Vanity, it becomes apparent there is going to be little idleness in his life for a while. He is constantly surprised at the amount of work involved in producing a picture, even though he has been in some twelve productions since he first attracted interest in Halls Of Montezuma four years ago. "For instance, I thought when I made Prince Valiant the toughest part of my work would be in getting my lines down right," he said. "All I overlooked was learning such skills as jousting on horseback with a knight's long lance, swinging a heavy medieval battleax and dueling with a broadsword. It took the noble knights of those days all their lives to get to be any good with these weapons. We in the picture had a few weeks to look as if we were good, even if actually we probably were terrible and couldn't slay even a midget-sized dragon." Learning his lines and the proper delivery used to be a frightening bugaboo to Bob. In one scene, when he made Let's Make It Legal a few years ago, he blew up twenty-one times. But his improvement since then has been phenomenal. And, as he says with a smile when you talk about his social life, "It takes a lot of night work over my scripts at home to be able to keep on getting paid for day work in the studio." This sort of attitude on Bob's part is beginning to make Hollywood realize that he isn't going to be the slough-it-off type of star who figures he can get by in his career with a smile for the camera and a wave for the crowd. Someone was reminding him recently about the long grinding years the great stars of the legitimate stage used to put in before they were considered as masters of their art. "Don't remind me!" begged Bob. "I can already see that I'll be years catching up with the prominence the studio has given me." Everyone who knows Bob's story will recall that for a short period in his life he bowed to the wishes of his father, who is in the steel business, and undertook to learn that business. Actually he tried his hand at selling stainless steel. He didn't work at it long, but he found there was one aspect of the job that he wasn't bad at — meeting people and establishing the warm personal relationship necessary in sales promotion. It was his father who first realized this. They were talking about Bob's desire to concentrate on movie work, and his dad, who was arguing against the move, citing Bob's lack of acting experience as a handicap, unconsciously strengthened Bob's case. "Our steel customers all like you," he said. "My reports are that they like to have you come around and see you again. That shows you have a good personality." Then he had to laugh because what he had said was easily as good a reason for Bob's becoming an actor as it was for him to sell steel. But though Bob's father opposed him originally, and Bob felt he had hurt him by leaving the steel business, he knows his success has pleased everyone at home and that he hasn't "flopped" as a son. He also knows that with his kind of people a son is expected to make another sort of success. He is expected to marry the right girl and raise a fine family. '"Phis may be only in the back of his mind right now, but it's there. In the meantime he wants another big picture or two to his credit to further prove to 20th Century-Fox that they picked the right boy when he was put under contract. Not that his company needs any such additional proof. When Bob first went to work there he wrote to Darryl Zanuck, head of the studio, thanking him for the opportunity to act and assuring him that he would come through. Just the other day he met Mr. Zanuck at the door of the administration building. "That was a nice letter," said Mr. Zanuck, who has a long memory. "I'm glad you have kept your promise. In fact you are doing a wonderful job." Bob says that to him these words were like finding a firm handhold while climbing a steep mountain. "I really think that maybe I have a chance to make it now," he says. "If work will do it, study and work, I'll study and work." He laughed suddenly. "Boy, when I do meet the right girl I ought to be in a great mood for romance!" end AT UST! YOUR CHANCE FOR SUCCESS BE A PRACTICAL NURSE t « No High School Necessary; No Age Limit r Send for sample lesson and nurse's booklet. It's FREE .no obligation. Just mail coupon, See for yourself how easy it is to get BIG PAY . . . gain social prestige and financial independence as a POST GRADUATE HOSPITAL trained PRACTICAL NURSE. Learn at borne while you earn. Don't delay. 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