Modern Screen (Dec 1954 - Dec 1955)

OUELLA PARSONS in holly wood the letter box ERMA MCCULLUM, IDAHO falls, is heartsick about the Edmund Purdoms: "He has been my favorite actor ever since I saw The Egyptian. I was so thrilled about the way he and his wonderful wife Tita had struggled through so much together before sudden fame came to him. Better they were back in that one room over a garage, and together, than for him to be famous and adrift from his family." You're so right, Erma. EVELYN WISTER, DETROIT, writes: "Stars who do not have sufficient appreciation to answer their fan mail shouldn't have fans." Let me tell you the truth about answering fan mail, Evelyn. If stars attempted to answer every letter written to them they would have time for nothing else. What happens is, in most cases, their secretaries read the mail, answer most of it, with the exception of letters which are so outstanding they are brought to the players' attention. These they often answer themselves. MRS. R. S. GETCHELL, FORT bragg, n. c., believes, "There should be a big reward for anyone who can produce a photograph of Marilyn Monroe, with her mouth closed!" No comment. From osaea, japan, akiko nakasu writes that The Letter Box is her favorite department because, 'It expresses so many foreign views from fans of which I am one. Be pleased to know that Rhapsody is the biggest hit of the year in japan and was much applauded. I shall never forget good music and fine Elizabeth Taylor. Also like Audrey Hepburn. With her, what's new?" Audrey's a bride, Akiko. That's the latest in her private life and Sabrina is her latest picture. DAISY MCDERMOTT, FORT worth, texas, nominates Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as the "outstanding Hollywood couple of the year. These fine people have won the admiration of the world by opening their home and giving so much love and devotion to adopted children." I second everything you say, Daisy. The most absurd publicity stunt of the month: the wire service which released a photograph of Marilyn Monroe dancingwith Clark Gable and captioned it : THE NEW, BIG ROMANCE OF Hollywood. Clark was seated at her table at a party and invited Marilyn to twirl around the floor with him, the one and only meeting they ever had. us. I can hardly believe this is true — or that she didn't tell me herself." I NOMINATE FOR STARDOM: Pier Angeli (Mrs. Vic Damone) who never has looked so beautiful in her career as she does in color in The Silver Chalice and who never has performed with such maturity. Now, if Pier had been married to Vic at the time she made the Warner picture, it might be thought that love and marriage had made the big change in her. She was in love, all right, but with James Dean, the brilliant young actor from Broadway who was on the same lot starring in East Of Eden. Cupid plays some strange tricks when one is twenty-one — and Eros never played a more startlingly sudden one than when the Italian beauty was dating Dean up until two weeks before she announced her engagement to popular singer Vic Damone! Less than a year ago, everyone thought the Latin charmer with the enormous black eyes might become Mrs. Kirk Douglas. Despite all these romances in her young life, no girl in Hollywood has been more carefully chaperoned than Pier whose mother, Signora Pierangeli (Pier's real name is Anna Pierangeli) seldom let her out of her sight until Vic came along. Mama is very happy about Vic. She nods her head happily when she says. "They are both good Italians, good Catholics and good children." And I predict that the newly matured Pier will soon be one of our best young actresses. HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED what the conversation might be if you ever had the chance to indulge in a little informal chat with Royalty? No matter what your imaginings might be, I'm sure it couldn't be more unusual than my chat with His Royal Highness Prince Axel of Denmark at the dinner honoring the charming visitor at the Statler Hotel. The Prince had flown over on the initial flight of the Scandinavian Airlines over the North Pole and naturally his arrival was quite an event. I might add, it turned into quite an event for me. I had no more than been presented to the handsome Prince than I was nearly rocked back on my heels. He said, smiling cordially: "How old do you think I am?" Now, I ask you — what would • you answer? I gulped and scdd, '^Thirty-five?" "Wrong," he replied. "I'm sixty-five." If a Prince could ask such a question I decided I could, too. "How old do you think I am?" I asked. "Oh, you — you're just a baby," answered His Majesty. "A man who can say that to a woman my age is wonderful in my book, whether he is prince or peasant," I managed. Is this your idea of a small chat with a Prince? PERSONAL OPINIONS Unless somebody stops Debra Paget from performing that vulgar dance of hers in nightclubs (I saw it when she was part of the stage show at the San Francisco premiere of Desiree) she's going to ruin her career. It's nonsense for her to think she has to cavort in such a manner to attract attention — all bad, I might add. Without a doubt, the happiest man in* Hollywood is Robert Taylor, who becomes a father for the first time next spring when he and Ursula Thiess welcome the stork. Says Bob. "I'll be a perfect idiot over the baby." I'm still wondering why Eleanor Parker denied right up to the last minute that she was marrying artist Paul Clemens — and then married him on Thanksgiving Day. Susan Hay ward never looked so cute in her life as she did with the short-hair wig she tried on before consenting to have her own shoulder-length tresses cut for A Soldier Of Fortune. THAT'S AU FOR NOW. SEE YOU NEXT MONTH 16