Modern Screen (Jan-Nov 1956)

maureen o'hara (Continued from page 60) luxurious, doesn't it? It is but I have to dress like a star. Stars of a certain standing have to look glamorous and be glamorous every time we leave our houses. This is our business. My dark mink coat is ten years old and in perfect condition, for I care for it myself. I don't sit on it any more than I have to, I brush it before it is returned to / the closet. My furrier says it is more valuable than the day I bought it. I payed plenty for it and worked hard for it, and intend it shall last my lifetime. It is vital to my star wardrobe. The other glamorous pieces I have acquired from time to time. One or two of them are extravagances, but they are all part of star trappings. Add-Q-diamond I have a wonderful jewelry collection, some real and some costume. Every piece was considered in terms of showmanship. How would it photograph? I remember when I finally saved enough to buy the lovely diamond necklace. I thought and still think it is the most beautiful for me. I know lots of stars who have wonderful jewelry, but upon my purchase of this ultra-luxurious item I thought, "Congratulations, Maureen FitzSimons, you are buying a diamond necklace." That fall I was in New York on a personal appearance for a picture. I wanted to buy some cuff links for the director I had just worked with and went to a very chic and wellknown jeweler. Upon completing my purchase the salesman said he would like to show me their newest diamond necklace. Drawing my mink around me I informed the gentleman that I had a diamond necklace. He assured me he was sure I had, but he still wanted me to see their prize piece. He did! I never saw such a blaze of light, it was enormous. Since that day I call mine my "add-a-diamond necklace." (I remember when I couldn't have even bought an add-a-pearl necklace.) Stars create a personality that pleases the public. This is our "uniform," our trademark, and our fortune. I'm never out of uniform, even at home. On a working day I am up at five-thirty, have fruit and coffee from a thermos by my bed, for no one else in the household is up at this time. I wash my face, brush teeth and get into a simple dress and am off to the studio. This isn't just any old dress, it is a carefully purchased dress of simple lines, easy to get into but mighty becoming. Arriving at 6:30 at the studio, I fall into the hands of Fae Smith, my hairdresser, and Jimmy Barker, my make-up man. They are there and have had coffee prepared by Blanche Williams, my personal studio maid. My dressing room becomes my factory and my hair is washed, make-up applied, costume arranged and on the set. I've learned my lines by nine o'clock. We work until 12 or 12:30, then back to the dressing room for lunch of chops, vegetable and salad, as prepared by Blanche. Usually luncheon is an interview, with my agent, or business manager, or a friend I otherwise wouldn't see. I seldom go to the studio commissary for my lunch unless I have an out-of-town guest who would enjoy it. I can't take a full hour. First I have to get out of my costume so the wardrobe girl can take it away to press and refresh it. This takes a few minutes, then twenty minutes before the hour is up my hairdresser and make-up man return to re-fix me for the afternoon shooting. Back to the set and work until 6. I then return to my dressing room and have a complete bath to wash off my make-up, back into my dress and coat and drive 84 home Dinner with my family at 7: 15, bed by 8:30 or 9, study lines until 10 and then off to sleep. It is a long, hard working day. Between pictures I rise about 8:30 to say goodbye to my daughter before school. I breakfast with my brothers, who live with me, and then start over the household tasks I can't do when I'm on a picture. Checking menus, seeing that the linen closet is in order, the usual things any working woman does on week ends. We have friends for dinner over the week ends and I do some of the shopping and lunch with friends. If I am going to an opening or party I must save time to do my hair properly, for I do it myself. These are two typical days in my life, not much different than that of other stars. The time, effort and money we spend to maintain our standards are enormous, and mount as the years go on. It would be foolish of me to say they are tiresome, for they are exciting, and now second nature. We do it because our face and figures, now magnified on the new wide screens, are our fortune. We can't afford a skin blemish, cannot tolerate an extra pound of weight, cannot have a hair out of place. Do-it-yourself beauty Most of us have learned to arrange our hair ourselves, having learned from our expert studio hairdressers, so between pictures I, at least, do it myself. This means three times a week I must set aside three hours a day to do this chore. I wash my hair thoroughly and roll it up in the fashion I desire and try to let it dry as much by itself as possible. I spend about a half hour under my hair dryer, but about two wandering around letting the sun and Gary Cooper has only praise for Richard Eyer, the ten-year-old actor, who plays his son in Mr. Birdwell Goes To Battle. And you can't blame Cooper. When director William Wyler asked Eyer how he liked having Gary Cooper for a dad, the child replied: "Swell, sir, but isn't he too young to be my dad?" Sidney Skolsky in The New York Post air dry it. My make-up between pictures is minimum, unless I am going to an opening. Thus to apply my mascara, eyeliner and lipstick takes only a few minutes, but to be sure my face is clean takes about a half hour morning and night, when I thoroughly cream my face and then wash it with mild soap and rinse it in tepid water. My creams are simple, but good and expensive and I use a lot of them in my cleansing process. My daily bath is a hot water ritual. I scrub all over with a rough cloth, pay particular attention to the elbows and knees. I towel thoroughly to keep the circulation up after my rinse bath. I exercise after my bath, it is for figure control and suppleness. The oldfashioned bends, rolls and stretches are my ritual, you read about them in the papers every day. I do them. After working on a picture for a number of weeks and being cooped up on a sound stage I start walking, or hiking. This I love for it seems to straighten out all the kinks in my body and gives me a time to think. My diet, and I will bet you that of other stars, too, is lean meat, leafy vegetables, very little starch and lots of fruit juice. Average day, year in and year out I eat the following: breakfast, a boiled egg, strip of bacon, slice of toast and tea or coffee. The toast is buttered, but not too much. For lunch at home, or at a restaurant, lean broiled meat, vegetable and fruit for between pictures, usually a salad or dessert. For dinner usually clear soup, salad, meat and vegetables and a light dessert. I love good food as much as anybody, but eat in moderation and splurge only on occasion. I avoid heavy sauces, cream soups, hot breads and mile-high desserts. My eating habits are pretty well set. There is an unwritten law in Hollywood, and it is governed solely by the camera, not morals, "movie stars do not drink." I have yet to see a successful star who does, or can do it. I used to think I held a record in Hollywood for holding one glass throughout a cocktail party. I now know almost everyone else does. I do like a glass of sherry occasionally. I do like wine with my dinner on special occasions, but one glass and that is that. I am not a prude, I am a business woman intent on protecting my career. I can have a good time sitting around with people who drink and I don't object to their doing it. I only know I cannot. Cost of dressing My average yearly wardrobe is well over four figures, but it is a business investment. I travel a lot to make pictures, this means I must be well dressed for all climates and eventualities. I am photographed getting on and off planes, in foreign countries I am seen and reported on by the press. I must look well there as well as in America. I go to Don Loper and have my clothes made and my closet is a delight to me. About twenty lovely evening gowns, ranging in price from about four hundred dollars to a thousand. My dresses to wear under my furs cost about three or four hundred dollars apiece. I will tell you a secret. Don designs my clothes so they can be changed from season to season and I have some of his clothes in my closet that are six years old and I still wear them, and happily, too. Suits are custom made and softly tailored with slightly full skirts, for movie stars don't look too good sitting down with a tight skirt running up over their knees. My shoes come from I. Miller and I have lots of them. My bags are handsome, expensive and well kept. Gloves are a hobby with me and I pick them up in every country I visit. They cover my home-manicured hands, for I do my nails myself. When I travel I care for my clothes myself as I won't trust any hotel to press my hemlines. This I have learned after many years of practice. My summer clothes come from Loper, just a few, for he will not allow me to buy such expensive cottons. He sends me into the stores to buy the pretty massmanufactured dresses he would have to charge me a mint for. Thus alongside of my hundred dollar frocks hang some fifteen and twenty dollar cottons which are smart and effective. Good accessories dress these up enormously and I wear them everywhere in hot weather. I love color and go wild in it each summer. My wardrobe is selected not for chic but for becomingness and photogenic qualities. I let the non-professionals be the chic ones, I just want to be looked at for myself. That is what I am selling, and to blazes with high fashion. I leave the A-look to Mr. Dior. I just want the "O'Hara Look." My tastes have changed in the twelve years that I have reached stardom, it would be silly to say they haven't. I am not the same girl as before. I earn a good salary, have business and social obligations I did not have before and travel in a circle of people of equal incomes. I still love the toilet water scents I used to buy, but do adore the Arpege, Mitusko and other expensive prefumes I can now afford. These are only simple comparisons, but they mean twelve years of hard work and lots of fun and I'm still loving it. END