Modern Screen (Feb-Dec 1958)

jHHI Jlllllllllll!lil:lllllllllllll!llllllllllillll!lllllllllllllllll!llll!llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllli "NO HABLA ESPAGNOL VERY GOOD" | ^^he was dressed in a very sophisticated outfit, the \oung and very chic | | ^9 Mrs. Robert Wagner, looking as though she had stepped from the pages of 1 I a fashion magazine. Natalie Wood, once a gay pixie, was now the picture of | j sophistication. § Carl Schaefer. head of Warner Brothers' Foreign Department, approached | I her with a black-haired, black-eyed stranger as she sat alone in the Green Room. | | Carl had introduced Natalie to a succession of these dark-haired, dark-eyed § I strangers who were invariably vip's from the various Latin countries where | | Warners did business — statesmen, studio magnates, exhibitors. "Natalie, here is an old friend of yours," said Carl. I Natalie extended her hand with friendly warmth. "Como ha estado, Senor?" j 1 she said, probing her memory all the while. Was this the Consul from Equador? j | Or perhaps a theatre owner from Barcelona? 1 The man smiled and took her hand — although a faintly puzzled expression | I crossed his face. "Si, si, muchas gracias," he said. I So things were going fine! Natalie had progressed a long way since she first j | began the study of Spanish in order to sound convincing in her role of the young | I senorita in The Burning Hills with Tab Hunter. She had pursued her study with § 1 genuine interest, even after the picture was over, because one of her dreams is to § | go to Spain one day to make a picture. Everything Spanish has always fascinated § | Natalie. So, preparing for the day when she will at last visit Spain. Natalie has made j i it a practice to converse in Spanish with every Latin she meets. "Favor de sentarse," she said. now. Carl nodded toward a chair, and the young j I man sat down. ] "Muchas gracias, senorita," he mumbled. "Mucho gusto en verle," Natalie | | said. "Si, si, muchas gracias," said he. "Por nada," she replied. The young man knit his dark brow. "Well, hasta la vista, and muchas gracias" j | he said. And he added something in Spanish that might have meant most any | | thing. It might have meant, "You are very beautiful." But it didn't mean anything at all. It was strictly fractured Spanish, all the j | young man could remember from the ninth grade. "What part of Spain are you from?" Natalie asked him — in English now. "Me? I'm Andy Green from Brooklyn. Don't you remember? I met you at | | Schroon Lake when you were up there for Marjorie Morningstar," 70 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiii! iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiini His face brightened. "That's a good idea; You can wear it on a chain around your' neck . . ." He hesitated . . . "And when1 you get married, you can use it as ai wedding ring. . . ." It was serious, and it wasn't. We talked about it that night, and we've discussed it since then. I think we both feel pretty much the same way: We love each other. We would love to be married to each other. But we're afraid,' too. Marriage, difficult under the best of circumstances, is much more difficult in1 our position. We know the demands on! us — the tensions, the frustrations, the ups| and downs. Neither of us considers mar-| riage on a trial-and-error basis, something to be rushed into and if it doesn't worki out — who cares? We are serious, we want to get married only once, we want to have; children. And so we have to be sure. . .. . Actually, we are opposites in more ways than we are alike. But this does not frighten; us from getting married. It's these differences that make being together more fun. j Recently, we were on a publicity trip I to Riverside, California. Shortly after lunch, a photographer had asked Nick and me to pose by the pool. As we pre. cariously balanced on the diving board, i! suddenly felt a shove and went into thej water, head first. My beautiful hairdo! "It was an accident," Nick screeched when I came up for air. "I bet it was!" I snapped angrily. I got out of the pool and went upstairs to fix up my hair as well as I could. I was still annoyed when I came down again. No sooner had I gotten close to the pool when Nick pushed me in. "This time I meant it," he cried out. I couldn't help laughing. I'd never met anyone quite like him! I have a temper. Nick doesn't. I feel that theater is the backbone of acting; Nick thinks there's nothing like movies. Yet we both feel there is nothing duller than \ two people seeing eye to eye on everything— professionally and privately. I must admit that in looking at marriage— even in general terms — Nick has the typical male attitude. He is far more frightened by it than I am! "Acting is so unpredictable," he confessed one night , when he brought me home. "I'd be afraid | to have kids and not be able to take care ■ of them. . . ." "Don't you think everyone feels that way?" "I wouldn't know," he said discouraged, j "I'm not every one . . . how do you feel ] about it?" "I feel that there is Someone to look after all of us, all the time. . . ." Maybe I have a stronger religious belief than Nick has. I don't know. We've never talked about it, and he's never gone to church with me. But I guess most girls feel more strongly about it than fellows do. . . . Curiously enough, usually I'm the one who is discouraged more easily, while Nick can rationalize things. Everything, it seems, but marriage. In addition, I don't believe in engagements. I want to be married, or I want to be single. I don't like the in-between status. That's why Nick and I have agreed to call the rings we have given each other just friendship rings. Although the few other people we've dated since we met have been no more than friends, I want Nick to feel as free to date others — if he really wants to — as I am. At this time, neither of us can tell for certain what will happen. But I am sure of two things: that Nick would make a wonderful husband; and that, wonderful though he is — I am still afraid to marry him now. . . . END You can see Nick in No Time For Sergeants for Warners.