Modern Screen (Feb-Dec 1958)

test. Let them decide that! Millie, dear." "I'll make a fool of myself." "Cary Grant flunked his first screen test. Clark Gable flunked his first screen test. Lana Turner — " "She passed hers!" "So will you!" "That'll be even worse! I don't want to go so far away from you." "Honey, I'm going into the Army. They might send me to Japan — how do we know?" "Oh, they couldn't — " "And just think — California's a lot closer to Japan than New York is!" As always, his confidence in her won the day. She took the test. But it was not his confidence that won the role — it was the serious dark eyes, the shy smile, the delicate face, the hidden talent that made her be the sensitive little Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis. By the time the tests were analyzed, by the time the part was hers and she had gotten the — to her— unmitigated gall to sign a seven-year contract for doing something she'd never done before, her fellow was indeed in the Army. He hadn't been sent to Japan but he had made sergeant and he was definitely — busy. So they were prepared, or almost prepared for separation. When he put Millie on the plane for the coast, she was determinedly cheerful. "At least," she said, "we'll have plenty of money for your med school. We won't have to wait any more to get married." The sergeant puts his foot down Very seriously, he took her into his arms. "Millie, darling, maybe we won't wait any longer once I get out. God knows I don't want to. But we won't use a penny of your money. Not a penny." Startled, she drew back. "But whatever is mine belongs to you. Just as yours does to me. It's always been like that." "Not where it comes to that. I'll save my Army pay, sweetheart. I'll have a lot put away. I'm not going to live off you no matter how much you make. So buy yourself half a dozen assorted shades of mink, Millie. The money is all yours." In her first interview with the big brass of the studio, she heard the words: "and then your next picture. . . ." She interrupted shyly. "Well, you'll have to give me a little time off. For — for a honeymoon." The silence fell like a lump of lead. ' ' You're — engaged ? ' ' She nodded. She always felt better when she could talk about her fellow. "Oh yes. Since high school. He's in the Army, but when he gets out we're getting married. Then he's going to med school." She looked around the room, her eyes shining. But the men weren't looking at her. They were shaking their heads. "What's the matter?" "Look, Miss Perkins — Millie. This is hard to explain. But you're a newcomer, right? And actually, this picture rides on your shoulders. You'll make it or break it. So — we have to sell you to the public. Get them to know your name, wonder about you, want to see you. See?" "Yes—" "Well, the best way to do that is — well, for them to see your name in the papers. In the gossip columns. Millie Perkins seen at the Mocambo with So-and-So. Millie Perkins, out dancing with Joe Doaks, says her favorite joke is. . . . You know." Millie's face was white. "But I can't. I can't go dancing with anyone at all. I'm engaged. And I don't want to. I haven't gone out with another boy for — " They nodded, soothingly. "But he would understand, wouldn't he? That it was really just for business? Then after the picture is over, you could announce your engagement. He'd understand, you know." "Maybe he would," Millie cried out. "But I wouldn't. I'm sorry. I can't do it. Not for anyone. I'll go home tomorrow, today. But I — " They all talked at once then. In the end, they talked her down. Not on dating. She could no more do that than cut off her arm. But they persuaded her to let them pretend even if she wouldn't. "Yes," poor Millie said miserably. "I guess. I mean — well — " But she couldn't hold out against them. For the first time since she was eleven, she was alone again — and she had to please them, had to have their approval, their praise. Alone, she just wasn't strong enough to defend herself. And so she set out to live a lie. Millie Perkins, whose face turned red at so much as an evasion, faced interviewers by the score with her lie in her mouth, burning with shame. Reporters found her shy, diffident, noted that as soon as they got onto personal topics, her voice seemed to fade away. If they pushed it further, she might stop talking altogether. Or, sometimes, an angry spark might finally flare in her cheeks and then they would go away wondering what Millie Perkins had to be so snooty about. The stories that went out to the papers contradicted each other over and over again. Millie Perkins at the Mocambo with George Stevens, Jr., son of the director of The Diary Of Anne Frank. Millie Perkins' favorite Hollywood dates are Nick Adams, Barry Coe, Tommy Sands, Gary Crosby, Dick Sargent. Millie Perkins, new find, never dates; she's too busy studying her Anne Frank script. Millie Perkins has never had a crush on a boy since a six-year-old intrigued her in grammar school. When that died out, she never found another. Millie Perkins went steady with three boys at once in high school. . . . And so on. Once and only once the reports were true: Dick Beymer, who plays opuosite her, took her to a ballet. "But that wasn't a date," she protested violently to a reporter. "Why not?" "Because he didn't ask me. I asked him. I wanted to go and so — " Joseph Schildkraut, who plays her father, saw her tremendous embarrassment, came to her rescue. "I love this girl." he boomed to the reporter. "I love her!" The reporter went away confused, but satisfied. After that, because he played her father and because he was kind and she was too lonely to bear it, she told Schildkraut the truth. Later, as she grew closer to Shelley Winters and Nina Foch, losing her awe of them in the warmth of their kindness and affection, she told them, too. After that, things were a little better. But not better enough. At night, after she has cooked, burnt, and eaten her dinner alone, after she has studied her lines and written her long, nightly letter to the Sergeant — after that, the tears still come. And because she is too bound by her love to date, too tied by her lie to seek friends, she remains alone and desolate. Perhaps by telling this story for all the world to see, we have brought an end to loneliness for Millie Perkins. Perhaps it may even be seen that a love story is not duller than gossip, that truth is something more precious than a useful lie. We hope so. We would like to see an end to the lie, an end to the loneliness. We would like to know more about Millie's guy, their plans, their future. We would like to share their love, end Millie will soon be seen in The Diary Of Anne Frank for 20th-Fox. For at its most dramatic, watch MODERN ROMANCES The "live" shoiv that brings you truelife drama over the NBC-TV network. In magazines, the live one is Now on sale everywhereonly ^ ^ 20f ( Modern Romances the "live" magazine that lives for you