Modern Screen (Feb-Dec 1959)

looking directly in his restless brown eyes, trying to hold his attention, "It wouldn't matter if you were only hurting yourself, but when getting your wild man going involves hurting others, it's criminal. This man today who swerved to avoid an accident! He saved your life— and maybe lost his own." "Mister," Jojo said forlornly, "what do you want me to do? I've got nothing else to live for." Finally we were called up before the officer-in-charge while the case was reviewed. I had to testify against Jojo who was placed on $5,000 bail. Of course, he couldn't put up the money. Before I left, I asked if there was anything I could do for him. "Yeah," he said, sneering like the old Jojo, the cocky Jojo on the slippery roadway, "get me out of here so I can get the wild man going!" I drove to the studio. I was three hours late. But Jojo's last words haunted me: Get the wild man going. All afternoon I worked in front of the cameras. It was hard for me to concentrate on my role after all that had happened that morning. At the end of the day I called the police headquarters to find out if the man in the wrecked car had survived the accident. He had— but he would be crippled for life. I hung up the telephone and sat there, thinking ... An innocent man's life, ruined by a, youngster whose life was already ruined, ruined by a kid who believed there was nothing to live for What a waste! If there had been someone to show Jojo a little love, some understanding, none of this would have happened ... If he could have been shown what there was to live for, all the good things that teenagers accomplish every day for a better world ... An idea began to form in my mind. . . . Announcing the Hugh O'Brion Ranch This is the first announcement anywhere of the Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation and of the Ranch I'm going to start on the Coast. Instead of emphasizing juvenile delinquency, I'm going to emphasize accomplishment. I will invite, as my guests, outstanding young people who are contributing their ideas and energy for the good of mankind. For the guys and gals who have accomplished the greatest good, there'll be financial assistance, and I'll ask them to serve on executive committees during the summers at the Ranch. And for a certain group of young people especially— the kids at the other Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation Ranch. This ranch is going to be for kids like Jojo, kids who believe in nothing, who think they have nothing to live for, kids who are confused, mixed-up and desperate for help. This ranch will be a place where homeless teenagers of all races, religions and creeds can come and begin to build a life for themselves, can have the opportunity of creating a self-supporting community, a place they'll take pride in. And what of Jojo? He's behind bars now, serving time as a hit-and-run driver. Before too many more Jojos are created, I hope that the Hugh O'Brian ranches will help us to steer 'the wild man' in the right direction. If you would like to spend the summer with me, write me for further information. Write describing what you're doing to make your school, your community, your world a better place. My address: HUGH O'BRIAN ABC-TV Center Hollywood, Calif. end Diane Varsi (Continued from page 54) mixed up." Diane was "immature and doesn't know what she's doing." Diane was "smart, because if she doesn't like Hollywood, she should remove herself from :the situation. But I think if she goes back ' to Bennington, they'll treat her like a : movie star, and if she didn't like that here, she won't like it there either." They had a lot to say, little people and big people, wildly trying to justify thenway of life to a girl who couldn't hear them and didn't care. She hadn't cared for a long time, and maybe she'd never cared. This past year, she'd gone on dates with actors (Mark Damon was the most frequent) and sat, quiet, withdrawn. She'd turned off her phone so the world couldn't get at her. She'd felt a need to strip her life down to essentials, and, after a while even possessions seemed vulgar, and she lived in a house with no rugs, and had a bedroom which contained only a bed. There's a place in Tennessee Williams' play, Camino Real, where a character named Lord Byron says, "I've found myself listening to hired musicians behind a row of artificial palm trees— instead of the single-pure-stringed instrument of my heart. . . . It's time to leave here! Time for departure even when there's no certain place to go!" It must have been like this for Diane straining to hear the music of her own troubled heart, knowing that it was time to leave Hollywood, even though she had no certain place to go." Why Bennington, Vermont? The answer is vague. "I knew some girls who'd gone to college here . . ." It wasn't a simple thing ; like a wanderer's coming home. Diane's San Francisco -born; her roots were not in New England, she'd never been East except to make Peyton Place. The truth was that Diane had no roots. She'd been moving, running, for as long as she could remember. She'd leftftiomes, parents, two husbands, jobs, towns, friends. Once, she believed in fairies. She was seven years old. As kindly as possible, her mother told her fairies didn't exist, but she only pitied her mother. How terrible not to believe! And then she thought of a way to lure her fairy out of hiding. She dug ten holes in a circle, in the backyard. She put a flower in one hole, and a piece of cheese in the next, all the way around. Then she sat in the middle of the circle and waited. "I loved flowers, and I loved cheese. My fairy had to come." All afternoon, the little girl sat in the circle until it got too dark to see, and she was called in for supper and bed. The next morning, she ran out to the yard. The flowers and cheese were still in the holes. And she cried. "That was the day the fairies died in me — " Her father, brilliant, weak, violent — was broken by a business world he hated. She describes how he'd lock himself in a room and read all day and you think, "That's something she'd do herself," but she isn't aware of the coincidence. She never felt she was his child, she was convinced he was "disappointed in me. He wanted a son. He bought me a red sweatshirt, and taught me how to fight." When she was nine years old, "I saw my mother and father cracking up. I watched them, and I knew what was happening. After that, whenever my father yelled at me. I knew he was scared, and I wouldn't during "THOSE DAYS" with SANITARY PANTIES Wear with your regular napkin. No belt • Wo bulge • Prevents stains NO EMBARRASSMENT. HI-G gives you a special water-proofed nylon panel (no rubber used) to prevent stains and "accidents" MORE CONFIDENCE. HI-G's hidden fasteners eliminate belts and pins. 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