Modern Screen (Jan-Dec 1960)

boy Bobby's family was on what they call Relief, and every week the family would get coupons for food — and sometimes the coupons were for only one kind of food — and this week they were only for eggs." ""That's why." Gary asked, "there was so many eggs in the icebox?" "Yes." Nina said. "So Bobby," she went oru "to have fun this day. lined up all the milk bottles and then began to play bowling balls. With the eggs! And one by one. the eggs crashed against the milk bottles — and broke." "How. Mama?" Gary asked, excitedly. "Like this." Nina said. She closed her eyes and shuddered: "Pow, pow, pow. pow. pow. pow . . . poic!" Gary giggled in delight. "All right with the egg story?" Nina = sked. opening her eyes. "Yes." Gary said. All about conceit "Now" Nina asked, "youil go find Geronimo?" "Yes," the boy said, rushing away. "And note." Nina asked again, when he was gone, "where was I?" "Conceit!" Vivi and Vana said together. "Oh that's right." Nina said, "about Bobby's conceitedness: this is what I'd like to say to anybody who brings that subject up. Conceitedness. I'd like to say first, probably isn't the right word even. Because the word conceited means that you have the idea you're good, that you think you're good. Well, in Bobby's case, he knows he's good. And to me this isn't conceit. It's assurance. An assurance he has of his talent. . . Bobby isn't conceited about other things. Not about his looks. God knows. In fact one day a photograper was here taking pictures and he said. "Okay, Jimmy, how about a shot over here?' And Bobby laughed and said. "You've got it wrong. Mister — Jimmy Darren's the actor, the good-looking one. I'm Bobby Darin, the singer, the homely one.' ... So it's not about his looks that Bobby brags, or anything like that. But about his talent. And if you say he's bad to go around bragging like this, then you've got to say equally well that it's good to be a hypocrite." Nina put down the letter she'd been holding all this while, and she smiled. "You know, though," she said, "it's funny how somebody like my brother can, at the same time he's bragging about himself, feel so strongly about other people— in such a quiet way. a humble way. I mean. I don't think that I have ever met a person on this earth who had less prejudice, no prejudice, towards any of his fellow men . . . big or small . . . especially small." A phone, in the next room, rang and interrupted her. Nina got up, excused herself. A minute or two later, she was back. "That," she said, "was one of Bobby's would-be girlfriends, some dancer from New York." "Goll-eeeee," Vivi, her daughter, said. Soon as they know he's home they start calling for dates. ... Is that what she wanted. Mama, to know what Bobby was doing tonight?" Nina nodded. Then to us. she said. "You'd "Junk they'd know by now that if there's one thing Bobby doesn't like is a pushy girl. I told this one. whoever she was. that he was sleeping and that she should call back later. But between you and me. I don't think it's going to get her very far." We asked Nina to tell us something about ner brother and his girlfriends. ""Well." she said, "he's never had any girlfriends, really — not as far as I know. I mean girls he's gone out with steady. over a period of time. . . . The very first time he went out on a real date. I remember, was his high school prom. I remember this because, being so casual about so many things, he was really excited about this, asking me all that day what he should do at the dance, what he should talk about. That night, I remember. I drove him and his date to the dance. I had this old Model-A Ford and I took them to this snazzy hotel down on Fifty-ninth Street. And I let them off about half a block from the hotel so I shouldn't embarrass them. . . . But what I remember most about the whole thing is the next day. Bobby saying to me that he'd had a nice time, that the girl was nice, all that — but that he'd decided that he wasn't ready to settle down to any single girl the way some of the other fellows at the prom seemed to be. that he wanted to take his time before deciding who the main girl in his life would be. . . . And. far as I know, this is the way it's been since. Bobby goes out. With lots of girls. But nothing very serious. He's still taking his time." The girl he'd marry We asked Nina then if she could picture the kind of girl her brother would eventually settle down with, marry. "I can see her, yes," Bobby's sister said. "'First, she will be a very feminine type. Very petite. She laughed. "Not like me, for instance, the hefty type." ""Mom," Vivi said, "you're Junoesque." "Call it what you will, sweetheart," Nina said, laughing again, "but the common word is hefty. . . ." She thought for a moment. "Then." she said, "for some reason, she will be fair-haired, light brown or blonde Don't ask me why. I just see her this way." Another pause: "Then." Nina said, "she will be an understanding type, understanding from the word go. To put up with Bobby in these moods I was telling you about before, to help him when he's under some of the pressures of this business he's in — she'll have to be understanding, very very understanding." " — And a good housecleaner," Vivi put in. "You should see Uncle Bobby with us. He always wants the house spick-and-span when he's home. . . . We're just through eating and he says, 'Okay*, Vivi, you clear the table — and you. Vana. over to the sink and get that water pushing through the pipes.' " "I wish, Nina said, nodding, "that he were home more often." "It's true," Vivi said, chuckling, "he's a real slave-driver sometimes." Nina nodded. And then she said, " — And I see her, this girl who marries Bobby someday, as having one other thing. A great sense of humor. Dry. So dry that she could pull his legs off with it and he wouldn't feel the pain." "Like Grandma's." Vana said. "Yes — like the kind of sense of humor my mother had," Nina said. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if. subconsciously. Bobby were looking around for a girl like our mom." She paused for a long moment. "Mom." she said, after a while, " — she was a remarkable woman. . . . Before she married my father she'd been in show business, a musical comedy star. But after she married she gave up the business — completely*— until Bobby* came along and she saw. after a while, that he could amount to something in this business she'd loved, respected, so much. "She's the one who encouraged Bobby. I mean encouraged him — the one who told him, through all the years, that nothing could ever stop him as long as he never stopped. You and all your friends will be mm! about these Personalized Xmas Cards .1 WHOLESALE. 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