Motion Picture (Feb-Jul 1940)

Why Girls Can't Resist Him [Continued from page 25] mind the soft swaying of palm trees on moonlit tropical shores— even though he plays the accordion. Compared to Valentino and the lesser lovers of the screen, Jimmy really hasn't got a leg to stand on. But you simply cannot go ahead and dismiss him without a further thought. There's something about him that always lingers in your memory. He's your first childhood sweetheart grown up. He's like the boy who gave you your first kiss. And like these, he cannot be forgotten. To the late Dr. Freud, or for that matter to any psychologist, the paradox of Jimmy's strange appeal is not really a mystery. In everyday life he is not a rare specie but in the land of films he is a complete contradiction to all accepted standards. And to most people he is a trifle bewildering. Taken at first glance, Jimmy is just a big overgrown kid whose thinness actually is a grave cause of concern to his doctors. He isn't handsome according to all Hollywood measurements. He hasn't got one of those glib, winning voices that makes the girls slither up to him. Nor does he employ flattery or any of the more subtle artifices with which to lure the feminine contingents to his side. He's got an eagle-beaked face and hair that never stays in place. He's shy. He's awkward. He's slow. But still the ladies love him. Just what he does to affect women the way he undoubtedly affects them has been a great mystery to the master minds of films. But if they understood some simple psychology, the great enigma could easily have been cleared up a long time ago. In Hollywood these days, it isn't enough merely to be a good actor. You definitely have to have something else. Something almost equally important. Something all the fans will like. And in the strange case of Jimmy Stewart, you are apt to find it. Though he, himself, may be unaware of it, there's something about him that makes maiden and matron alike sigh with satisfaction whenever his face is flashed on the screen. Jimmy Stewart is no pretty glamor boy. He defies anyone to call him that without smiling. He's everything directly opposed to any woman's idea of a matinee idol. Highschool girls don't go around harboring mad crushes on him. And he certainly doesn't fit into the brawny, brusque school of heroes. BUT according to Freud, who certainly knew more about love and sex than any person in this world, Jimmy Stewart would be classified as a person with an abundance of sex appeal. And whether you want to believe it or not, he has more of it than Taylor, Gable and Power all rolled into one. If you have any doubts on the subject, try a little research in the realm of Mr. Freud yourself. Maybe Jimmy, himself, might find this revelation a bit startling. Or maybe he's too deeply engrossed tinkering with airplane models, or startling stray strollers by popping his camera into their surprised faces, to care. Even in Hollywood where glamor is a drug on the market, the ladies have been standing in line for Jimmy. And some of them are ladies who certainly have mighty high standards. This shy, young, kid-brother type has done something to them. Maybe he reminds them^of their own kid brothers madly dashing around town trying to borrow a tux for the junior prom. Or maybe they knew a kid like bim who spent most of his days up in the attic tinkering with brokendown motors and building model sail-boats. But to all Hollywood, he's a cross between Ronald Colman and Gary Cooper. And as such he will keep the feminine pulses fluttering as long as he breathes. But getting down to the reasons for his strange appeal, you have to go back to his very childhood. Ever since he was a kid there was something serious and determined about Jimmy. He was one of those youngsters who took everything in life with an eager, intense understanding. He was the sober, wide-eyed kind to whom all the world was a vast mystery. And because of this seriousness and his own seeming helplessness, people always took a liking to him. Even today those very same symptoms persist. And because of them people are always anxious and wanting to help him. EVERYONE feels like taking him under wing and explaining the strange bewildering complications of life. Old ladies want to give him a good hearty meal to fatten him up a bit. Younger women want to comb his hair in place and fix his necktie. Married women want to tell him to wear an overcoat and rubbers out in the rain. In short, everyone is concerned with his well being. The very first key to his complex nature is the fact that everyone likes him. Because they like him, everyone wants to do things for him. In short, they want to mother him. To cater to his wants. To see that he takes care of himself. And this, according to psychologists, constitutes the second key. Third, and last, Jimmy is a big kid at heart. This makes him the sort that never grows up in the minds of those around him. They always keep on mothering him. They always regard him as an adolescent. And because of this, they lavish on him the first and strongest kind of love. A love that is prompted by a maternal instinct. This love alone is not the type that makes successful movie stars. But with Jimmy, there is added a flavoring of the more mature and emotional love. Actual grown-up love. But beneath it all, and what first attracts about him, is his primary appeal to the mother instinct. All this may sound a bit complicated. But when you consider all women have the mother instinct, this is not so strange. Without it there would be no such thing as love. But when this instinct is bestowed on someone mature, it undergoes a slight change — a change that makes it more grown-up. But it is -because of the desire to mother a man, that a great many women fall in love with the men they marry. And because most men are children at heart and like all this fuss and attention, women are sometimes attracted to them. It makes a woman feel she has the upper hand. It makes her feel capable of a certain amount of mastery over the male. And fundamentally, the feeling is one which all women covet. According to those who have witnessed his rapid-fire rise to stardom, Jimmy is the hottest thing in Hollywood. But that isn't the reason for his being one of the most popular stars in the film colony. They like him for the same reason the audiences throughout the country like him. They like him because he is Jimmy Stewart both off the screen and on. They like him [Continued on page 92] RIDE WITH THROUGH WINTER WEATHER! Greyhound Super-Coaches Offer June Warmth in January I Forget outside weather when you're inside a Greyhound Super -Coach! 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