Movieland. (1950)

SOME DAY! I Continued from page 26 1 she gets pleasure from it; and she can quit whenever she feels like it. I’m in¬ terested only in her happiness. “We do plan to have more children, however. We want at least three or four.” “Soon?” “Oh, we think children should be spaced two or three years apart. I’ll tell you something. When you bring life into this world, it does something to you. You’re responsible for that life, and you can never let it down. You should know our Linda Susan. She goes to sleep laughing, and she wakes up laughing. There’s a baby for you.” “Do you plan to build another home?” I asked. “No,” he replied. “We like it here. Shirley’s loved it ever since she was a little girl. You know it was originally built as a theater for her. Then it was converted into a house. We’ll have to add some rooms before any new babies arrive. And some day we’d like a small ranch on which to spend our weekends. But that will have to wait.” “As a husband, you’re supposed to be head of the house. Do you find that much responsibility?” I asked. “As far as I’m concerned,” he said, “being the head of the home is a matter of doing the carving at the table. The old idea of the husband’s being master of the home is out. I don’t want top billing here. Shirley and I try to work on the sixty-forty basis. In our relations, each tries to give sixty percent while asking only forty in return. Of course, the giv¬ ing adds up to more than one hundred percent. But that’s so much the better. It’s something at which to aim.” “Do you help with the house work?” I asked. “I’m afraid not; at least, not much,” he grinned. “We have a maid and a nurse. I spend much of my free time playing -golf. At one period Shirley was on the point of becoming a ‘golf widow.’ But I got her some clubs, and she joined me at the game. Because of the baby and our film work, however, we haven’t done much golfing together lately. We intend to take up horse-backing as soon as we find time. “Our social life? Well, we both like attending parties and meeting interest¬ ing people,” he continued. “But at heart we’re a couple of home-lovers; so we don’t get around very much, especially since the baby came. Our favorite way of spending an evening is reading or listening to symphony music and mystery stories on the radio. I don’t think you have to be in the social whirl to be suc¬ cessful in the film business. The impor¬ tant thing is to do your work satisfac¬ torily.” “Do you think staying happily married in Hollywood is a difficult problem?” I asked. “Absolutely not,” he replied. “Holly¬ wood is a fine town. Basically it’s no dif¬ ferent than, say, Evanston, Illinois. Everything depends upon what you want to make of it. That idea of one’s being unable to have a happy home -life here is simply a state of mind.” “And the fact that you’re married to such a famous person as Shirley offers no particular problems?” I added. “Problems?” said he. “It never enters my mind that Shirley is a famous per¬ son. To me she’s just my wonderful wife.” The End Editor’s Note: Right now there’s much gossip about a rift in the Agar family. The reason — temperament. We hope it isn’t so — for it’s almost like discovering there’s no Santa Claris. polite hostess by handing me a plate of carrots. “Will you have one? They’re fresh. We’ve been eating carrots steadily for three days and I’m beginning to feel like a rabbit.” She looked in the dress¬ ing table mirror, and her reflected image looked for all the world like a pert and feminine edition of Bugs Bunny. The costume and carrots were for a dream sequence of “My Dream Is Yours,” the Michael Curtiz-Warner Brothers re¬ lease. In it, Doris and Jack Carson, along with Bugs Bunny, form a singing-dancing trio. And, if you think you liked Doris’ first picture, “Romance on the High Seas,” wait until you see her cavorting through this picture! She’s sensational. Doris Day is the number one Cinderella in Hollywood today. Believe it or not, she hadn’t had any stage or screen experience to her credit when Michael Curtiz chose her for that first Technicolor musical. There’s no doubt, however, that her sing¬ ing career did pave the way when she made the transition to screen actress. Before coming to Hollywood, Doris was a vocalist with a number of big name bands. In fact, she even owes her name to her association with bandleader Bar¬ ney Rapp, who decided that her family name of Kappelhoff was a bit unwieldy and suggested she take on the name of . Day since the song, “Day after Day,” was one of her favorite numbers. Fame came to pretty Doris when she traveled with Les Brown’s band. During her three year stint with this group she made the recording of “Sentimental Journey” and became a national hit. After that, Hollywood, beckoned. She is convinced that her present en¬ viable position came about through a substantial degree of good fortune, but in at least two instances it didn’t look so good at the time. Just about a year ago A1 Levy, her manager, arranged an interview for Doris, with Curtiz. She was feeling pretty low about her own personal affairs. “I can’t sing,” she told Levy the day of the appointment. “I feel too sad.” “Then sing something sad,” he ad¬ vised. Curtiz applauded her number with a screen test, a long term contract and a top role with Jack Carson in “Romance on the High Seas.” Everything was just, dandy until Doris saw her screen test about ten days later. She had heard that people photograph differently — and usually with improve¬ ments! — and was shocked to discover that she looked exactly like herself in the film. “I was mentally turning thumbs down on my future in pictures when I dis¬ covered that Mr. Curtiz had taken an entirely different view. It seems he LIKED the way I photographed and signed me on the spot.” Doris’ first big break, the one that started her on the path to her present career, seemed like the end of the world at the time. She was 16, rated as a tal¬ ented dancer, and on tour with a Fanchon and Marco show. The car in which she was riding hit a train. When she re¬ gained consciousness it was to discover that her leg was broken in three places. For 14 months there was doubt whether she would ever dance again. “When things looked worst, my brother Paul used to make me laugh by telling me that it was really a lucky break. My leg ached before a storm, and he insisted someday that I’d be famous as a human I barometer.” It was during this period that, Doris learned to sing. “The funny thing now is that my brother was so right,” Doris said thought¬ fully. “Of course, not just the way he said. My lucky break — learning to sing — came about certainly because the in¬ juries to my leg were such bad breaks.” When a person has had the ups and downs Doris has had, you might wonder if she’s superstitious. I spotted a rabbit’s foot on her dressing table — and Doris’ eyes twinkled as I asked about it. “No, I’m not superstitious,” she laughed. “I don’t have that for more luck, but just to remind myself of the" wonderful luck I’ve -already had.” She patted her pink and white ears, ran a practiced eye over the heap of carrots beside her, and selected a crisp specimen. “If ever I change my path to keep from walking under a ladder, it’ll only be because there’s a guy with a bucket of paint on top and I don’t want to risk a paint bath. “Breaking my leg seemed the worst possible luck that could happen to me and it turned out to be the best good for¬ tune I could possibly have had." Indeed, Fortune has smiled on thevivacious young lady. No other girl ever got a movie job more quickly. Her screen debut in “Romance on the High Seas” was sensational. Now she’s working on her third picture, “It’s a Great Feeling,” a gay Technicolor picture with lots of music, in which she’s co-starred with Dennis Morgan .and Jack Carson. With that record, do you wonder that Doris laughs at superstitions? “Was there ever another girl who had an automobile accident lead to a screen career?” she asks seriously. And you answer — just as solemnly — that there hasn’t been. But after talking a while to the gay, young star, you can’t help feeling that only an unusual person could overcome the difficulties and heartbreak that have been hers — and still arise a bright, shiny star. The End Recognize her? It’s cute Doris Day dressed as a Hawaiian cutie in “My Dream Is Yours.” 75