Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1941)

Brenda Joyce's short cut to happiness is fruit in a gloss jar Scene: The Owen Wards' kitchen. Stars: Brenda Joyce's sister-inlaw, Janet Ward, and Mrs. Ward ANN HAM I LTON 'LL never get over being amazed at the versatility of our young Hollywood stars, their superb ability to combine a career with a number of other interests and do a bang-up job on all fronts. Brenda Joyce, for one. Here's Brenda starring away like mad out at 20th Century-Fox, finishing up "Private Nurse" and going into "Marry the Boss' Daughter" with hardly time to catch her breath in between — and it really isn't any wonder that when I went out to see her the other day I sorta expected that she might be doing a heavy job of relaxing in the latest fluffiest lounging attire and that she would talk about her career. I was mistaken. Brenda herself opened the door and instead of frou-frous she was wearing something very trick indeed in the way of a house dress, topped by the snappiest looking fruit and flower-motif apron I've ever seen. Career? Nary a word did she say about it. She just chattered away a mUe a minute about her husband, Owen Ward; their recent camping trip up the Kern River and their new home. The new home is really a gem. It's a three-room apartment, as modern as tomorrow's newspaper, and Brenda is going about the business of home-making in just the competent, gracious way you'd expect her to. She thinks the essentials for pleasant living are comfort, beauty and usefulness and everything in the apartment must and does live up to these requirements. Glass, of all materials, seems to Brenda to combine efficiency and beauty to the best advantage so she has used glass in a variety of intriguing ways — mirrors to catch and reflect the light and so give additional spaciousness and brightness to a room, ornaments and gadgets to contribute gaiety and sparkle. Her dining table has a glass top. On it is an inverted bowl of glass, filled with water to magnify the flowers which float within it. And the cupboard shelves in her small and shipshape kitchen are filled with fruits in glass jars. When I commented on this Brenda admitted that she preferred them to any other kinds of canned fruit. "Only the finest 'Grade A, Fancy, Government Standard' fruits are used," she explained, "so you know you are getting the very best, even if you couldn't see the fruit itself before you buy it. But I'd have them, anyway," she added with a smile, "because they're so decorative. And I'm mad about the mint and cinnamon pears for dessert." These pears, incidentally, played an interesting part in the young Wards' camping trip. The trip was really an adventure. They had to go in on horseback, since the country is too rough for motoring, and besides the horses they rode they had a pack mule who carried ample provisions for the trek. Then along came trouble — one of those unexpected and unseasonable bouts of cold weather, with more snow than there had been in that section for thirty years and a very fancy bit of nose diving on the part of the thermometer. It was so cold, in fact, that it was unsafe for Brenda and Owen to sleep out in the open, but fortunately they were able to find refuge with Forest Ranger Rust and his wife. "They were so nice to us when we dropped in like that, half frozen," Brenda told me. "Well, we'd had some of the pears with us on the trip and I gave Mrs. Rust some and she liked them so well that I sent her a case of them." If you've tried these super-duper fruits in glass you can appreciate Brenda's enthusiasm for them. She has devised a number of recipes based on them and the ones I like particularly and believe you will like too are the pork chops wit: apricots, a jellied fruit salad and cheri and cantaloupe dessert Pork Chops and Apricots 6 pork chops 1 jar apricots Salt and pepper to taste Brown the pork choos and place in buttered casserole or baking dish. Cover with a layer of apricot halves, pour on a cup and a half of apricot juice and cook, covered, in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes. Serve with sweet potatoes or rice and a green vegetable. Jellied Fruit Salad 1 package lime-flavored gelatin 2 cups fruit salad Hot water (if necessary) Drain fruit salad and heat juice, addin? hot water to make one pint of liquid. Dissolve the gelatin in the hot liquid, allow to cool and when mixture begins to thicken fold in fruit salad. Turn into ring mold and chill until firm. Unmold onto crisp lettuce leaves or watercress and fill center with mayonnaise. Cantaloupe and Cherry Dessert 2 cantaloupes 1 jar white cherries Juice of fresh lime Chill cantaloupes and cut into halves Chill and drain cherries. Fill cantaloupe centers with cherries, squeeze a few drops of lime juice over each portion and serve immediately. 76 PHOTOPLAY combined with movie mdwob