Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1941)

Mary's o longer contrary I Wake Up Screaming! {Continued from page 44) 5) Of course Mary's garden was beautiful—all silver bells and cockle shells — and pretty maidens in a row. But she still was glum and contrary. You see Mary liked to chew gum. But she never could find one that was just right. One day her dentist suggested she try Dentyne. He told her Dentyne's pleasant firmness would be good for her teeth. So Mary got a handy, flat, flavortite package of Dentyne — and promptly tried one of the six individually wrapped sticks. When she tasted that temptingly dififerent, uniquely warm and delicious Dentyne flavor she stopped being contrary in exactly one-tenth of a second. "This is my chewing gum," cried Mary. "I'll never chew anything else." And now Mary sings as she gardens. Moral: You, too, will feel like singing when you taste Dentyne. Get a package today. 6 INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED STICKS IN EVERY PACKAGE HELPS KEEP TEETH WHITE down. He was jealous of this actor. Go on. You didn't go to work. Where did you go?" "I walked. I walked out Sunset and took a bus back. I had lunch. After that I went to the newsreel theater on Hollywood Boulevard. I came out. I didn't know what time it was." "It didn't occur to you to look? You had a date with the woman you loved. But it didn't occur to you to look and see what time it was?" I couldn't see this guy that was talking but I felt him and I knew him. I knew him inside and out. I knew his name and all about him. In the hours these things had come to me. His name was Ed Cornell and he was a homicide detective. He was about thirty. He had red hair and thin white skin and red eyebrows and blue eyes. He looked sick. He looked like a corpse. His clothes didn't fit him. He wore a derby. Nobody in California wears a derby but Ed Cornell wore one. He was a misfit but the rest of them thought he was smart. I said: "When I first met her she wouldn't give me a tumble until I pretended indifference. I thought I would see what she would do if I didn't show up." "So you went to a bar.'' "I went to a bar." "You went to a bar on Hollywood Boulevard," said Ed Cornell, "but the waiter doesn't even remember seeing you." "Well, it was a dark bar and it was crowded." "Then what did you do?" "I thought." "What did you think?" "I thought today Vicky would be very happy and it would be a lousy trick for me not to show up and congratulate her." "In other words you changed your mind?" "Yes." "You didn't wait for her outside of her agent's office on Sunset and pick her up at, say — three-thirty?" "No." "You didn't pick her up and take her to her apartment and kill her?" "No." "Did you ever argue with her about Robin Ray?" "Yes, plenty." "What did you hit her with this afternoon?'" I tried to look at him but I couldn't see anything. "Why don't you change the needle,'' I said. He slapped me. He picked up my hand and put out the lighted end of his cigarette in the palm of it. I didn't move. "Why don't you talk, mister?" I didn't say anything. "You're smooth but I know personally that you killed her. I don't care what the rest of them think; I've never been wrong in my life. I'm going to hang you, mister. Now or later I'm going to hang you. I'm going to build up an air-tight case. I work when I'm off duty. I never stop working. You're such a smooth baby. But you'll see. Ed Cornell will put a noose around your neck. Open your eyes and listen to me! You'll never get away. As long as you live you'll never get away!" I keeled over. THE assistant D.A.'s office was bright ' and sunny. He sat across from me in a swivel chair. He was tapping a pencil on the desk blotter and he looked upset. "There's been a terrible mistake," he said. I didn't say anything. "Are you — interested in the names of the men who — who questioned you last night?" "No."_ "That's sensible. I can assure you that at least two of them will be demoted because of it. It seemed logical that you were the guilty one." "Doesn't it now?" He put down the pencil and folded his hands. "No," he said. "We think we know the identity of the killer. A man named Harry Williams. He's been missing since five-thirty last night." "Harry Williams! The switchboard guy?" "Yes. It's our theory that he saw Miss Lynn come in and followed her upstairs. He had a pass key at his disposal. He tried to embrace her and she fought him. In his rage he picked up something and hit her with it. The coroner tells us that she was hit by something much harder than just a fist. Whatever this object was, Williams must have taken it with him. We put out dodgers on him. He's being word-mugged on teletype all along the line — all state and local gendarmes. The little rat hasn't a chance. . . .'' I REMEMBER that the fresh earth be' side the grave was brown and wet, and that the black coffin was shiny in the sun. I remember that I did not cry, but just stood there, even when the men with the spades went away, and then, after that, I do not remember at all the things I did that day. For a while I escaped. I remember now that for a long time I wasn't myself. I was a guy caught up in a glorious vortex. I was mad and gay and that isn't me at all. I was in the middle of a silver cyclone and the days and the nights whirled by with a shrill musical screaming. I was carried along in a clique of crazy people and I didn't have to think. But I began thinking of Jill. I didn't want to see her again. I didn't want to hear her name. But in the middle of a party I would think of her. When I drove in my car and saw the palms and the stars I thought of her. When I kissed girls that didn't mean anything to me at all I remembered Jill. I don't know why. Because I hated her. I was scared, thinking of her. Maybe she killed Vicky! Maybe it was Jill! Twice I ran into Ed Cornell. I ran smack into him on the street. I do not Picture with a punch: Billy Conn, prize-ring sensation who makes his movie debut in "The Pittsburgh Kid," with his wife Mary Louise 74 PHOTOPL.'^Y combined with movie mirror