Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1944)

Beery the sculptor. And no surprise — he specializes in miniatures of horses. For proof of Beery the good craftsman — the seesaw he made for Muffet; the candle reflectors he cut from the lids of coffee cans in the design of sunflowers to decorate the little open bar at one side of the patio. On the wall, behind the bar, is a rather scary-looking hand-lacquered Indian mask, a sombre, deep blue-green. Before Pidge was married, the mask hung over his bed, much to his mother’s dismay. Though Maxine is as yummy to look at as many a Hollywood glamour gal, she has no designs on an acting career. Only once did she appear in a film with her famous dad, and that was on a dare. She’s more than pleased to let Pidge do the acting for the family. Her own idea of a real “day out” is when the three little Beerys mount their trusty steeds and gallop off down the road to visit her mother. Pidgfe, in his lifetime, has been in enough pictures for any two people. His career, however, has been completely separate from those of the celebrated Noah Senior and dynamic Uncle Wally. He started out playing mostly in Westerns and serials. “For two years,” he laughs, “I played practically nothing but the heroine’s brother. You know, I didn’t think I’d ever ‘git the gal.’ ” Pidge liked Westerns because they quite often took him on location, from whence he could bring home four-footed “friends” such as a wildcat he once got in the Painted Desert and a couple of bear cubs from around Sonora. One of his favorite roles was the part of lazy, likeable Skeeter in “Tailspin Tommy.” But when he wasn’t cast as the heroine’s brother, or at best her “platonic pal,” he was frequently an Indian or Mexican, which he thought lots more fun. I N REAL life, Pidge wasn’t quite so luck' ’ less with the fair sex. He first saw Maxine when she was only fifteen and “kinda thought” she might be the girl for him, though he didn’t get aroimd to doing much about it till some years later. The story of his proposal to her is funny — and no one appreciates its humor more than Pidge. She was visiting him, on location at a place called Lone Pine. They were seated on a sloping rock, surrounded by fragrant evergreens. Just then Victor Jory, who had received a wire saying he was to leave right away, dashed up, calling: “I’m leaving for Hawaii.” “Go ’way,” snapped Pidge, as a rib, “can’t you see I’m proposing?” As a matter of fact, he had thought of it a number of times, hut had never gotten up quite enough courage. Now, however, having said it in jest, he repeated it in earnest, and the gal said “yes.” One of his biggest professional dreams is to play Villa — just like Uncle Wally in the first “Viva Villa.” Villa has always challenged Pidge’s imagination. He has one of the most complete collections of books, outside a library, not only on Villa, but about Mexico generally, for both he and Maxine have a genuine love for the country and its people. Ironically, his dad once played the role of Villa, too, and brilliantly, in an early film hit called “Patria.” Pidge has seldom appeared in the same picture with his father and not much oftener with Wally, though he did work with the latter in “Twenty Mule Team” and “Death Valley.” At the Carl Curtis school in Los Angeles, where he took a special course in physical education, and at North Hollywood High, Pidge gained himself a first bit of fame as an athlete. He played football with his close friend, Jimmy Rogers, one of Will Rogers’ boys, and one of his big moments in recalling athletic prowess is the time he “almost” beat Will Rogers Jr. in the Southern California finals of a swimming competition. He remembers swimming in meets with Alan Ladd, too, and recalls him as an expert diver. IT WAS the part he played in Universal’s ' “We’ve Never Been Licked” which gave movie-goers a chance to really “sit up and take particular notice.” The studio went into action. As soon as his role in the Marine epic of Makin Island, “Gung Ho,” was completed, he was cast, at long last, in “Week-End Pass,” where — huzzah! — he gets the gal — and a very tasty dish, too, the gal being Martha O’Driscoll. But no matter how much his roles change, his own personal life, with his own personal — and plenty personable — heroine, Maxine, will remain simple and unchanged. Caviar and squab may be the order of the evening for the glamour set who wine and dine at Mocambo and Mike Romanoff’s, but you ain’t heard nothin’ till you’ve heard Pidge and Maxine smacking their lips over the moose meat they had for dinner the night before, sent down from Uncle Wally’s lodge in Wyoming. 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