Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1944)

as vivid, startling and original as BY DOROTHY DEERE Pinning down Miss Palkenburg, her famous namesake pin Thirty young men were being led around the Columbia lot by one short, plump lady in blue. The young men wore various shades of khaki and an assortment of insignia and the expression on all their faces was G. I. for Best Behavior. They minded their USO guide as if she were a major, moving silently forward in a body when she moved, ready to foUow her through a stone wall if she forgot to indicate “Halt.” On one sound stage they stood motionlessly watching Rosalind Russell and Brian Aherne do a scene; on another they solemnly shook hands with Cary Grant; they swallowed hard and went almost speechless when ravishing Rita Hayworth stopped work on “Cover Girl” to give them her autograph. The whole afternoon they were meek as only men who are no longer individuals, but part of an army, can be. Then, the tour was about over and they were crossing the lot again, when one of the soldiers let out an excited whistle: “Hey — ^look who’s coming!” They looked — and the USO lady lost her army. “Hey, Jinx,” “Hi ya. Jinx!” Thirty decorous military men broke ranks for the first time that day and became thirty kids in khaki who saw someone they felt they knew. The last to start r\mning was a fellow with a Wolverine on his arm band, who paused to throw back his head and howl, “Woo-wooo-o Falkenburg!” before he pounded after the rest. “It happens every time — ” said the USO guide helplessly. It does — and no one can explain just why people who will stand sedately or shyly, impressed or repressed by the occasion of meeting the usual movie star face-to-face, will suddenly chuck the inhibitions when they see Jinx and want to rush over to say “Hi” or “How’re ya?” or “Can I buy you a coke?” It’s simply a part of the aura of ex uberance that emanates from her who is known as the Fabulous Falkenburg. On the particular day these particular soldiers saw her. Jinx was wearing a sinuously dispositioned gown made entirely of pink crystal paillettes. Once designed to fit Marlene Dietrich more lovingly than her own skin, the gown had now taken on an outdoor complex — learned to flow instead of cling, if you get what we mean. Jinx wanted to borrow the dress for a camp tour and had gone after it in the same forthright way she does everything else. She had simply presented herself, in the pink beads, to a studio executive and asked him if he didn’t think it was something he owed The Boys. Putting it up to his patriotism this way — well, she was now on her way back from having negotiated the quickest loan on record. “You know how she makes me feel?” asked one of the soldiers as she moved away. “First guy answers that goes to the guardhouse — ” muttered one of the others. The first boy ignored him: “She makes you think any minute she’s going to say, ‘Til race you to the corner!’ ” The young man can be credited with as good a one-line description as has ever been written. Jinx is the vitamin the doctors are still trying to discover. If the particular exhilaration of which she is composed is ever captured in tablet form it will probably be a combination of what makes phosphorus glow, what makes a sun-warmed rock give off heat and what makes an arrow go zing. She is the most vibrantly alive person who ever made the rest of the world feel as though it were standing still. Physically, Jinx is what is known as “a lot of girl.” She is five feet seven, weighs 128 poimds, and in tennis shorts or a swim suit makes Juno, Venus, et al, look like the anemic type. She is synonymous with color — very red lips, very white teeth, very brown eyes, sun-warmed skin and rich, shining brown hair. She dresses to match, having “a passion for red” and not being unaffectionate toward green, yellow, bright blue and purple, either. She can be glowingly lovely in a Hawaiian or Mexican print that would abash a more pallid personage. COUND and motion have a way of Ungering in a room after Jinx has passed through it — laughter and chatter, and the jingle -jangle of bracelets. She is always just back from somewhere and going somewhere else, and having a wonderful time both places. Born to be a personality, she {Continued on page 83) Jinx, lady in the rider's seat in Hollywood