Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1944)

The Unbreakable Bracken (Continued from page 59) Mother added to our budget as a saleswoman in a department store.” After Eddie’s debut in the school show he played what he calls the “Knights of Columbus” circuit. He traveled around — alone — by subway to near-by suburban towns, always increasing his repertoire of mother-songs and cheerfully watching gray-haired old ladies dissolve into tears at the sight of his wide-eyed “innocence” and the sound of his choir-boy soprano. After the performance he’d collect his evening’s pay and scuttle home. In a couple of years he sometimes brought home as much as $200. He was about seven then. At the ripe age of nine the youngest Bracken quietly informed the family that he was going to Hollywood to become one of the original “Our Gang”-sters. After three pictures in the film capital, the boy grew older — and bigger — and beat a quick retreat to Astoria. When he got home nobody was any more disturbed than they had been when he left. Eddie knows what he’s up to, they felt, and darned if they weren’t right. “after Hollywood,” says Eddie, “I ^ worked on Broadway constantly — in a series of terrific flops.” Finally, alas, even the flops stopped. At sixteen, Eddie was out of work. Whereupon, he packed four tremendous bags with all his worldly goods, painted “Bound for Hollywood” in big white letters on his valise and hitch-hiked West. He slept — on his first chill October night in Hollywood — under an elm tree at the corner of famous Sunset Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. Followed three luckless months; no jobs; then a wire from New York about a stage role. He went back and into an opus called, “The Lady Refuses.” So, it turned out, did the critics and the public. That’s the way it went, season after season, until the day when the call came from Broadway producer George Abbott. One look and Eddie promptly became the youngest brat, Mistol, in the road show of “Brother Rat.” He wowed the out-of-town customers. “In fact,” he points out with customary honesty, “I got quite a big head. When I went back to New York, however, I came down to earth with a thud.” HIS worst heartbreak came when he lost the role of Henry Aldrich to Ezra Stone. Painfully, he accepted a minor part. Dizzy, which he promptly built into a memorable triumph. “But I had to prove to myself — and to Abbott — that I could do Henry Aldrich,” says Eddie, “and the following season I begged for another crack at it.” TTiis time Abbott liked his characterization and he made a happy tour in the drama of high-school high-jinks. First time Eddie saw the New York company of “Brother Rat,” he observed, chiefly, like any actor, a good part for himself. What he did not see, having no crystal ball along at the time, was a future wife. That’s just who was there, though, for Connie Nickerson, who impressed him as “a darn good actress,” is now Mrs. B. He began thinking of her as a “darn nice girl” when she played with him on the road in “What A Life.” Eddie was somebody else’s fiance at the beginning of that ! tour, but love, and Connie, changed all that. j Then came Eddie’s first musical, “Too ! Many Girls.” It was a smash hit — and so I was Eddie. The third time he came Hollywood-ward SUSANNA FOSTER, CO-STARRING IN THE UNIVERSAL PICTURE, "THIS IS THE LIFE" The Heart Appeal of Susanna Fosters Hands A man feels the attraction of a girl’s soft hands. “My own soft-hand care is very nice and easy”, says Susanna Foster, “but it certainly helps keep my hands from getting coarse and rough.” Susanna uses Jergens Lotion. Just made for any girl who wisely wants hand care that’s almost professional, yet simple. You see, Jergens Lotion contains the 2 ingredients many doctors use to help rough skin become smooth and younglooking. And you’ll love it because Jergens never feels sticky. Hoilxjiovocl 066 Jci^em jLoticni ave^ amj otlwi fiand cwit, 7tb 1 JESGENS LOTION -f FOR SOFL^ ADORABLE HAl^DS,