Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1957)

When a studio worker tried to put a coat around her between scenes, Kim said, “I’ve got to get used to this — without the coat — so I can go right into the scene. “This one is exceptionally hard,” Kim continued. “I haven’t slept more than three hours a day since we started. After we get through working, I have to have my hair done, and with this elaborate hairdo, that sometimes takes four hours. By then it’s midnight if we are working days, and I’m due back at the studio by four or five a.m. We shoot Saturdays. And on Sundays I’m supposed to rehearse. We never have time to rehearse on the set. “I came to work one afternoon at twothirty and I didn’t finish until the next day.” At eleven the next morning Kim was driving across the ranch lot when another player hailed her with, “Just coming to work?” She’d never been home. “I don’t intend to do this from here on,” Kim said earnestly, meaning every word at the time. “At first I’ve had to work hard to make up for lost time. But I’ll let down after this one. Not during this,” she said quickly. This was “Jeanne Eagels” — Jeanne too worked this way. Kim feels a double responsibility in playing the part of the famous actress whose name is legend in the theatre today. As she told a friend, “I have got to do it right — I’m Jeanne Eagels.” Kim has dedicated herself to this portrayal, yet part of her is the sentimental girl from Sayre Street, Chicago, who feels she may be missing something, the part who says, “For three years now I’ve been working on the day of my birthday. We worked New Year’s Eve and I went home and fell asleep at nine p.m. On Christmas afternoon I had to come in and get my hair done and rehearse some dialogue changes. This is a little too much . . .” Then as usual come Kim’s famous last words, “But after this one — I’ll let down.” During this one, Kim’s dressing-room walls are taped with clippings of Jeanne as Sadie Thompson in “Rain.” She has talked to everybody who ever knew Jeanne Eagels on the West Coast. She has had long sessions with her understudy, whom she found still living here. Together with Norma Kasell, Kim has combed every library for material about Jeanne. They had amassed two scrapbooks full. “I’ve read every line ever written about Jeanne. You have to do this to know the person, to become the person,” says Kim. From the beginning Kim’s chief anxiety concerned the latter tragic sequences when the famed actress had resorted to alcohol and dope. Driving along Wilshire Boulevard with Mac Krim one night, Kim had said suddenly, “How will I do the alcoholic bit? You can’t act a part unless you’ve lived it.” Then she startled him, saying seriously, “Mac — you’ll just have to get me intoxicated some night.” Although it would never materialize, it would have been a double performance — neither of them drink. Determined to stay in character emotionally, particularly in this challenging characterization, Kim told him conscientiously that she wouldn’t be seeing too much of him during the picture. Particularly during the latter sequences. “I’ll be horrible then. I don’t want you to see me that way.” But during this happier time of the story, Kim Novak was bubbling along, typically keying her own mood to that of the character she’s portraying. Kim admittedly lives emotionally within that person as much as possible. And she would have little interest in Kim Novak for the time being. “I’m living Jeanne Eagels’ life now and I think that’s enough. I’m not Kim Novak at the moment. And what interests Kim Novak doesn’t interest me,” she says frankly. “But we have much in common,” Kim goes on. “Jeanne was mercurial and sensitive, and with me everything changes too. My moods, my attitudes, the way I feel towards people — everything.” With Kim’s wealth of imagination and emotion she sometimes gets so deeply within the character she’s portraying, it’s difficult for her to pull out — even if she would. During the filming of a dreamy death-mood sequence in “The Duchin Story,” Kim terrified a friend one night with her strange expressions and behavior. “What's wrong with you?” her friend said. “Oh — please forgive me,” Kim said. “I can’t get out of the Duchin bit.” Kim can’t understand how more experienced stars can turn emotions off and on at will. To her close friends Kim explained when she went into “Jeanne Eagels” she wouldn’t be seeing too much of them. “I’ve got to stay in character,” she said. “I can’t be Kim Novak at night and be Jeanne Eagels the next morning.” And a lovely serious-faced Kim was saying now, “I believe you keep a part of all the people you portray. Sometimes I think I’ve left Kim Novak somewhere along the way.” Not too far away. Not too far from the shy little girl named Marilyn who wrote poetry and lived within the vivid world of her own imagination peopled with lucky clowns and governed by a magic wishing tree. A little girl who used to recite her stories so graphically the teacher would protest to her mother, “Marilyn’s imagination is inflaming the other children. Unless she stops, I’m not going to call on her.” This imaginative child did not have her roots in an exciting stage or screen background but in a quiet old-world family. l.M f Tested by doctors. . .proved in hospital clinics 1. AfltlSCptlC (Protective, germicidal action) Norforms are now safer and surer than ever! A highly perfected new formula releases its antiseptic and germicidal ingredients right in the vaginal tract. The exclusive new base melts at body temperature, forming a powerful protective film that permits long-lasting action. Will not harm delicate tissues. 2. DeodoVCint (Protection from odor ) Norforms were tested in a hospital clinic and found to be more effective than anything it had ever used. Norforms are powerfully deodorant — they eliminate (rather than cover up) embarrassing odors, yet have no “medicine” or “disinfectant” odor themselves. 3. Convenient (So easy to use) Norforms are small vaginal suppositories, so easy and convenient to use. Just insert — no apparatus, no mixing or measuring. They’re greaseless and they keep in any climate. Your druggist has them in boxes of 12 and 24. Also available in Canada. Mail this coupon today FREE informative Norforms booklet NORFORmS® VAGINAL SUPPOSITORIES Just mail this coupon to: Dept. PH-74 Norwich Pharmacal Company, Norwich, N. Y. Please send me the new Norforms booklet, in a plain envelope. Name. . (please* PPINt) Street _____ City Zone State. P Tested by doctors Trusted by women A NORWICH PRODUCT 89