Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1959)

ALL NAT TALKS ABOUT Continued from page 53 Nat had spent most of the day preparing things. RJ sat at the head of the table. Nat entertains just as well informally, too. A while back she and RJ invited RJ’s parents and all of us to spend the day on their boat, which is named My Other Lady. Mother asked if she could bring anything and Nat said no, that we should all come and have fun and she was doing all the preparing. There were ten of us on the boat. It’s not so easy cooking there because there isn’t a very big kitchen to work in. Nat didn’t seem to notice. She has a few little portable hibachi ovens that she uses to cook meat on. She made a very good salad and then served hamburgers and vegetables, warm rolls, and cookies and ice cream. She wouldn’t let anybody do anything, except RJ, who was in charge of seeing that the hamburgers didn’t burn. They were the most delicious burgers I’ve ever tasted. Nat says it’s a secret recipe she dreamed up with some special seasoning. She wouldn’t even give Mommy the recipe. I don’t blame her; anyone that can make a plain hamburger taste like that should keep it a secret! I don’t know exactly what to write about RJ. There is so much to say about him. Since we never had any boys in our family I didn’t know what it was like to have a brother until Nat married RJ. Of course, our oldest sister, Olga, is married and her husband is a wonderful brother, too, but I don’t have a chance to be with him as much as I do with RJ, since they live in San Francisco. I’m trying to think of ways to tell you about RJ but I guess it’s easier just to say he has everything. He has a way of getting a point across without getting angry. Like Nat’s being late when he used to come and pick her up. He never came right out and said anything, but one night he was supposed to pick her up at eight and he didn’t come until quarter of nine. When he finally arrived Nat was dressed and waiting and I think she was a little upset that RJ was so late. When he came into the living room he acted very cool, as if he weren’t late. Nat frowned and he just grinned and said, “Are you ready so soon, honey? Take your time, we’ve only missed the first half of the movie.” Nat started to say something and then she realized the message that RJ was trying to get across. She started to laugh. After they left the house, Mother told me RJ knew just exactly how to handle Natalie. She was so right; after that night, Nat was never more than five minutes late when RJ came over and that, believe me, was a real record for my sister! He’s very understanding, too. Last Christmas, as a surprise, Nat knitted an afghan for RJ’s boat. She isn’t a very fast knitter and it took her days and days to finish it. She made it in black and red, only by the time it was finished those colors didn’t match the interior because RJ had traded in his boat and gotten a different one. But when he saw the work and time she’d put into making the afghan he had the whole boat redecorated on the inside just so it would match Nat’s knitting. He said it was the most expensive gift he’d ever received but he was just teasing Nat. Still, there aren’t many husbands who would go to all that trouble just so their wives wouldn’t be upset about their knitting! RJ’s got about the best sense of humor of anyone I’ve ever known. He’s always playing some practical joke — never anything to hurt anyone but just something funny enough so everyone gets a kick out of it. One of his pet tricks is disguising his voice or doing imitations of movie stars like Jimmy Cagney and Clarke Gable. He’s a panic. I remember one night when RJ and Nat were going to a premiere; they’d stopped by the house on their way out and had dinner with us. About fifteen minutes after they left the phone rang. Mother answered it and the man on the other end said he was a reporter for a New York paper and that he’d flown three thousand miles to do a story on Nat and RJ. He said he didn’t have too much time and would Mother mind giving him some information over the phone. Then for the next thirty minutes he asked her all sorts of questions about Natalie, just like a regular interviewer. All of a sudden he lowered his voice and sort of whispered, “Now tell me, Mrs. Wood, what’s Robert Wagner really like? You can tell me and of course I’ll only print what’s flattering.” At first mother was shocked and then she started laughing and she said, “RJ stop teasing me, I know it’s you.” He was a little sheepish over the phone and he said, “How come you finally recognized me.” Mother said, “Because no real reporter would come out and ask me point blank what Robert Wagner was like; a real reporter would beat around the bush and be much more subtle.” That cured him, for the moment. A week later he called again, used another voice and this time it took Mother only fifteen minutes to find out she was giving an interview to her own son-in-law. I think the thing about RJ that’s so great is he knows when to be funny and when to be serious. He’s someone you can talk to. You can ask him anything and he’ll always know the right thing to do and say. And I’m especially grateful for the way he treats my girlfriends. Whenever Nat and RJ come over, my friends immediately get either shy or very silly. Nat treats them swell and RJ does imitations for them mure jobs When you have good news, you spread the word to all your friends. That’s exactly how advertising works. It spreads the good news of products and services that are new and interesting. Advertising encourages you to think and compare before you spend a dime. And as you and your friends select a product and buy it . . . more people work to produce it . . . technicians constantly improve it . . . manufacturers sell it to you for less as they make it in greater volume. Look over the variety of ads in this magazine. You’ll see how advertising work for you . . . bringing you good news of the latest and best in a vigorous America. dvertising works lor you! and before long my friends don’t feel embarrassed any more. You know how some young couples can act so, so superior that it makes people my age feel like dropping into the nearest hole in the ground? Nat and RJ understand this and it makes life a whole lot easier for me. You see, a lot of kids, when they first meet me, automatically think I’ll be stuck-up because Nat’s my sister and she’s married to Bob Wagner. Then when they get to know me and meet Nat and RJ, they realize it’s foolish to think I’d be stuck-up. What would I have to be putting on airs about when Nat and RJ act so darn nice! They’re the celebrities in the family. Incidentally, I forgot to tell you one sort of funny experience Nat and I had together. It happened back in 1955, way before she and RJ were married. I guess it isn’t good to suddenly go backwards when you’re writing a story, but I’m not really a professional writer so I hope you won’t mind. You see, I want to be an actress and right now I’m doing some TV shows and also pictures when there are parts for me. I never wanted to act when I was little. I wanted to be a writer. That’s funny because now I’m an actress and here I am writing a story. My first picture role was playing Natalie as a child, in a movie called “The Searchers.” It was very exciting since we went away to Arizona on location. Nat and I shared a room which was over a real authentic Indian trading post. Nat is always so much fun to be with. That time she made up a whole story about how the Indians were raiding the village, and every night after work we’d get into our pajamas and pretend we were being raided. Since Natalie made up the story it was only natural she cast herself in the role of the heroine who rescued me and the rest of the town from being scalped. One afternoon, we were having lunch at the cafe where the cast and crew ate all their meals. It was about a block from our rooms at the trading post. Suddenly, a dust storm blew up and we were marooned in the restaurant for nearly two hours. There were a few other kids there and Nat was about the oldest. She could see that we were all scared so she took charge. She explained our Indian game to everyone and we all got organized and pretended we were being raided by Indians. Before we knew it the storm blew over and we were able to walk home. I was so proud of Nat for helping all of us not to worry. When we got to our room I looked at her and she was green and she got sick. I guess she really wasn’t so brave after all, but at least she pretended to be until it was safe for her to act scared. When Natalie lived at home, before she got married, she always found time to play with me, take me shopping, fix my hair and give me advice. Nat loved to sleep late when she wasn’t working but she was never too sleepy to roll out of bed and fix my hair before I went to school. Of course, when I was really little, Mother used to comb my hair, but when Nat started changing her own hair styles every week I decided I wanted her to fix my hair like hers, and she always obliged. One time she’d braid it; then she’d cut it into bangs like hers; once, she even made me a French knot in the back. That really looked a little too grownup for the fifth grade, but it came out when I played at recess, anyway. When Natalie first started dating I used to think to myself that soon she’d get married and move away. “Tt made me sad, because she’s such fun to have around all the time that I worried about what it would be like when she got married and went t away from home. That was sort of silly of Continued on page 73 69