Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1959)

could answer the question she’d asked. “The newspapermen don’t want to hear the truth from me— it isn’t funny enough. They want headlines that will make people laugh. Like ‘Kim Novak Gets $8,500 Trinket.’ Do you remember that? That was General Trujillo’s Mercedes-Benz. I can still see a certain reporter’s face after he asked me about the car. We’d been having what I thought was a perfectly friendly interview, so I answered him honestly. I explained that the general had ordered the car while he was at the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth. I was just keeping it for him. “The reporter got the most cynical look, and sort of chuckled. ‘Come on now, Kim,’ he said. ‘You’re a grown-up, glamorous movie star. What’s with the starryeyed, trusting act? You know that car’s yours — a straight-out gift.’ “At that point, the reporter opened an envelope he was carrying and pulled out what looked like a photograph. I just had a chance to see it was a copy of some sort of paper — document, I mean — when he pointed to the signature at the bottom and asked, ‘Is that your writing?’ “ ‘It looks like it,’ I said. ‘Yes, I guess so.’ “And he grinned and said, ‘That’s all I wanted to know.’ The next morning, the picture was on the front page — a copy of the bill of sale for the car— with my signa i ture.” Kim sank down on the couch again and was silent, as if she still felt the shock. “Was it really your signature?” I asked. She nodded. “But how did that happen?” Lifting her head, Kim said softly, “Thank you for asking me. Nobody did then. Nobody wanted to know the truth. The afternoon the general’s car came, I was home. I had just started to shampoo my hair. And as I was rinsing it, the doorbell rang. The housekeeper answered it and came and told me, ‘They’ve brought the general’s car. They say you’ll have to sign for it.’ I went to the door with my hair a mess and wringing wet. Somebody stuck a paper in my hand, and I scribbled my name I thought it was just a receipt, to show that the car had been delivered. If I’d thought it was an official paper, I never would have written ‘Kim Novak.’ I sign all official papers with my real name, Marilyn Kim Novak. “But I never got a chance to explain!” she said despairingly. “And when the news came out that the general was married . . . when I saw that headline in the paper . . . ‘Kim’s Ramfis — Father of Six.’ “Nobody would believe I hadn’t known about it all along,” she murmured softly. “But I didn’t. There is proof — a little incident I’d almost forgotten, until a friend reminded me about it the other day. She remembered spending an afternoon at my house once, when the general dropped in. Well, she was talking about some mischief her children had gotten into, and I laughed and turned to him and said, ‘Of course, you don’t understand these things, General. Since you’ve never been married, you’ve never had a taste of it.’ He just smiled — didn’t say anything . . .” Still bewildered, Kim shook her head slowly. “But I don’t believe he would have even asked me to go out with him if he hadn’t already had his interlocutory divorce decree. “That’s all over with but there’s something else they do talk about,” she said. “Little sly remarks here and there. That story was the most terrible hurt of all,” she added. “Because my family was dragged in on it — my mother, my father, my sister. It started with blind items, about a ‘famous entertainer’ and me. “ ‘If Kim Novak marries the guy she’s been romancing, she’ll make even greater news than Sputnik,’ one news item said. 0 v ^ Both can be Yours CTiwwiW! New lovely Blrthstone Ring — Jri? in attractive rolled gold plate and set with any ^ month’s color of^* stone. Also very fine Birthstono Pendant and Chain with set to match ring — both are j -guaranteed and are beautiful i ^J/^heyond imagination. 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