Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1959)

Tuesday Weld’s TRAVEL WARDROBE Simplicity Printed Patterns are available at local stores everywhere. Or to order by mail, send money, size, and pattern number to Simplicity Pattern Co. Inc., Dept. PH, 200 Madison Ave., N. Y. 16, N. Y. BACK VIEWS: 2260 — sizes 11-18, 50(t, skirt. 2938 — sizes 11-18, 60f£, coat. f 2934 — sizes 11-18, 60^, suit and blouse. 90 curly head slowly from side to side. "I just can’t decide.” She waited — but Sandy didn’t seem to know what to say. “Maybe,” she suggested, “I could tell you later — next week — at the prom?” “It’ll be a rough week for me,” he said, standing up. “At the end of it, I’ll either be the happiest guy in Studio City or the most disappointed one.” And they said goodnight — softly. Annette watched him go down the walk and get into the car. She liked Sandy so much . . . and yet, she didn’t really want to go steady. How could she decide? The dress Annette got for the prom was green, mint green linen — and the tiny, yellow rosebuds Sandy brought her were perfect. “What happened to my Dolly with bare feet and mussed up hair?” her father asked when she came down the stairs carefully, ever so carefully on high heeled pumps. As for Sandy, he could only say “Wow!” As they were leaving, there was a phone call for Annette. She took it in her room and was back in a few seconds. “Ready?” she asked, thinking how handsome Sandy looked in his white dinner jacket. Sandy nodded. But when they got outside the house, he stopped and turned his tense, white face toward her. “Who was that on the phone? What did they want?” he demanded. She thought he sounded timid — as though he thought he shouldn’t ask but couldn’t help himself. “Who was it?” she echoed. “Well, if you really think it’s important, I’ll tell you.” “I’m sorry,” he said. “Let’s forget it.” They both tried to forget about the phone call. “It’s going to be a beautiful night!” Annette whispered as they entered the gym. The room was aglow with frothy paper lanterns. Strips and strips of gay crepe paper looked like clouds above them, while a whole constellation of stars twinkled down from the ceiling. Annette hadn’t been so excited since she was fourteen and went to the Foreign Press Awards in the Cocoanut Grove. “My first prom!” she murmured as they swung around the glossy dancefloor. “And I’m so glad I’m here with you!” “You’re gladl Annette, you’re the prettiest, the liveliest, the most wonderful girl here! I keep pinching myself to make sure you’re real.” And he gave her a proud, tender look that made her feel like singing. But as the evening went on, Annette found she couldn’t get the phone call out of her mind. Would going steady be like that? she wondered. Would she have to tell Sandy everything she did? Of course, she had always known he was jealous — but that was one of the things she had liked most about him in the beginning. She could see the other dancing couples, some of them trading partners, getting to know lots of people I want to do that, too, she realized as she wached them. “Hey, wake up!” Sandy gave her hand a little shake. “It’s intermission.” Hand in hand, they wove their way through the little groups of laughing couples still standing on the dance floor. Annette could almost see Sandy’s chest swell with pride when he introduced her to some boys who had graduated a couple of years ahead of him. One, Tom Morris, was a tall blonde boy with clear grey eyes and a teasing smile. He looked a little like Tab Hunter, Annette thought, mischievous, but serious too. She liked him. And when he asked her to dance, she said “yes.” It wasn’t until later that she thought of Sandy! “Have you ever grown up since you were twelve and I first saw you on the “Mickey Mouse Club!” Tom exclaimed. “Tell me about making ‘The Shaggy Dog.’ You must have quite a schedule to keep op with." Tom’s interested manner, his quick smile made him very likable. Annette was sorry when the dance was over and he took her back to where Sandy was standing alone, watching them. He suggested going home right away. They made the long drive in complete, painful silence. What hurt Annette most was that Sandy, he who had always been so frank and open, would not even look at her. Her hands began to tremble. How was she going to tell him she could not go steady with him? And she felt stiff, almost numb. Already, a kind of loneliness caught her up, swept her into an imaginary corner where she would have to sit alone. It seemed like a week before they reached her house. Sandy parked the car, as carefully as ever, and just sat there, without a word, waiting for her to begin. She took a long breath. “I guess you won’t be surprised — ” She heard her own voice as if from very far away. It was faint and weak behind the gathering pressure of unshed tears. “Well, Sandy, my answer to what you asked me last week . . . it’s no.” Of course, he would not look at her. But she had to make him understand! “Sandy,” she added softly, “as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t mean we can’t see each other anymore.” “Yes it does,” he murmured, turning his unhappy face even more sharply away from her. “If you really liked me, you’d want to go steady with me.” There was no answer. “If I didn’t like you very much,” she began, suddenly feeling tired from the effort of trying to make him understand, “If I didn’t like you very, very much, Sandy, I wouldn’t go out with you at all.” But her words were useless. She couldn’t break through his terrible, hurt silence. In a flash, she felt a new understanding of Sandy. “You can’t force people to love you!” she explained, her voice rising. “You can’t get people to like you by cutting them off from the rest of the world.” But he could not understand what she meant. She gave up, got out of the car, closing the door gently, and ran up the steps into the house. And that was how it ended, Annette remembered, as she still lay, face downwards on the bed in her room. Lying there, she thought, thought and realized that ... no .. . she couldn’t take the chance that it might happen again. She sat up and brushed back a curl that had fallen across her forehead After all . . . it wasn’t so surprising the other boys had stopped calling. Sandy had asked her out so often; she was usually busy when they tried to date her anyway. Her eye fell on the small, white card inviting her to Sharon’s party. “Please bring a date.” Was it really a choice between asking Sandy or staying home? Hadn’t Sharon said something about her boyfriend’s cousin not having a date? Why not? Annette stood up and straightened her red capri pants with a decisive gesture. She caught sight of her own face in the mirror. It surprised her. For the first time in weeks, she looked almost happy. She walked over to the white telephone and dialed Sharon’s number. “Hello . . . Remember what you said the other day about Terry’s cousin — from San Francisco? . . . Oh, good! ... I might not like him a lot, but that isn’t the point . . . Gee, thanks, Sharon . . . It makes a big difference to me ... You know what? . . . I just realized something; it takes time to get back into circulation.” It takes courage, too, she said to herself as she hung up the phone. The End BE SURE TO SEE ANNETTE IN WALT DISNEY’S "THE SHAGGY DOG,” AND LISTEN TO HER DISNEYLAND RECORD RELEASE, "TALL PAUL.”