Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1963)

ANN MARGRET Continued from page 60 Ann-Margret had been with the band for about a week now and she thought that she knew just about all the ropes. That is until the night she was sitting down and thinking hard about all this and missed her cue. “I’m sorry, Danny,” she said to her boss softly as she rushed to take her place. “You should be,” Danny said — not so softly. He signaled for one of the men to take his place, then for Ann-Margret to follow him to the rear of the bandstand. And he began to let her have it, then and there . . . good and loud, too. “Please, Danny, please,” she said, after a few moments of this, “I wish you wouldn’t holler at me. I come from a home where there’s never any hollering. My father never, never raises his voice.” “Really?” said Danny. “Well, how do you like that? But the only difference, young lady, is that I’m not your father and I do raise my voice. And that this is show business, not your living room. And we do quite a bit of hollering in this business. Especially when we pay somebody to work for us and when we expect that person to be on time for us. Now,” he went on, “you get back out there on that bandstand, and you just sit there! No singing this time. Just sit there and while you’re sitting you tell yourself over and over, ‘This is show business and we’re never late in show business. This is show business and we never let anyone down in show business.’ Over and over. You understand? I’m serious about this.” A worldly lesson Ann-Margret nodded. “And,” Danny said, his voice suddenly softening, “do me a favor, will you? Take this handkerchief and wipe those tears away. And don’t do any crying out there, either. First of all, it’ll make me look bad. And, second, that stuff on your eyes will start running down your cheeks and you’ll look pretty darned funny.” The second of the lessons Ann-Margret learned was a worldly one: It was early one evening, and she was sitting alone, reading, in her hotel room. (“It was really a nice place,” she has said of the hotel, “where a lot of entertainers stayed, but it was in a bad section.”) After a while she thought she heard some noise from the direction of the parking lot next door. She rose to look. She saw, first, a very old man with a wooden peg leg hobbling around the parking lot, a whisky bottle in his hand. “Come on, come on,” he croaked, groping, “come on out here and fight.” A woman ran after him, a youngish woman. “Pa,” she shouted. “Pa. You’re drunk. He didn’t do nothing.” A young man’s form appeared suddenly from behind a parked car. “All right, I’m here,” he called. “But look, I didn’t . . He said no more, however. Because, in an instant, the old man had hurled his bottle against the young man’s face. “The blood, oh Mamma, you should have seen the terrible blood,” Ann-Margret was weeping in her mother’s arms a little while later. “It came pouring from the boy’s cheeks. And then the old man went over to grapple with him and he got cut on the broken glass, too. And his hand got gashed. And there was blood, blood, all over. “Oh, Mamma,” and she was weeping uncontrollably now, “I want to go home. I don’t like it here, this city, this place. I don’t like to see fighting and ugliness.” Mrs. Olson let her daughter cry it out. And then she said to her: “Of course, Ann-Margret. Of course we can go home, if you really want to. And you can stay there. And say goodbye to the entertainment business. And not sing outside of your own little town anymore. Of course we can go. “But first, Ann-Margret, understand this. What you have seen tonight is a part of life. Your father and I, this we have kept you away from as much as we could. But we cannot keep you away from it forever. You are older now, Ann-Margret, a young woman. And what you have seen tonight is simply a part of the grown-up world which you will soon have to enter — no matter if you are in Wilmette or Kansas City or Stockholm or anywhere. Yes, it was ugly what you saw tonight. Dirty and bloody and ugly and sad. And once, long ago, when you were a little tiny girl, your father wrote to us and he tried to tell you a little of what you might expect from life. “I don’t remember his words exactly. “But I think they went something like this: “ ‘I know that one day our baby must learn that there is sadness and disappointment in life — for that is a part of life. And I hope that if we teach our child but one thing, we will teach her that sadness and disappointment need be only a temporary thing when one is strengthened by goodness and love and honesty with oneself and with others.’ “Is there any sense in those words of your farther’s, Ann-Margret?” “Yes.” “Do you still want to leave this place and go back home?” “No.” “You are sure?” “I’m sure, Mother, absolutely sure. The beginning . . . REMOVE WARTS! Amazing Compound ipipPil Dissolves Common KJ* Warts Away Jf Without c Cutting or Burning ^ "I1 Doctors warn picking or scratching at warts may cause bleeding, infection, spreading. Now, science lias developed an amazing compound that penetrates into warts, destroys their cells, actually melts warts away without cutting or burning. Its name is Compound PF®. Painless, colorless Compound W used as directed removes common warts safely, effectively, leaves no ugly scars. 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I had gotten used to hearing things that sounded real good and all of a sudden they’d fall through. But, fortunately, I found myself saying yes. Though, at first, when we first got to Nevada, it didn’t seem fortunate at all. . . .” Dept. 305-3, 55 W. 42 St., N.Y. 36 SWAP PHOTOS 30 doubleweight SILK FINISH Sfoo ^ I Add 25c ■ Safer mailing Superior QUALITY in QUANTITY! 30 walletsize genuine photos (2V4 x 3%) from your favorite original. Mail us snapshot, portrait or negative. Prompt service. Guaranteed satisfaction! nDACC PflDV Pfl Dept. 15, 4204 Troost UlfUdO bur I bU. Kansas City 10, Mo. P 91