Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1947)

She’s tiny, but she never cries tmless her bottle is late. She’s got a ravishing smile too. And she looks exactly like Vicki and not a bit like either of us. The same reddish blonde hair and blue eyes. Harry and I and both his parents and both my parents have curly hair. But Vicki’s is straight as a string and I’m glad. All my life I’ve Wcmted straight hair. Jessie’s is going to curl though.” Betty paused and grinned mockingly. “They both have angel dispositions — which they do not inherit from me,” she said. “It’s Harry who is always calm. He gives everyone a chance. He says ‘Wait and they’ll be all right.’ Vicki has this same calmness. “She has a terrific crush on her father. We put on a record with a trumpet part and she knows immediately whether it’s Harry or not. She loves all mxisic, anyhow, and juke boxes fascinate her. She developed a big yen to play the trumpet, in imitation of Harry, but I talked her out of that. When she’s a little older I’ll let her study the piano if she wants to. For her own pleasure. Not with any idea of a career. Harry and I will let them decide. Plenty of time for that later. . . . “I WAS twelve when I started out here, I doubling for Mary Pickford in ‘Kiki.’ ” She laughed. “And when am I going to quit? Well — I’m very grateful for being in the Top Ten and I’d like to stay around as long as that kind of luck holds out. If I had to depend on singing alone or dancing alone or acting alone I’d be nowhere. But with the three in combination I’ve been lucky in my career. “Because of so much good fortune I thought I probably wouldn’t get a break with my marriage and children. But that has worked out too. I had a crush on Harry long before I met him. And after Dick Haymes finally introduced us it took me seven years to hook him. But I finally swung it.” Betty laughed suddenly. “Before we were married,” she said, “I used to wear high pompadours, sensational hats and nail polish and the blackest dresses. Harry thought it was just fine then. But now I wear none of that because now he doesn’t want it — on me. He’ll look at some girl with a terrific hat and murmur ‘Doesn’t she look beautiful?’ I’ll ask, ‘Should I get a hat like that?’ ‘No,’ says Harry. So I go out and buy another horse instead.” Betty pauses again and that warm unaffected charm that you feel from her on screen is twenty times as forceful at close range. The appeal those long legs of hers give her, the potency her natural sense of rhythm exerts, all are obvious. But the real Betty whom, oddly enough, not many people know well, has much more than the sum of these assets. In* a town where too much flattery turns too many heads, Betty has never taken herself as Heaven’s Great Gift to the World. The earthy commonsense she’s always possessed makes her say ‘Maturity is much better than pretending to be an ingenue. Why pretend that I’m not the mother of two children when I’m so very proud of that fact. Maternity has to stand for maturity. I’d much prefer people to say, ‘How young she looks for her age,’ than hear them whisper, ‘She looks a lot older than she claims to be.’ ” Betty does not need to worry. She’s one of those rare, lucky women whose personal charm is so great that you never consider what the total of their years may be. For she carries with her an inner serenity based on a private life that is more important to her than siny public acclaim. What a girl! And what a Mama for Vicki and Jessica to remember. The End "DANCING DECOR". ..to greet the new year gaily, to dine and dance and dream, this Carole King Original in Siesta rayon crepe. Junior sizes 9 to 15. Under $15.00. Exclusively at one fine store in your city. For name of store, write Carole King, 17th and Washington, St. Louis 3, Mo. typical DRESSES FOR JUNIORS