Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1948)

Blueprint tor Beauty (Continued from page 71) church, to planning daily menus. And, instead of being afraid of life, Loretta, I would say, welcomes change. She’ll never have a face like a bowl of blanc mange. That is only the fate of women who refuse to allow their minds to stretch. And, three cheers! Loretta makes no breathless attempt to maintain perpetual adolescence. She deplores the widespread practice of women dressing like ingenues. Whereupon, of course, they neither achieve ingenue beauty nor capture the beauty of their own age. Loretta, who came to work in pictures when she was fourteen and who is now thirty-three, looks like and thinks like and likes to be a woman. To return to consideration of our personal architecture, once we’re satisfied our foundation is all it should be, we do well to make certain the lines of our house are good. They won’t be unless we eliminate fattening foods from our diet. And unless we watch, with an eagle eye, those sections of our anatomy most likely to get out of line, waist and hips and thighs especially. Hollywood, incidentally, has a miracle working exercise to keep these sections under control, as simple as it’s wonderful: Lie on the floor. Keep your knees up. Have your feet a few inches from the floor. Anchor your shoulders to the floor. Stretch out your arms. Now then, turn your hips to the left. Turn your hips to die right. Touch your knees to the floor with every turn. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat. A second Hollywood exercise should be loted — and practiced — by those whose nest muscles aren’t as strong as they should be; in other words not strong enough to keep the bosom high. There’s only one trick to this exercise. You have to be faithful to it, day after day after day. Stand erect. Have your feet together and your arms relaxed at your sides. Swing your arms up and down in one quick movement. Do this rapidly for three and four minutes at a time. If your hips incline to spread be careful how you seat yourself. Place your body well into your chair with your back against the chair back. Sit erect. No slouching or leg crossing is allowed. LSO, above all, remember posture. If you do not have a full-length triple mirror at home check your posture by your reflection in shop windows. Don’t breathe in quickly before you steal a look. Try to catch a glimpse of yourself unawares. Then watch how your appearance improves as you tense those muscles in back of your hips, raise and straighten your shoulders and lift your chin. Above all, feet are important to posture. If our feet are not comfortable we are loathe to place the weight of our bodies full upon them. So we move as erratically as Mexican jumping beans and hold our bodies on a line that resembles nothing more human than the Tower of Pisa. Beware, therefore, of any misguided effort towards loveliness that involves forcing your feet into shoes that do not fit you properly. Some feet are difficult to fit. And not all of us can have custom-made shoes. We can, however, try out tricks . . . metatarsal pads, arch supporters, extra lifts on the heels, small pads that fit against the side of the foot to relieve the pressure on a tender toe. As everyone knows such things as corns, ingrown toe nails, bunions and deep calluses are matters for a chiropodist. Callus spots, however, will respond to olive oil massage and a pumice stone rub if you’re faithful to these things and take care of the callus in time. Tired aching feet need not and should not be tolerated. Bathe them nightly in warm water to which a little table salt has been added. This not only will relieve the discomfiture immediately, it will also help to counteract the tendency to swell. Don’t stop there, however. Walk in your bare feet. And, walking barefooted, walk on tiptoe. Do this for five minutes every day. This, you’ll find, will strengthen both the muscles of your feet and your instep. Feet that hurt can destroy more than posture, actually. They create frowns . . . They trace lines between the nose and mouth. . . . Which brings me to a wonderful remedy for facial lines. After using a good cream stimulate your tissues by kneading your face. To do this, hold fingers of both hands apart and curved. Lift your skin between fingers and thumb and then let it go. Do this over and over. Day by day be a good architect. Day by day plan intelligently and observe religiously the specifications of the house you’re going to live in all your life. Like Loretta Young, my shining example of a woman who exceeds her God-given beauty because she has beauty specifications and abides by them, grow in beauty as you grow in days. The End tfje ••• when you smoke PHILIP MORRIS! CLEAN, FRESH, PURE America's FINEST Cigarette! An important difference in Philip Morris manufacture lets the FULL FLAVOR of the world’s finest tobaccos come through for your complete enjoyment —clean, fresh, pure! That’s why the flavor's ALL yours! ALWAYS BETTER. ..BETTER ALL WAYS