Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1948)

Hollywood Is on a Binge! ( Continued frovi "page 35) waiting at home every night so they can sleep well after the hours of tension an acting day holds. There are sleeping pills, of course. Some Hollywood stars and directors take them. But they do no one any good. As Betty Hutton, probably the greatest generator of nervous energy in town, discovered when she abandoned these pills during her pregnancy. To her surprise she felt greatly improved, especially upon awakening in the morning. She had none of the sluggishness which is the evil of such pills. Now Betty and her husband, Ted Briskin, happier and more relaxed than anyone has ever known them to be, retire between eight-thirty and nine and are up before seven. Joan Crawford stresses the importance — for her — of early hours. “How anyone can leave the studio at seven o’clock and dress and go on to a party — get home after midnight and be up at five or six the next morning ready for eleven hours’ work, I don’t know,” she says. “When I’m working I don’t go out during the week. And leave Saturday night parties at ten.” John Payne concurs with Joan. “You have to use your head and your will to keep healthy,” Johnny says. “I remember when one of my best friends invited me to a birthday party. I didn’t feel like going. I was dog-tired and heavy eyed from overwork. But when the host insisted, I went, not wanting to hurt anybody’s feelings or to appear difficult. I hadn’t been there a half hour before someone grabbed my arm and said, ‘John, you look sick! You should go home to bed!’ “I thought I was being unselfish when I forced myself to go to that party— but I wasn’t at all. I was being unfair to everyone there, and to myself.” Peggy Cummins has worked out her own routine for relaxing — sans pills or massage. When fatigue closes in, the first thing Peggy does upon entering her room is kick of? her shoes. Then, lying flat on the floor, she works her feet in wiggly exercises. Also she walks around the house — as much as she can without seeming a character out of “Tobacco Road”— in her bare or stocking feet. This removes pressure from the spine and nerve centers and is conducive to relaxation. Frances Gifford’s health problem used to be colds. And even a girl as sheerly beautiful as Frances cannot face a camera with a cold and equanimity. At last Frances and her doctor decided to search for the cause of those colds. A tiny remnant of a tonsil long since removed was discovered to be the criminal. It was treated by X-ray over two years ago and Frances has had exactly one cold since. It wasn’t a full-grown cold, either. For as soon she felt sniffly she went for a penicillin inhalation and presto — the cold was gone. Most doctors do not give penicillin unless an infection is more serious. The doctors of the stars, however, waste no time in employing emergency measures when the patient can stand the treatment. FRANCES also tries to drink eight glasses of water a day. This, physicians agree, is about the best health measure of all. For water is our rolling stock and promptly carries things to their proper destination. Frances has two other simple routines — and if you could see her, so beautiful and alive, you’d heed them too. “I try to conserve my energy,” she told me. “Instead of dashing over to the commissary at noon and having a grand time visiting from table to table, I have lunch alone in my dressing room. And on the set instead of learning how a baby spot works or talking with prop men about period furniture I sit quietly in my little chair.” Also at four o’clock — the hour when our energy flags — Frances, with two hours of work still ahead of her, orders a malted milk. This is a sufficient pick-up to keep her from tapping nervous energy. Overhead on a production costs thousands of dollars a day. Consequently in Hollywood you’ve got to be healthy and wise to become wealthy. The studios, if possible, are more constantly concerned over the stars’ health than the stars themselves. At the beginning of a picture, for instance, before the shooting schedule is made up, a star is asked if there is any time during the weeks of production when she might prefer to remain at home or at least not to have any closeup scenes. Also every studio has a physician and a nurse on the lot at all times. 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