Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1949)

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CONFIDENTIAL LOAN SERVICE Borrow $50 to $300 ii ■ i ^ Need money? Nomatter where you live you can borrow BY MAIL $60.00 to $300.00 this easy quick confidential way. IT IS EASY TO BORROW BY MAIL! Com pletely confidential and private CONVENIENT MONTHLY PAYMENTS NO ENDORSERS NEEDED Employed men and women of good character can solve their money problems quickly and in privacy with loans MADE BY MAIL. No endorsers or cosigners. We do not contact employers, friends or relatives. Convenient monthly payments. Send us your name and address and we will mail application blank and complete details FREE in plain envelope. There is no obligation. STATE FINANCE COMPANY 611 Walker Bank Bldg., Dept. M 1 1 9 .Salt Lake City 9, Utah weather and some ex-frozen feet that hate winter, I knew I was a lucky character, getting my chance through Jimmy Cagney to come to California. I didn’t know whether or not I could act (I still don’t know) but I was positive I could use that California sunshine. Jimmy Cagney and his wife couldn’t have been nicer. I lived out on their ranch. I couldn’t eat much because of my trick stomach. I didn’t know anybody in Hollywood and I felt shy, anyhow. My hip ached and my feet, as the saying goes, were killing me. Six months went by. Why they didn’t put me before a camera, I don’t know. Then one day, I picked up an old copy of a magazine and saw Wanda’s picture on the cover. You’ve probably heard that part of the story. It’s been told a lot. So I’ll just repeat that I set up a date through friends, for us to meet. We all had dinner in the Cagney guest house. Wanda was prettier than even I had expected and nicer than I’d dared hope. I took her home at ten o’clock and we shook hands. I told her I’d call her and because I didn’t want to look too eager, I waited a week. But that week seemed to be nineteen months long. It’s the second date that counts. And then the third. And then the fourth. After that, zing go the strings of your heart, if you don’t look out. And I didn’t look out, particularly after that weekend Wanda, her parents and I spent together in the High Sierras. I was delighted when I found out that if my girl wasn’t exactly a sharpshooter, at least she wasn’t afraid of a gun. I’ve hunted all my life. Had to, for food. But I love hitting a target and it was a thrill to see Skipper learning how to do that, too. And I got a big bang out of our going fishing, and horseback-riding — discovering she was a real outdoor girl, who could also be just the opposite — all glamoured up — when she chose. It was good to find out that Wanda had grown up in Jacksonville, Florida, scratching for pennies, just as I had. She’d gone to work at fourteen, in little theaters. Her father, whom I admire a lot, is a carpenter. We talked man to man, understanding each other. And it was nice, too, to find out the girl could cook, particularly Southern fried chicken. I did my own cooking for a year, so I appreciate good cooking, when I get it. Once the Hendrix family owned a restaurant, so Mrs. Hendrix knows about food and she taught Wanda. By the time the Christmas holidays of 1946 approached, we were engaged. That’s why we hope to be married this year at the same season. Sentimental once more, you see. And our love letting both of us rise above our Hollywood fears. Wanda wants to stay in movies for a few years, and as long as she’s happy, that’s what I want, too, but I’d hate to have her stay in pictures too long. We both think it’s bad for children to grow up separated from their parents. After not getting into any pictures and only playing a bit in Alan Ladd’s picture, “Beyond Glory,” I’m now under contract to Paul Short, and I’ve had this swell chance at “Bad Boy.” I like the picture because I think it will have a good effect on kids. Being an orphan, just like the kid in the story, I know I could have done the same thing he did. I’d always like to do movies that may do some good in the world. That is, if possible. But what we are mostly guarding against is beginning to believe our own publicity. Once you start that — begin to let other people live your life for you — you are in trouble. Right now, I’m getting our apartment ready for my girl’s return. I’m not doing any decorating, because I think I’m color blind, but I’m getting the furniture and Wanda can do all that stuff about buying carpets and curtains when she gets here. Nights, I write her about the shape of every chair I buy and such-like, except those nights I work on my book, “To Hell and Back,” which Henry Holt and Company are going to publish this coming spring. But when I start writing about those war days and nights, I interrupt myself thinking of Skipper and how she’s changed me, making me a kinder person. I like being nice to nice people, but it’s tough for me to act that way to people I don’t like. Wanda has a way of being nice to everyone. She’s a gentle girl. She’s a pretty girl, even if she has got a complex about her figure. I like her tiny, the way she is, and I think she’s built just right. The critics say she has a new glamour in “Miss Tatlock’s Millions,” with all those glittering clothes she wears and her hair cut and dyed red. So, okay, that’s her career side. But they don’t know the half of it. They ought to know the girl I know. Especially on those outdoor dates, wearing old riding clothes and her face so happy and shining that you can’t look at anything else in the world. With those green eyes of hers twinkling and her face framed by that brown hair of hers! Won’t Danny and Kathleen and all the other little Murphys be lucky, too, having a mother like that? And won’t I be lucky, too, having such a wife? I’m telling you! The End Buying furniture for their new apartment keeps Audie busy while Wanda’s away. Choosing the right rugs will be her chore but a fellow can look, can’t he? 66