Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1951)

brunettes or redheads the next. Where’s the reason behind this? In most cases I’ve seen, the dyed hair has only confirmed the age of the person and added harshness to her face. People are continually surprised that I haven’t dyed my hair — which is now filled with gray. I haven’t touched it because, frankly, I like it this way. Just call me “silver-tip Stanwyck” and I love it. And I consider my hair today an improvement over the rather mousy sort of red hair I was pretty tired of. It looks far better on the screen, too. My hair used to photograph like dead corn. No matter how extrovert I am about liking my gray hair, there are still those who can’t believe that I don’t want it hidden. Not so long ago I did an art layout for a magazine— in color. When the editors saw the pictures they ordered the retouching of my hair to hide the gray. When they had finished the job some $300 later, they gleefully wrote me that I wasn’t to worry about the gray showing — they had fixed me up just dandy. I hated to throttle their happiness but I had to tell them I was disappointed because I liked the gray hairs to show. HEAVEN deliver the woman in her forties from wearing outfits with frills and rosebuds meant for teenagers. They always make a woman look ridiculous instead of as young as she wishes she were. There’s nothing which gives greater emphasis to age than clothes that are obviously on the wrong body in the wrong year. Simple clothes with straight lines are a woman’s best friend. Suits, skirts, blouses and sweaters can come in infinite variety. For me, just make them simple. Even my evening gowns are simple. Oh, I’ve seen some fancy get-ups I've been tempted to buy, but they’re usually so complicated in construction, so much trouble to get into that I decided against them. When I’m on a picture I have no worry about clothes. If it’s a dress epic, of course I’m interested, but I leave any problems to fine designers like Irene, Edith Head and Orry Kelly. Clothes simply do not give me any great concern. My tastes and requirements are specific and I don’t fuss about them. Not even when I’m going to a formal gathering. Once I was invited to a large formal party given by Mary and Jack Benny. I’d anticipated it with some enthusiasm. Then — just a few days before the party I got an attack of pleurisy and was sent to bed by Dr. Joel Pressman, Claudette Colbert’s husband, who attended me. He said I couldn’t go to the dinner unless my temperature stayed down for the twentyfour hours preceding. Well, it did, and he gave me his okay providing I stayed abed until he came for a final check-up before the party. I expected him around five or six, but he was delayed at the hospital and arrived at seven-thirty. After checking me, he asked, “What time is the party?” “Eight,” I answered. “I’ll make it by eight-fifteen.” “Well, it’s now twenty minutes to eight. Do you mean you can get up and dress and be there by eight-fifteen?” “Look, Doctor,” I said, “if I started dressing at five and spent three hours getting all fussed up, I wouldn’t look any better. I’d probably find so much that was wrong with me that I’d just wind up in a great state of irritation. Why bother?” I arrived calmly at the party — on time. Maybe I’m just too lazy to become one of those women who spend so much time on themselves. And who end up worrying themselves sick. The more they fuss, the fussier they get and the less pleased they are with the results. They get into an emotional and mental stew and destroy every possibility of having fun at a party whirl’s BY HOLLYWOOD-MAXWELL yes, the whirl’s the why this incomparable STRAPLESS stays put under bare-shoulder formal and fun fashions ... why it gives you firmer uplift, wider separation, a down-to-there plunge with contour-molding comfort. What is the whirl? It’s Hollywood-Maxwell’s original Whirlpool stitch process . . . thousands of tiny continuous stitches in the Whirlpool* Bra cup which hold it shape-true through countless wearings and washings. In white, in black satin and net. 5.00 HOLLYWOOD-MAXWELL COMPANY • 6773 HOLLYWOOD BLVD. • HOLLYWOOD 28, CALIF. LONG-LINE STRAPLESS BRA A bonus of smoothing midriff control for this year's slickas-a-whistle fashions . . . engineered for you by the makers of America's most-asked-for brassiere. In nylon. 8.95