Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1952)

are YOU that one girl in a million? Perhaps as you read this YOU may be the girl on the threshold of a new, exciting life. YOU may be that someone among our millions of readers who will be chosen as Miss True Story for 1953. The winner will have her picture appear on the covers of True Story Magazine, she will receive $1,000 in cash for her services as a model and many handsome gifts. She may even follow in the footsteps of lovely Elaine Stewart, this year’s Cover Girl, who is now a professional model and screen starlet living in Hollywood. She may be YOU!! This is the opportunity of a life-time. You can’t afford to miss it. For Complete Details on the wonderful Miss TRUE STORY 1953 Cover Girl Contest be sure to get MAY TRUE STORY magazine on sale at newsstands Friday, April 11th comics, unknown a few years ago, chalked up something in the neighborhood of one million smackeroos for the fiscal year ending this March. It’s fun to spend money when you’re young. And Dean and Jerry are having fun; Jerry more than Dean, who is slightly handicapped with alimony payments of $36,000 a year to his former wife. A payment of $36,000 requires an earning intake of nearly half a million dollars. That’s what Dean has to make before he starts paying for his second family. Jerry paid cash for his $125,000 home. He owns two Cadillacs as does Dean. He supports his own and his wife’s parents. He took up golf a month ago, and promptly bought thirty sets of clubs for his friends. He gives watches to all of his acquaintances. When Dean sees anyone with an unusual watch, he says, “That must be a friend of Jerry’s.” And young Mr. Lewis has the most expensive hobby in town. He makes full-length movies for private viewing. A conservative estimate of Jerry’s camera equipment is $30,000. The film alone for his last, “The Re-Enforcer,” cost $2,000. Add a dozen lawsuits since Jerry and Dean hit the fame jackpot and you’ll see why income tax day could be a problem. I ana Turner was in debt when she married reputed millionaire Bob Topping. And, like Rita Hayworth, she came out of her marriage poorer than when she went in. I’m told it’s her money in the TurnerTopping honeymoon mansion in Bel-Air— $95,000 worth. She is disposing of the pretty show place for something more in keeping with her pocket. Lana spends her salary the way stars used to in days of no income tax. I hope she has signed her new Metro contract by the time you read this story. It’s supposed to take care of the fortune she owes Uncle Sam. Van Johnson, like Stewart Granger, borrowed a big hunk of dollars to pay for a lovely home after his marriage to Evie. Van’s place cost $125,000. Granger’s, with all the additions, cost nearer $150,000. When you figure these people are lucky if — with a quarter million dollars a year salary — taxes leave them with $30,000 a year,you realize how tough it can be for them to pay back a loan of $100,000. When Van, with Evie’s two boys and a daughter of his own, outgrew the first home, he moved into another more practical but just as expensive place in Beverly Hills — without waiting to sell the first. And Van was the boy who was so scared of getting into debt, he lived in one bedroom — before his marriage, of course. The Grangers have come down to earth too — with quite a bang-bang. Stewart wanted only the best for his young bride, Jean Simmons. But the little lady gasped — in dismay, when her handsome husband carried her over the threshold of a small palace after she married him fifteen months ago. Now they’re looking for a nest to call their own, and hoping desperately for a buyer to take the big house, and take them out of the red. There was a story that when Betty Grable changed agents, the new ten per centers loaned her $40,000 to tide over a financial difficulty. Betty denied the story at the time, but the agents who were jilted told me the story was true. It’s a common practice. Stars who need ready cash are tempted to switch to agents who will make money advances. There is no risk involved and the agent always collects. If Betty is hard up — and she lost eight months of salary at $8,000 a week last year, on suspension— you could put it down tb the horses again. Unless you win consistently, the sport of kings is very expensive. Like owning a yacht. Which brings us to Errol Flynn. Errol wants to sell the famous “Zaca.” He earns $200,000 for every picture he makes at Warners. But his yacht costs $1,000 a month to maintain. Add to this $12,000 a year expense there’s $30,000 it costs him to support his first wife, the gal he calls Tiger Lili (Damita). There’s also the $550 a month he pays for his two children, with Nora Haymes. All of which, plus his non-stop lawsuits, doesn’t leave much over for the future. Errol hopes to get away from it all one day and settle on his ranch in Jamaica. I hope he can swing it. If Robert Mitchum stays out of trouble, he should break even in the financial department by 1953. He has paid back half of the $50,000 he borrowed from boss Howard Hughes to finance his home and swimming pool. He lives quietly with Dorothy and the boys, with no lavish parties, so that faithfully every week he can diminish his debts. He still has to make up the money he lost when a former business manager bilked him of something like $70,000. A business manager took Linda Darnell for the same amount. Me, if I ever make a lot of dollars, I’ll manage it myself. Dan Dailey is playing it safe. “I get $75 a week for spending money and food,” he told me recently. “The rest goes into stocks and bonds and annuities.” Dan waited to buy a swank make car, until he could put every dollar on the line. No deferred payments in Dailey’s life. They say the man with all the money in town is Bob Hope. I’ll match him with Fred MacMurray and Joel McCrea, both of whom parlayed their movie earnings into big fortunes. And when you can do that, in these high taxable days, you are a genius. The End . . . police find the fugitive criminal named and described on the “True Detective Mysteries” radio program every Sunday afternoon. *1 ,000.00 REWARD ... is offered for information leading to the arrest of any one of these criminals. Hear the details about this $1,000.00 reward on “True Detective Mysteries”. “TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES” Every Sunday Afternoon on 523 Mutual Stations