Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1957)

scars were later removed.) Merle and movie photographer Lucien Ballard married by proxy in a 1945 Mexican civil ceremony. The marriage was over in 1949. Some months later, Merle watched her Italian admirer, Count Cini, crash his private plane in flames before her horrified eyes. “My life is finished,” she wept. “There is no point in going on.” She seemed to move aimlessly in international circles, doing occasional TV work and sitting pretty much on the sidelines, though she was often heard to say, “Things are calm, calm the way I’ve always wanted them.” Last summer, she wed wealthy Mexican industrialist Bruno Pagliai, and present indications are that Merle’s long battle for private happiness is finally won. Another kind of battle, on a lighter level, was fought by Dorothy Lamour vs. her sarong. “I’ve worn a sarong in only six pictures,” she once confided, “but the public thinks I live in one.” Dottie’s persistent efforts to part company with her Polynesian wrap-around were doomed to failure. During the war, servicemen stationed in the South Seas wrote in regularly to complain that “Nothing here looks like Dorothy Lamour.” Dottie later left the film tropics, quit stooging for Hope and Crosby and appeared in some well-dressed roles with indifferent success. The payoff, however, happened at the London Palladium a few years ago. Dottie came onstage in two yards of silver lame surrounded by 104 yards of billowy white tulle. As she went into her first number, a balcony voice inquired, “Where’s your sarong?” Dottie went on singing, and the inquiry was repeated. She motioned the orchestra to stop, and replied, “I’ll see what I can do.” After a ninety-second dim-out, the lights came up and the tulle had vanished. The applause that followed must have rattled teacups around the country. Dottie currently spends some time on her highly successful night-club act. More often, she’s home with husband Bill Howard and their two boys, Johnny and Tommy. The kids may sit up to watch Mama’s early jungle epics— but Dottie doesn’t. She’s had enough of that sarong! Sonja Henie’s films are also now available for TV. Shrewd businesswoman Sonja, once listed among filmdom’s ten femme millionaires, still goes out every year with her ice show and plays to standing-room only. In private life, she is now married to a fellow Norwegian, shipping tycoon Niels Onstad. She won her first Olympic championship in 1928, at the age of thirteen. (“Everybody is always wondering how old I am, and I keep telling them, ‘Don’t figure back.’ They do, though.”) A few scenes later, Sonja was in pictures. The formula for Henie films was always a handsome leading man (Don Ameche, Ty Power or John Payne), a minimum of story and dialogue and a maximum of ice — and it clicked every time. Among athletes turned film stars, no one has ever matched Sonja’s fabulous success, though Esther Williams probably came closest. Between films, Sonja was smart enough to go out and be seen in person. Why keep on skating? “It’s good for my nerves,” Sonja tells Photoplay. Will she ever make another film? “Well, I’ve never been under any illusions that I’m an actress. But I know I could sell a show. If I could find a story that would use my skating show as background, as ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ used the circus, then I’d do it fast. But until then, I’ll skate along as I am. When I go out on the ice, I feel wonderful. I’m relaxed and I’m happy. And what else matters?” The opposite of this picture of calm serenity was Sylvia Sidney with heartshaped face and sad eyes. “I can’t relax in Hollywood,” she would say. “It’s too closely tied up with work for me.” So she’d usually hop a plane or a train for her native New York and stay there between pictures. As a result, she had no close friends in Hollywood, avoided parties (“with millions of people you don’t know”), and few people got to know her at all. But some provocative facts made the rounds: She was fond of gardening and swimming, drank about fifteen cups of coffee per day, chain-smoked alarmingly and kept her hands almost constantly in motion. On set between takes, she could usually be found working off nervous energy by knitting. Onscreen, she became a specialist in pathos. “Sylvia Sidney and Her Saga of Sadness” headlined one magazine piece, for nobody, but nobody, could throw a weep like Sylvia. “In the pictures I play,” she chirped, “the girl who strays, pays — which provides me with some swell crying scenes.” Sylvia’s boxoffice rating went to pieces, partly because of poor management. She and Charles Boyer were announced for “Wuthering Heights,” but her boss decided it was “too depressing.” And finally, she herself bowed out of the “Algiers” role that made Hedy Lamarr a star. What was left was effectively demolished by several poor pictures in the Forties. Sylvia never liked Hollywood, and came to have a pronounced preference for stage work. In these reminiscences of stars who are shining anew on your TV screen, we’ve concentrated mainly on personalities no longer on the Hollywood screen scene. There are many others: Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, who are proving that their wonderful appeal is timeless; the late, great Leslie Howard, with his peerless sensitivity; Greer Garson; Dick Powell, crooner or tough guy; the movies’ most charming child, Shirley Temple; Frank Morgan; Robert Montgomery; Lew Ayres; Wallace Beery; Charles Boyer; Geraldine Fitzgerald, Robert Walker. To all of them, we owe a debt of gratitude. They have brightened our lives immeasurably. They have entertained us, amused us, touched us, inspired us. And they were able to do this because of the never-ending magic of motion pictures, a magic that only the movie industry can fully instill. This is a magic that is tremendously costly — in terms, not only of the high-priced personalities it employs, but in story and production costs to give these great ones the proper vehicles. For this reason, until pay-as-you-go TV becomes a reality, it will be years before today’s new films are seen on your television screen. But, when that same magic can come back, to enchant us again and again, when it can preserve forever the best of youth and charm and talent, who can complain? The End ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★it** COMING NEXT MONTH! Pat Boone Ricky Nelson Dorothy Malone «fanet Leigh Tony Perkins Charlton Heston ►★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★a******************************** Want to Banish Wrinkles? ’Bye-Line Skin serum can help you do it-also crepy throat! Yes, it’s really true. 'Bye-Line must make you look 2 to 10 years younger in 10 days, or YOUR MONEY BACK. Not a peel, mask or temporary cover-up, but a genuine youth restorer. This is no false promise. 'Bye-Line is absolutely safe, even for super-sensitive skin. Simple, speedy, pleasant, and non-greasy oil treatment. Not sold in stores. No C.O.O.'s. 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