Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1958)

What? What was making me cry so? “I couldn’t tell her the truth, it sounded too childish. I couldn’t explain that they were just square, so I didn’t answer. I cried. But every day after that I walked three or four blocks out of my way to wear those shoes out. They were very sturdy,” she adds with a wry smile. “When pigtails came into style I begged for them until my stepmother finally braided them one morning. I was late to school again, but everyone including the teacher was so pleased with my hair that I was excused. It just took too long to do, though, so I went back to the oldcountry — ‘different’ — hairdo. Then it was middy blouses and blue skirts, which I couldn’t have for the realistic reason that my serviceable Swedish clothes wore ten times longer than they should have. I wallowed in self-pity to a revolting degree.” Occupied and preoccupied as he was with his teaching, studying and writing, it was hard for Mr. Stensland to put himself in a teenager’s place and understand her feelings and there was even less time and opportunity when the family again uprooted itself and moved to Manhattan, Kansas in 1949. From the very beginning Inger and Ola had learned, like little chameleons, to adapt themselves to new ways of living — first in Sweden when they stayed with different relatives for varying periods, then in this country. And it may be that this “training” in uncertainty and change helped form Inger’s life goal — to be an actress. First it was just an idea, then it grew into almost an obsession, for it represented a way of communicating, of reaching out and touching people, of being an identifiable “somebody,” even if that “somebody” were only a role one was playing. “My language problem was gone,” and she tells it as objectively as if it had all happened to someone else, “but I still found it difficult to have an easygoing WAS MY FACE RED ! Continued, jronm page 69 of stuff. Maybe you’ve felt the same way. If I could be anyone in the world, you know, I think I’d be Dinah Shore, because she’s so well liked by everyone. When I was younger, I used to want to be Doris Day. She was my idol, after I saw her in “Calamity Jane.” I remember thinking how great she was, and how I wanted to grow up and sing and dance and act just like Doris. But lately, I want to be Dinah Shore mostly. She’s a doll. I think the most important traits in a person are being sincere and natural and friendly, and Dinah is all three. (So’s Rock Hudson.) She gets such a kick out of everything and thoroughly enjoys life. I really don’t know her very well. I worked down the hall from her for two or three years, but never really talked to her. But I kind of hero-worshipped her from afar — that was for sure. Of the men, the one who most fills the top bill on my list is Tennessee Ernie Ford, and if I could be any man, I’d pick Ernie. The minute some people walk into a room you know right off that they are going to be friendly and nice. They don’t put on any airs, and they’re genuinely interested in others. That’s Ernie all over. Gisele MacKenzie and Pat Boone, too. And there’s a new boy named Gene Vincent who is one of the sweetest people I know. He lives in Texas and has made a hit record. He’s so shy. I love shy people. I give-and-take relationship with those in my own age group. I was impatient with them, believing they were totally unaware of the importance of living. (Of course, I was the only one who was!) And I had my new dream, to go back to that other Manhattan — New York — and acting. To raise some money, I worked after school as an usherette, a store clerk, a dish washer for neighbors. I made dolls’ clothes to sell. I was striving for ‘polish’ at the same time, so I studied ballet and paid for the lessons by teaching ballroom dancing at a nearby college.” But every iota of her Swedish stubbornness was needed. A step-sister, Lucy, was born and Inger’s duties at home increased to such an extent that she had to turn down a chance at an operetta lead. Plays were forbidden because late hours were. “I remember the boys in my dancing class chipping in to buy me a suede brush. That was sweet; they didn’t know that what I needed was new shoes. But most of the things I did were fun. I liked working and I did have friends, though not close ones. People my own age group still made me nervous. I couldn’t talk to them, but older people I enjoyed. You know, even though I felt restricted beyond all endurance, that very feeling kept me working. Even though I know now that being poor, having to work hard, is nothing to be ashamed of, it was years before I saw my childhood without the adolescent coloring of self.” She arrived in New York with exactly $39.50 in her handbag. But this time she wasn’t afraid; she had reached another plateau and was ready for the dramatic changes the New York interlude would bring. She pestered Lee Strasberg until he let her study at the Actors Studio. (“I called him up at odd hours of the day and night. In sheer self-defense he took me on.”) She pestered the management of the Latin Quarter until they let her play a clown in a tramp costume. (“I insisted. like Sal Mineo because he’s pretty shy, too. Sometimes I daydream about who I’d most like to look like in all the world if I had a choice. And it would be Liz Taylor. You can’t find an imperfect feature on her, can you? As far as looks in men, I don’t really like handsome men too much. But, I guess if I had to pick out the one I think is best looking, I’d pick Rock Hudson. One day, two weeks ago, I was being interviewed by two teenage reporters in the U-I commissary, when Rock walked in dressed in a navy blue T-shirt and slacks. He looked like a doll — a big doll. I don’t think those reporters found out anything about me. We spent the whole lunch hour talking about Rock, while I just sat and mooned. For the most beautiful eyes and coloring — blue eyes with dark hair — I’d pick Tony Curtis, and I think Mark Damon has the most beautiful teeth I’ve ever seen. Marlon Brando, to me, is the greatest actor, I saw him in “Sayonara” and I just loved the picture. I thought his Southern accent was tremendous. If I could act like anyone, I’d pick Marlon or Deborah Kerr. If I could meet anyone in the world, guess who I’d pick? Gene Autry. My full name is Molly Gene, and I’d tell him I was named after him. I cried through every Gene Autry picture I ever saw as a kid. Mother loved him so much, too, and, poor thing, she always had to leave to take me home right in the middle of the picture because I cried so much. As part of the chorus line my costumes had been getting more and more abbreviated. I was embarrassed.”) She met, married, separated from and finally divorced agent Tony Soglio. (“It crystallized many things for me.”) And all the time she was getting closer and closer to her goal. TV commercials led to summer stock and larger roles on TV. 20th Century-Fox took her to Hollywood and Paramount signed her up. Her first starring part was in “Man on Fire” opposite Bing Crosby. (“My first day on the set petrified me; I’ve always had a desperate fear of being fired by a director.”) But she wasn’t — and the rest is history. Since then, she’s appeared in M-G-M’s “Cry Terror” and has also finished Paramount’s epic, “The Buccaneer.” She will also be seen soon in M-G-M’s “End of the World.” Professionally, Inger Stevens is well on her way. Personally, she is as enigmatic as Swedes are supposed to be. She has just bought a Swiss chalet-type house on Mulholland Drive; yet she says, “I only want temporary roots — to be able to pick up anytime and live anywhere in the world. The world is exciting to me,” she says, and in the next breath, “Being around too many people frightens me. I can’t give too much of myself to too many people.” The past seems not to touch her, yet she is easily touched — compliments redden her, praise is embarrassing, sympathy brings angrily unwanted tears. Right now she honestly believes it is a fallacy to trust completely in one thing Enjoy it to the fullest, yes, but always knowing that it can be lost. . . Wounds from torn roots heal slowly and for Inger yesterday’s nightmares cannot be forgotten. And she is thinking: “If the world blew up and all the parasites were killed, the self-sufficient would manage. They’d gc back to the mountains, eat berries and start over. Then, all being self-sufficient we could love and trust and be dependent because we’d be aware of it.” The Eni Another thing I daydream about a lot i: where I would go if I could go anywhere If I could take a trip right now, I’d picl the Isle of Pines and go see what my mother bought. You see, she bought some lane by mail. She read about this land off the coast of Cuba. It’s supposed to be when Robert Louis Stevenson wrote “Treasure Island.” She read about it in a magazine and ordered a half-acre! Just like ordering groceries or something. (I think she just bought a rock.) As for my honeymoon, if I ever get married, I think I’d like to go to Acapulco I’ve never been there, but it just sound very nice. But the absolutely most ex citing and adventurous place in the worle to go would be Paris. It sounds terribly oh, I don’t know — romantic. And if I ever have to settle down to on> place to live, I hope it’s by the ocean, just love water. I love the sounds of tb waves and to look at water at night. I completely flips me — and I can’t evei swim. My dream house is either simp! modern or pretty provincial. I love th warmth of the provincial home — the plaid.1 the fireplaces — that sort of thing — but also love the uncluttered look of a moderi home. But really, I never like to plan anything My mother and I are just alike in tha sort of thing. One minute we’ll just b sitting here at home, and the next min ute, we’ll be packed and on our way t Arizona, where we used to live. I’d rathe do things on the spur of the moment. It much more fun that way. One time Mor and I decided on a whim to go to Pair