Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1963)

he wanted to he an actor. He returned to New York to enroll in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. “A Streetcar Named Desire” was Broadway’s biggest hit at the time. Visiting friends backstage, Vince met Nick Dennis. When “Streetcar” closed, Nick, his wife Helen and their children left for California. “You ought to come along,” Nick told him. “Try your luck out West.” Vince grinned, “Let me know if things look good, Greek. Maybe I can raise some money for a trip.” To Nick, things looked perfect for a fellow like Vince. Producers were searching for new faces — where could they find a handsomer one? “This is the place,” Nick would write. “You should be here!” By the time Vince departed for Hollywood, he’d appeared in “Mr. Universe,” and had been signed by Hal Wallis. So it would be an exaggeration to say that the biggest lure was Helen Dennis’ cooking. But then, as now, Helen would prepare all sorts of special Greek dishes for their friend Vince. “I love Greek food,” he will tell you today. “All those eggplant dishes and those syrupy desserts!” And you? Find out with this recipe for GREEK STYLE BAKED EGGPLANT • Halve 2 eggplants lengthwise. Cut 4 slashes in the meat of each. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes in olive oil. Set aside. Put % cup oil in a pan, brown lx/2 chopped onions, x/2 clove minced garlic. Add lx/2 chopped tomatoes, x/8 cup chopped parsley, x/2 teaspoon salt, a large pinch of pepper. Cook for 5 minutes. Fill the eggplant slashes with above mixture. Top each eggplant with a slice of tomato. Sprinkle with olive oil and bread crumbs. Place in a baking pan, adding % cup water and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Bake at 350° F. until tender (about 1 hour). Cool. Serves 4 • A Greek honey of a dessert calls for filo sheets (paper-thin sheets of pastry, much like strudel dough) which you can buy ready prepared in specialty shops that carry Greek foods. Try this delicious BAKLAVA • Coarsely grind together 21/ 2 lbs. shelled walnuts and x/2 lb blanched almonds. Mix with x/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, x/2 teaspoon allspice, l1/) lbs. sweet butter. Butter 8-inch square baking pan. Place a filo sheet in it. Brush filo sheet with melted butter. Add a thin layer of the nut mixture, another buttered pastry sheet, another layer of nut mixture and so on until you’ve used half-a-dozen sheets of pastry. Top with three sheets, all brushed with butter. Now cut into diamond shaped pieces. This dish should be baked for 50 minutes at 325°F. At the end of the first 25 minutes, spoon the following syrup over the pastry: 3 cups sugar, lx/2 cups water, ]/2 cup honey, a small piece of cinnamon stick, 2 teaspoons vanilla, all cooked together until it thickens. The dessert should stand for 6 hours before serving. Serves 8 • Vince appreciates the hours a hostess may spend in the kitchen preparing a meal. And he says so. As a bachelor host, Vince, in turn, will go to almost any lengths to feed guests. Back in 1956, for example, he played host to a lion named “Cubby” and a noness called “Tuffy”. “They belonged to a friend of mine,” Vince explains, “and I kept them for him in the yard of my iiouse Hi cne mils. Ai tins time, Geinge [George Frazer] had done a show at a carnival, and one of the lions had slashed out at a bystander. The family was going to get an injunction, which might have meant that George would lose the animals. I had a remote place and he had to hide them somewhere, so I stored them for a couple of months.” At this stage of his career, Vince could hardly afford to provide food for human guests. George was able to manage some of the feedings, however. And the late Mario Lanza would show up weekly with horsemeat and stay to sing to the beasts while they feasted. These days, Vince dines out with guests (human). His friend Sherry Nelson says, “Vince knows Cantonese cookery, Chinese foods, Japanese foods. Hawaiian foods, the French cuisine and the best of Italian dishes. When he takes a group to dinner, he likes to order the menu from hors d’oeuvres to dessert — a treat, I promise you!” The knowledge is firsthand, too. In 1959, Vince was hired to film “The Scavengers” in Hong Kong. “The place is great for getting seafood as close to the natural state as you can,” he says. “You go into a floating resturant, pick out a fish, they spear it and cook it for you in twenty minutes.” Although Vince may lapse on Greek and Italian dishes, he and the Chinese have somewhat similar ideas about healthful eating. Concentrating on vegetables, grains, fruits, with smaller amounts of eggs and meats, Chinese chefs will tell you that fat makes up ten per cent, or less, of their Oriental diet. (In America, the average is around forty per cent.) As a result, the Chinese are rarely overweight, rarely candidates for heart attacks. Try this CHINESE LUNCHEON SALAD • Combine lx/2 cups diced cooked chicken, 1 cup sliced celery, 2 tablespoons chopped green onions, 2 hard-cooked eggs (chopped), y> cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon W orcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, y2 teaspoon salt. Toss well. Chill. Just before serving, stir in x/2 cup Chow Mein noodles. Serve on crisp lettuce leaf • After Hong Kong, Vince saw Tokyo, a city of streets so confusing that a passenger sometimes has to direct a cab driver to his destination. “I managed,” Vince grins. “I always took along a Japanese dictionary !” Last summer, while filming “The Victors,” Vince was interviewed by a Tokyo reporter — via telephone. Comparing notes on the city, they became so absorbed that the conversation lasted three hours! Both conversations and those streets have a way of eventually leading to Tempura restaurants. In Japan, you’re apt to find yourself seated at a wooden counter, facing a chef and heaps of bite-sized pieces of almost every sort of raw seafood imaginable — crabs, shrimp, eel, lobster, mussels, even squid and octupus. Using chopsticks, the chef holds up one piece after another for your approval. Nod yes and he deep fries it, places it on a plate that’s been set before you. You then dip your selections into bowls of soy sauce and grated radish. And eat. 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