Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1947)

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V like any college boy and Ann also has a campus air “She doesn’t want people to stare at her. Ann wants to save her acting ability for each role she rates. So she’s fun!” Lon enthuses. You might suppose these two talk incessantly of their respective careers. Both of them actually act in their movies, they’re not just being themselves. But they never talk shop. “We both think of acting quite unhysterically,” Lon says. “It is an acquired, skilled trade we’re both learning and we agree you improve a technique only by practice and not by forever talking about it. We don’t think waiting for inspiration has any bearing — that is wishful reliance on others to put you across. Nursing moods before and after a scene strikes us both as phony stuff. We don’t ham it up at all. And I haven’t even discussed this; we just sense each other’s professional attitude.” NN definitely is one of Lon’s favorite people — even though he dates other girls too; Cathy Downs, Nancy Walker, Allene Roberts and Peggy Ann Garner, so far as “names” go. And any day now, Eeta Linden, who’s not news so far, will arrive in Hollywood for a long-anticipated visit. “Eeta had a small part in the U.S.O.’s production of ‘What a Life’ and when that troupe came to Alaska I was assigned as their Army guide. They staged the play for the troops in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Nome. I’ll never forget the laughs Eeta and I had over hot cakes in the Log Cabin in Fairbanks. Or the afternoon we went swimming in an Alaskan lake.” Lon looked her up in New York City, where her home is, when his studio sent him East last winter. She was every bit as gay and bright as he’d remembered her. He proudly took her to a lavish film premiere, introducing her to Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara and the other Hollywood people there for it. “I had to rent a tux, and she rented a fur coat,” Lon says with a smile, “and we reveled in our temporary finery.” Lon’s new apartment house looks down a hillside onto the exact center of Hollywood. He sold his Malibu house, bought with his first movie earnings, because it nearly tripled in value in four years and, being a shrewd business man, he couldn’t ignore that. He’s invested in a triplex, living on the top floor himself with his mother and grandparents. “I’m not too tied to my folks,” he insists. “I’d really rather live alone now, but I can’t afford it yet. Besides, the folks shared the bad times and the slowly arriving good times, and we love each other. “We climb these sixty-six steps feeling mighty lucky we have them to puff up.” A new poker table sits there permanently, with his portable typewriter usually parked on it because he has an aversion to a conventional desk. Shelves full of his books flank both sides of the huge stone fireplace. He spends more on records and books than on any other hobby. “When I marry I hope I don’t turn out Surface Stuff. I try to be my true self on dates so a girl knows where I stand. I admit frankly I’m avoiding social life. I was an only child and love it. I’ve never been lonely, can be by myself quite happily. I hate cocktail parties and I’m conservative. Because my family lost all their money when I was six, mother was untrained for the work she had to do from then on, and we had a tough time of it. I began as an extra at fourteen and didn’t get my first bit part until I was seventeen. I did two years of small roles before I was even considered eligible for a lead. I believe very emphatically in a college education, even for an actor, so I had to sandwich mine in with the movie progress. “They say you have to put on ‘front’ in Hollywood. I don’t. I don’t buy anything on time, go without luxuries until I can afford them. I want investments that’ll tide over any lack of work in the future. I intend to provide for my family. After I branch out on my own, Mother will have this building and the income from it. “I don’t attempt to prove I’m like I am in the movies. I sometimes am — and in many ways I’m not. If a girl’s going to be disappointed in me, she might as well take it on the chin fast and look elsewhere. I assume traits foreign to myself only when a role calls for them.” ION’S still recalling the evening he and Ray Sperry, his best friend and now his stand-in, double-dated Peggy Ann Garner and Barbara Whiting. “I’m no cradlesnatcher,” Lon grins. “I’m that creature I once used to object to; an older boy! While I was away the girls I knew of my own age all seemed to get married. Peggy Ann’s mature for her age and it’s natural to step out with a girl doing a film with you. Those two girls wore Ray and me out that particular night. We made a tour of the beach concessions and couldn’t keep up with their pep. ‘Now that you are out with an Older Man you’ll have to stop stuffing candy and popcorn all at once,’ I told Peggy Ann. After which you should have seen me in that Spitfire plane she chose for our next ride. I even broke my glasses before we could climb out!” He is still in the phase where he can be attracted by the best of every type. Cathy Downs’s gentility impresses him. “She was America’s highest-paid model, but she has the thoughtfulness and good breeding the ambitious frequently consider unimportant. Cathy has earned her opportunity. She had a terrific struggle to regain her beauty after a bad childhood break — and how she’s come through!” Lon points out that Allene Roberts sensibly returned to her senior year in high school after scoring in her first film. “We’ll be doing another picture together this year. Meantime, she’s smart to continue school. Allene’s not a clinging-vine, either. She’s intelligent, and she’s going far.” He contends feminine charm isn’t dependent on fame or money. His appreciation of its infinite varieties is evidenced by his hilarious times with Nancy Walker, the Broadway musical comedy star. Her hail-fellow boisterousness appeals strongly to his own awareness of pompousness. He tries to top her gags, and confesses that astounding Nancy is a big order. He’s had one gala trip to New York since the war, being sent there in style to meet the metropolitan press. He gifted Ray Sperry with a free jaunt-of-a-lifetime. They’ve been buddies since they met as extras when fourteen, and that long ago they resolved that whichever of them hit the big time first would treat the other to such a spree. Since Lon got to New York a number of times while in uniform, he had dozens of sights to show Ray. In their three weeks’ stay they missed practically nothing. By the time the two flew home they were anxious to just lie on the beach in the California sunshine. “I’m not even thinking of marriage yet,” Lon says. “I want to feel more mature before I fall in love, because I won’t take a wife lightly. I think divorce is a failure you inflict on someone else along with yourself. I intend to focus on being the right sort of husband when I make that step. Until then, I want my girl friends to know me as I honestly am.” His telephone was ringing furiously as I started down his sixty-six steps. “Hello, Ann!” he was replying. He told me he has no line. It strikes me that in all Hollywood he’s the one with the grandest one. The End