Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1949)

p The most unfortunate thing about “tobacco mouth” is that it becomes part of you so gradually. The only people it gives a “start” to are your friends! Your friends, your neighbors, your dentist — they all recognize “tobacco mouth” at the drop of a smile. But you, you’re never quite sure . . . unless, of course, you are a regular user of Listerine Tooth Paste. There’s a good reason why you can be sure — It contains Lusterfoam — a special ingredient that actually foams cleaning and polishing agents over your teeth . . . into the crevices — removes fresh stain before it gets a chance to “set” . . . whisks away that odor-making tobacco debris! See for yourself how Listerine Tooth Paste with Lusterfoam freshens your mouth and your breath! Get a tube and make sure that wherever you go — you won’t take “tobacco mouth” with you! ( Continued from page 76) In a moment, introductions over, they were on their way to the Somerset House and a big evening. The evening didn’t turn out to be as big as they’d hoped. In fact, it was pretty much of a shambles as far as the Haver girls were concerned. All during dinner, practically, the old college chums reminisced about football, football players and football coaches. And halfway through dessert, Dr. Duzik sprang his little surprise! He’d gotten tickets for that night’s game between the Los Angeles Dons and the San Franciscans. Dr. Duzik and his college friend cheered themselves hoarse and took it for granted, the way enthusiasts will, that the girls had enjoyed themselves, too. Consequently, they looked a little flabbergasted when the girls declined with thanks (and an excuse about a headache Evie had suddenly acquired), his suggestion that they stop off somewhere for a little music and dancing. June didn’t hear from her doctor for a long time after that, and she’d begun to wonder and then worry. When he finally called, the first thing he did was apologize for having thoughtlessly ruined a whole evening for her and her sister. And the second, was to invite her to dinner again, this time without any college chum. OW June’s dating life had been confined, pretty much, to people in show business (musicians, when she was a vocalist touring with a band, and later, after she was signed by Twentieth Century-Fox, actors). They were all of them charming, but thorough-going extroverts whose conversation at dinner was confined to three subjects: Themselves, shop-talk, and the latest gossip. Dr. Duzik ’s conversation tended toward ideas and an exchange of opinions on a hundred phases of life in the vast world existing outside of themselves and Hollywood. She couldn’t get over it. Soon, her dates with Dr. John had become as frequent as twice a week. Columnists were falling all over themselves predicting orange blossoms and Mendelssohn music for little June Haver, when something happened that set the town back on its heels — June’s friends and family included. Abruptly, she eloped to Las Vegas with Jimmy Zito, a musician whom she had met six years previously, when she was an impressionable kid of fifteen, and a singer touring with Ted Fio Rito and his orchestra. This marriage, conceived out of such thin stuff as yearning, impulse, and glittering illusion, was doomed from the start. Within a matter of twelve months, June and her dashing and darkly-handsome Jimmy had separated, been reconciled, and separated for the second time. And, within the space of the following year, they had become reconciled and parted again, this time for good. June had tried so desperately to make a go of things, that the failure of this marriage all but wrecked her health and her peace of mind. And when it was finally over, dissolved by a divorce decree on grounds of mental cruelty, she moved her personal possessions, her squashed little dreams, and her heartache into a little apartment of her own and started all over again. The heart can endure only so much, so that in time, the ache subsided. Then the loneliness set in. It wasn’t that she lacked admirers. Immediately after the final decree, and even a little before, the phone began ringing. And before too long, all the old gang was calling again. But somehow, she discovered, the old familiar line had lost its old lustre. She found herself inventing excuses, begging off. And her loneliness got worse, not better. She was playing gin rummy with her sister one evening, and finding it hard to concentrate on the game, when Evie laid down her cards and said: “I’d call him, if I were you.” “Call who?” June wanted to know. “Dr. John,” Evie said. “Who else?” JUNE drew herself up stiffly. “I’m quite capable of managing my own social life, thank you.” Evie shrugged. “That’s one way of looking at it, I guess. Pretend I never doubled for Dorothy Dix and we’ll go on playing.” That did it. Prior to this, Dr. John had been in the back of June’s mind, and she had been struggling to keep him confined there. But now, in the forefront of her thinking, he became more important by the moment. And then he called and asked her to dinner. They met as friends and she saw the same quick enkindling smile, and felt the same old warmth and understanding. Only this time, she put a proper value on all the nice, quiet things about Dr. John Duzik. The following week, June heard, for the first time, the story of John’s life. Of Slovak I stock, he’d been born in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where his father, Nick Duzik, ran a combination grocery -meat market, as well as a cattle ranch on the WyomingColorado border. He had attended first, the local grade schools and high school, then the University of Southern California from which he had been graduated as a dental surgeon, and, finally, Harvard Medical School, where he had taken special courses. Studies completed, he had returned to Rock Springs and opened a dental office, to the eternal pride of his immigrant parents who had made such enormous sacrifices in order to see him through college and medical school. But, until the day he’d left Rock Springs to open a practise in Los Angeles, he, himself, had never been too proud, come high noon, to doff his dentist’s tunic, hurry across the street to his father’s store, don a butcher’s apron, and start waiting on the customers. It was this rough sketch of his life, amplified gradually, that gave June her real insight into the kind of man John Duzik really was — a man with love of home and parents, strong loyalties and manliness. Then came her trip to Wyoming and a meeting with John’s folks. She met them in Rock Springs — his father, mother, three brothers, and sister — and then, together, they took off on horseback for the ranch, a good three hours’ train ride from the town. They packed in supplies, sleeping in tents, and cooking their food over open fires. All in all, it was the most exciting vacation she ever spent. And she came back to Los Angeles, completely in love, only this time with her eyes open, her mind clear, and her heart singing. A girl like the revised June Haver deserves everything 1949 can give her, including a lasting marriage with the man she loves. The End MOVIES — Fine entertainment at low cost _1 78