Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1951)

Encore! (Continued from page 63) He thinks Madison, Wisconsin, the most beautiful city he’s ever seen He plays gin rummy “like mad” and his friends refer to him as “probably the luckiest and stupidest player in the world.” He sleeps in the raw. He hates to go shopping with his wife. He has no faith in fortune-tellers or astrologists. He would like to own a yacht someday and reads himself to sleep no matter how tired he is. His eyes are black. He never wears a hat. His mother calls him Freddy, he takes vitamins all day long, and believes good taste is more instinctive than cultivated. He takes lukewarm showers, has never been served a traffic ticket and cites the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, as the most beautiful building he has ever seen. He has a cocker spaniel named “Tenor.” He has an aversion to manual labor and his wife laments his “horrible taste” in neckties of wild, crazy patterns. HIS first job — at twenty-one — was moving pianos and one of his initial assignments was making a delivery to Philadelphia’s Academy of Music where the great Koussevitsky was to conduct a concert that evening. Standing in a room across the hall from the conductor’s dressing-room, he gave forth with unbridled voice to “Vesti La Giubba” and at that moment lost his job. Koussevitsky demanded the identity of this singer and not long afterwards Mario Lanza was the conductor’s guest at Berkshire, well on his way to becoming one of the world’s great tenors. He never carries a money-clip and his guiding philosophy has always been his father’s admonition: “Think of the art and to hell with the money.” He is built like a weight-lifter and dislikes so-called modern furniture. He has no superstitions, dislikes cats and declares that his mother has had the greatest influence on his life. He has a canary and a parakeet, and is utterly without system or orderliness; he drops his clothes all over the house and can never find anything. He is 5' IIV2" tall. Lanza means a flying lance, in Spanish. He served three years in the Army Air Force. He is an excited spectator at boxing and football matches. He plays no tennis, no golf, has never been seasick and was born in a two-story brick house with marble steps: “You know, there are whole rows of them, like you see in Baltimore and Philadelphia.” He married Betty Hicks, sister of an Army pal, April 13, 1945. He cannot remember telephone numbers and every time he calls his own home he asks his manager what the number is. He is very fond of soft drinks. 1 He used to be a chain smoker — averaged two and half packs a day, plus two or three cigars and “maybe a pipe in between.” But during the filming of “Toast of New Orleans,” he abandoned smoking |altogether, deciding it was bad for his [voice. He made his Grand Opera debut at New Orleans in “Madame Butterfly.” He always remains seated at a stage performance, never going out between the acts. He has a passion for pizza. He likes his steaks medium rare but prefers the outside cut of roast beef. He was affered many scholarships as a result of ais athletic prowess at school. He likes flying but never does it because t affects his ears and he is unable to sing or days afterward. He is “crazy” about -aviar; at one sitting he ate $200-worth, paid for by Harry Zellzer, concert impresario of Chicago. He hates double-breasted suits. Yoici' favorite bra , with stitched under cup B and firm uplift takes the deep plunge! . ... retaining the full support that means glamorous fit. STYLE 5505 Rayon SATIN STYLE 5 502 -BROADCLOTH A Cup — 32 to 36 B Cup — 32 to 40 White only 1.50 A rte York 16 • Los Angeles 14 • Toronto 1 rtR T°0 * Vb. , spj at Better Stores or Send $1.00 to PRETTY PRODUCTS, INC. COSHOCTON. OHIO t 95