Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1953)

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Rock Hudson ATTENTION COLLECTORS FANS fREE PHOTO of your favorite MOVIE or TV STAR — Genuine Portrait 3'/2*5 — type for framing. Also FREE catalog of hundreds of stars. FREE information for getting addresses and birthdays, scenes and guide to Hollywood. Send 15c for handling and mailing 12 for 25c). STAR PHOTOS. INC. (M& — — Available at all ^ leading drug and department stores. Only 35< Higher in Canada IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE COLD SORES FEVER BLISTERS CHAPPED LIPS COLON TROUBLES FREE BOOK Tells Facts Learn about Colon troubles, Stomach conditions, Piles and other Rectal ailments. Causes, effects and treatment are explained in a 140-page book, sent FREE. McCleary Clinic and Hospital, 1223 Elms Blvd., Excelsior Springs. Mo. HILDREN’? PHOTO For Calendars • Billboards • Magazines Your child's photo may bring you as much as $200 from advertisers. Big demand for pictures of boys and girls 6 months to 18 years old. Let your child, too, have this wonderful opportunity to be presented to the nation's leading advertisers. (Not a contest). Send ONE small photo for our approval (Only One). Print child's full name and age and parent's name and address on back. Picture returned in 60 days if not accepted. SPOTLITE PHOTO DIRECTORY ^5864-MD Hollywood BlvJ., Hollywood 28, Calif. ^ ALL AGES -ALL TYPES THIS IS BECKY HANF Her picture has already earned $200 from a national advertiser mu/reo! routine business. He told her then that she’d been chosen by the readers of Photoplay. All he heard was a happy husky throaty squeal at the other end of the line. “I’m simply delighted,” she said when she regained her speech. The acclamation, the fans, the photographers flashing at her, the microphones thrust out to her — “all this is a tremendous responsibility,” she says. “I’ll have to work very hard as an actress to live up to it.” That happy surprise is duplicated by little Irish Maggie McNamara, who heard the good news when she returned from Rome and the location of “We Believe in Love,” her first starrer under her new Twentieth Century-Fox contract. She was a little amazed that she was chosen on the merits of just one picture, “The Moon Is Blue,” — or perhaps on its demerits, depending on the point of view. “To think — my first picture banned . . . this is very flattering!” Maggie says gleefully. “Although I don’t know why. I was under the impression that I was being very demure and sweet through the whole thing. After all, nothing happened. She only talked. And talked. And talked — ” As cute as she has been controversial, Maggie McNamara is five-foot-two and size seven, with dark hair caught up in a way she describes as “I just hoop it up on my head,” and Irish blue eyes with the longest eyelashes ever. Married to David Swift, famous in his own right as the writer of television’s successful “Mr. Peepers” show, they live in an apartment near Twentieth Century-Fox studio. Her contract allows her to do a play after two years, and she probably will. “I love California— and the climate is better for me,” she says, “but I like the excitement and challenge of New York too. An actress needs the testing of the stage.” And New York can test you thoroughly as many of today’s winners, including Bobby Van, Ben Cooper, and Joan Vohs, can well affirm. Bobby Van, son of a New York choreographer, fronted his own band, danced, sang, acted. When he made a hit on Broadway in “Red, White, and Blue,” he was signed by M-G-M. He was immediately teamed with Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds, and his production numbers are being widely acclaimed in “Kiss Me Kate.” Lauded as the “second Ray Bolger,” Bobby’s quick to say, “There’s only one Bolger. Who needs another?” At twenty, Long Island’s Ben Cooper is a veteran of Broadway with three years’ duty in “Life with Father,” some 3,000 radio shows and 750 live TV shows to his credit. Today, he’s zooming to stardom at Republic studio, where he’s slated for an important role in Joan Crawford’s “Johnny Guitar.” At the moment, Ben’s working with John Derek in “Red Horizon,” for which he perfected a lightning draw. Also, when pressed, he can favor with a few slow chords on the guitar. “I’m the heavy — that’s what these are for,” he explains, of the sprouting sideburns. “I like playing a young heavy. I don’t want to play ‘the boy next door.’ ” Thrilled about being a winner, he says, “I’d like to meet every person who voted for me.” So would lovely blonde Joan Vohs, also from Long Island. “I’ve watched the contest ever since I’ve been out here. I thought maybe some day I might get in. And I was so hoping I would win,” says Joan. Acclaimed Hollywood’s first “ThreeD” girl, when she starred in “Fort Ti,” she has all the dimensions for stardom. At sixteen she was the youngest Rockette in the Roxy line, she did a specialty dance in “Oklahoma,” she was in “Follow the Girls,” and her performance in “Parlor Story,” with Walter Abel, got her a Warner Brothers contract. They wired her to rush to the coast for an important part in a picture. Cancelling a farewell party, Joan loaded her mother and sister and cocker spaniel into the car and headed West. But the part didn’t materialize. “I got here just when the studio shut down and they began dropping people. Big names too. I was pretty heartbroken. Dad was planning on joining us out here when I got going. I’m still trying to get us all together again. I wouldn’t quit after I got dropped. I got kind of determined.” Determined too, was Salt Lake City’s young dynamic Keith Larsen, today the fairhaired boy at Allied Artists, the star of “Son of Belle Starr,” “War Paint,” and now co-starring with Sterling Hayden in “Arrow in the Dust.” All this in addition to starring in his own CBS television show, “The Hunter Series.” But his was quite an obstacle course. After a wearying eighteen months recuperating from war wounds — “I got it in the Aleutians” — came more months equally wearying, just missing the part or the contract in Hollywood. Finally Keith bought a one-way-ticket to Europe, checked in on the Left Bank in Paris— “I had to learn French fast — I only had $75 — ” got his start in films there. Eventually he connected with “the greatest guy. in the world,” Producer Walter Mirisch, and .an Allied Artists contract. His best performance off-screen is persuading New York actress Suzanne Ta Fel (they met on his TV show) to forsake showbusiness and think only of him. “It’s such a tough thing for girls. Don’t you think fifty per cent of them are only working because they haven’t found the right guy?” Keith grins. Certainly, dark-haired hazel-eyed, sexyvoiced Joanne Gilbert wouldn’t agree. During the last exciting year, Joanne has found her “right guy,” Danny Arnold, clever Martin and Lewis writer, as well as her own success at Paramount studio. Following her role in “Red Garters,” she’s moving on up to the stardom for which her Mocambo smash was a prologue. This last year also made some changes in the life of Chuck Connors. Baseball’s personality boy, he’s as quick with a quip as he is with a catch, and he’s suddenly stepping into the major league as an actor. “I’ve been so lucky and I’m so grateful,” he says now. First discovered by M-G-M’s talent king, Billy Grady — “he was an Angel fan — he got a kick out of my antics on the field — ” Chuck was given a part in “Pat and Mike” with Spencer Tracy at M-G-M. Before he tested later for “South Sea Woman,” Burt Lancaster, he says, “took me aside for an hour and rehearsed with me. Burt’s a baseball fan — and he’s from New York, as I am.” Chuck, now featured in “Dragonfly Squadron” at Allied Artists, says, “I always liked this business, even as a baseball player.” Young Natalie Wood is a Hollywood veteran of some ten years’ standing, beginning with her portrayal of Orson Welles’ little German refugee in “Tomorrow Is Forever” at U-I. “I had to speak English with a German accent, and I couldn’t even read. My sister read the lines to me and I memorized them,” she recalls now. In the years that followed, the child star was applauded in “Miracle on 34th Street,” “The Blue Veil,” “The Star,” “Just For You” — and many more. Now Natalie’s starring in “Pride of the Family,” a television series with Fay Wray on ABC. “I’m a typical teenager, and I’m supposed to be eighteen. It’s the first time I’ve ever played an older girl. I’m so happy!” says Natalie. And she’s still starry-eyed about the proposals of marriage and letters she got from Korea GI’s and others around the world, after a small picture of her appeared in Photoplay. “One boy named his fighter plane for me.