Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1948)

Five-year-old Chris is an almost constant visitor — bis gn-ut-uunt Jo is as fond of eating a* he is. Cheerful maid Cleo i> a lit-himl-the-srenes genius; Jo rim safely sketch u menu and leave the detail* to her. Jo Stafford in hrurd on Mon.Wodt-FM. Suppw Clab l>r*.«.irn.t., on NBC ftt 7 P.M. EST. %lkdii\){ HOLLYWOOD Lamp designing is a hobb the ballerina-legs are ' Decorator Jo really got down to business when she got to the two big bedrooms — her own and Christine's — at the back of the house. "We're girls who like our sleep," she admits, as she proudly displays the two "Hollywood" seven-byseven beds, Chris's with an old-rose quilted headboard, Jo's with electric blue satin. It's pretty hard to look at the rooms without yawning sleepily. If you're just half-sleepy, you can turn down the big bed for a chaise — Jo's fits into a curving wall of windows with a view of the ocean going about its leisurely business five miles down the slope. Next to big beds, Jo's passion is for lamps — and she has outdone herself designing the bedside pairs for the bedrooms. The bases for Christine's are entwined pink cupids, the shades pink fluff. Jo's are even headier — if that is the word for bases made like dancers' legs, and shades which simulate ruffled can-can skirts. The house, with its accents on comfort and fun, fits Jo like one of her own low-heeled shoes, despite the fact that she has been in it for only a few weeks. It's too new yet to be "home," as she reveals when she tells you that she and Christine "go home" every weekend. "Home" is in Long Beach, where Jo's mother and father live in the big old house Jo bought for them children, as are the fat pink Cupids in Christine's room, (not shown). with the first really important earnings of her career. The baby of the four Stafford sisters, Bette Jane, and her husband and five -month -old son, Kim, live in Long Beach too, as do Christine's daughter, Marjorie Folz, and — when he's not visiting Aunt Jo — five-yearold Christopher. The weekend reunions are traditional for the whole family, and Sunday wouldn't be Sunday for any of them without one of mama's southern fried chicken dinners. Pauline, now living in New York with her husband, Galen Drake, mopes every Sunday from homesickness, the other girls say, despite the fact that she manages at least three times a year to join the rest of the family for a holiday. It was in these family conclaves that the Stafford sisters first learned to sing together, and this they still do — strictly for laughs and fun. When they aren't singing they're playing charades— everybody but little Kim participates in The Game. If Jo had her way, these family parties and a few informal get-togethers with the gang she works with in the recording studio and on her radio show would take care of her social life. "She's never been much for parties, especially big ones," Christine explains. "The trouble with th there are so many people she should entertain— people .1" gpendi her days In casual sporli cloths* and makeup, but turns henelf odi wiili sjamorphu f<.r broadcnl she really likes who have been terribly nice to her We've started once or twice to plan .1 dtnnei pui made up guest lists and menus. Jo dies bo interested, but she hogs down early. 'You do it, Chris,' she says finally, 'you know how.' And I know how she really feels, so wc just skip It, until lain Usually until too much later." As a result, the "pai ■■■ house In West wood are much more apt to take on tin atmosphere, ol ■ kaffee-klatsch after .1 bioadrast 01 B recording dote. with Paul Weston, Jo's conductor and very special friend, on hand, along with Bob Packham, who produces the western Supper Club shows, Fred Held who writes them, and the five Star Ugh If Jo is feeling particularly energetic, she will pui on an apron and make chili and beans her favorite dish. If she isn't, and she Frequently Isn't, they all talk Cleo, the cheerful maid, into making spaghetti, 01 send out for hamburgers. Jo's friends wonder audibly when she and Paul Weston will take out a marriage license, but Jo says quietly that "it hasn't come to that yet.'' They have been friends for years. It was Paul, when he was arranging for Tommy Dorsey, who recommended the Pied Pipers to his boss, and thus got Jo — who was the only girl with the group— her first b in big time radio. Since she (Continued on pan