Radio romances (July-Dec 1945)

Announcing GAY-RED Tangee s newest ana most sensational lipstick shade says Mrs. Randolph Scott —lovely wife of the dashing screen star. CONSTANCE LUFT HUHN: Stimulating is just the word, Mrs. Scott, for there's never been a lipstick color like my new Gay-Red. Your lips look far lovelier... and you feel brighter, gayer— full of life and sparkle. MRS. SCOTT: No wonder Gay-Red is the "hit-color" of Hollywood. It gives me a lift. Just putting Gay-Red on my lips puts me in a "party mood". CONSTANCE LUFT HUHN: And that explains why Gay-Red is sweeping the country. All over America, beautiful lips are going gay with Gay-Red... Other smart Tangee shades are Red-Red, Theatrical Red, MediumRed and Natural— all with Tangee's exclusive Satin-Finish. CONSTANCE LUFT HUHN Head of the House of Tangee and one of America's foremost authorities on beauty and make-up. u* se a see now beautiiul you can be 74 the news of victory in Europe electrified the country. Our office closed early that day, and I came straight home and stayed there, refusing to go downtown with Mother and Dad to watch the celebration, sure that John would try to get in touch with me. And he did call me, and we had our own private celebration over the wires, with John saying over and over again in a marveling voice, "I can hardly believe it, that it's half done. Sometimes, over there, I thought it would never end." Later,, when the papers printed the point system for discharging Army men, I thought, "John may be one of them. John will be one of them — " and that night John telephoned again, to tell me that he thought that he would be discharged. "Don't count on it," he said, "but I've points enough, and the doctors here seem to think it would be a good idea. I haven't told Mother and Dad yet, and I'm not going to until it's definite." Still, I wasn't at ajl prepared for the call that came in the middle of the next week. My heart soared as I heard the operator making connections, and then died within me at the sound of John's voice. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. I could tell by the way he spoke my name. "Beth — ?" "Yes, John." 'T'HERE was a silence, and then, -* "Beth, Phil's missing." I said the first thing that came to mind, sharply, rudely, as if he had told an outrageous lie. "I don't believe it." His voice was stronger now; he sounded relieved. "I don't either. It could happen to anyone but Phil. He always comes out right, somehow." "How did you hear about it?" "I had a letter from his mother. And that's partly why I called — I was wondering if you'd write to her, tell her that you feel as I do, that he must be all right. And tell her what a swell time he had in Corona. He wrote to her about you and me, and I think she'd like to hear — " "Of course," I said. "What's her address?" He gave it to me, and then he said hastily, "There are other guys waiting for the line, and I've got to call my folks and tell them to write, too. They liked Phil a lot, and they'll know what to say to his mother. Honey, I love you; I'm so glad of you — " I hung up with a stormy mixture of feelings— sick dismay and disbelief over Philip, and, deep within me, a stubborn selfish joy that John had turned to me for reassurance, that he came to me with everything, good news and bad. I'm so glad of you — I went to sleep that night repeating those words as one would rub a talisman. You see, in the bottom of my heart I was still afraid. It was as if John's love were a priceless, irreplaceable thing that had come into my possession, and every sign of it — the ring he'd sent me, his letters, his telephone calls — were so many locks securing it. And yet they weren't enough. It wasn't that I didn't trust John; it was that I didn't trust fate, wouldn't trust it until the day we were married and could really begin our life together. Until then, I had only an option on happiness, and I we"nt through the days as tense as a strung wire, praying for John's discharge, trying to face the possibility that it might not come through. And then suddenly it was all over — the hopes and the fears and the tension and the uncertainty. It happened as un