Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1950)

continually trying to set up for her. We saw so much of each other that it was inevitable that we should either end up hating each other — or loving each other. With us, love. But our business tie-up complicated terribly any opportunity for announcing our engagement. I couldn't very well get Mindy an audition or a job if people in show business knew we were engaged. They'd think my interest in getting her bookings was purely personal. "I don't know when the romance began," Mindy says now. "It just grew." It grew in spite of the fact that most of the time I had to work her hard to make her improve her poise and grace. And when her first big chance came, I was as eager and tense as she. That happened when Mindy had used up six months of the year her parents had allowed. Paul Whiteman was auditioning for his program, Stairway to the Stars, and he agreed to hear Mindy. She had every reason to be nervous. ; With only two months of actual singing experience, she was about to audition for the most famous bandleader of our time. Pops Whiteman sized up the state of her nerves immediately. "Relax," he told her. "Just imagine you're singing at home." "I'll try," she said. Pops grinned, saying, "That's foolish advice. You'll be scared anyway." And she was scared — until she got to the microphone. But when she sang you knew that she was thinking only of the song. Pops was so pleased he gave her a permanent job on the show. It was a wonderful experience for her, but when the radio series came to an end I had other plans. "You need night club experience — but it'll be tough," I announced. I explained that a singer must have real showmanship to hold her audience in a club. The people must fall completely under her spell or they rattle their glasses and start table conversation. Clothes, appearance and poise, which have no significance on radio, mean everything to a night club audience. And in these departments, Mindy still had a short-stop-ish appearance. "I moved like an all-star athlete," Mindy freely admits. "Eddie says I walked out to the mike as though I were going to first base after hitting a home run." We began rehearsing immediately with me — and I can think of nothing funnier — teaching Mindy to walk gracefully. My experience had included neither acting nor female impersonation. And my physique is in the standard male tradition. But there I was demonstrating how a woman should walk from her hips and carry her shoulders and head. "Now, Mindy, let's see you curtsy," I finished. Two days later, as we traveled to Baltimore in a train compartment, I was still trying to teach Mindy to curtsy. It looks simple enough: you merely put one foot behind the other and sort of sink at the knees. Every time I demonstrated I twisted my ankles and lost my balance. When Mindy tried, she tripped over her skirt and fell flat on her face. Just before show time, however, a dancer showed her how to curtsy. Mindy learned all right — but the first time she tried before an audience, she dropped so low that she had to use her hands to help her up. Just the same, she was highly praised during the engagement and other offers came in. Mindy then made a swing around the country preparing for her biggest night club job at the New York Copacabana. And when she arrived there, she made history. After her initial four-week date, she was held over for another month and upped to star billing, becoming the youngest performer ever to be so honored. That was followed by a movie contract offer. "You open at Ciro's in a few days," I told her. "Why don't you decide about movies after you get to Hollywood?" "Will you be coming with me?" she asked. "I want to go with you," I told Mindy. "But in a new capacity. Wouldn't you rather introduce me as your husband than your manager? I'd like it a lot better that way!" We'd never been officially engaged — for business reasons, as I explained. Now there wasn't time. So we announced our engagement and our wedding all at once — three hours after we were married! "Now I'm a boss, too," was Mindy's comment. I was right. I like it a lot better this way. When we are both in Manhattan our day starts at ten in the morning. Mindy comes down to her office, which is next to mine. There she rehearses, keeps up her music files, plans her NBC programs and answers fan mail. During the day, I am still boss. After work, however, she takes over. And as a housewife, she manages very well now — although, at first, she had her problems. "It won't jell," she told me, after following the "simple" instructions for gelatin dessert. "Cooking seemed so easy, watching mother, but it's another matter when you do it yourself." Of course, Mindy had been playing ball when most girls were in the kitchen. But her mother gallantly came through with advice. The first month Mindy averaged about ten telephone calls per meal to her mother. Now her specialties, so far as I'm concerned, are fried chicken and French toast. About every third week end we get away from Manhattan for relaxation at my father's home on Long Island. There we try to act like a normal couple, lounging and talking. And Mindy spends a lot of time playing with the children of other guests. "I want a medium-sized family," she tells everyone. "About three children." S'ie wants that medium-size family very much — and so do I — but at the present Mindy's work is too demanding. When you realize that such established stars as Jack Benny and Bob Hope tour the country regularly to maintain their prestige, you can understand why it's so important for such a young entertainer as Mindy to be on the road. But I'll never forget her telephone call from San Francisco last spring. I knew at once she was blue. "What's the matter?" I asked. "Are you sick?" Then she told me. She had left her hotel that morning with her music cradled in her arm. In the lobby she met a young woman, carrying her baby in one arm exactly the way Mindy carried her music. So you can see everything isn't candy and cake for a young singer. But Mindy has made the transition from tomboy to wife. When she sings, you know she has left the baseball mitt behind. But I like best the way Mindy's mother phrases it. "This is truly the age of miracles," she says. "Mindy has become a real lady, and married a nice young man!" Relieve Constipation Pleasantly Your child will enjoy taking this tasty laxative MOTHER, doesn't it hurt you to force your child to take a laxative? Millions of mothers know the happy solution to that problem. It's Ex-Lax! Youngsters love its good chocolate taste. 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