Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1942)

you won't be smart enough to stick where you're wanted." "Where I'm wanted!" I stared at him, my throat tightening. "Rudy, you don't understand," I told him urgently. "We've got a contract, Eddie and I. Both of us. I guess Mr. Lane wouldn't be likely to give us a contract if he didn't want me." Rudy still smiled. "Some unlikely things happen in this business, baby," he said significantly. "And you hit it right on the nose." "Rudy, stop trying to scare me!" I cried out desperately. "You don't know what Mr. Lane thinks! You can't know everything." "Maybe not everything," Rudy said calmly. "But almost. If my waiters didn't have sharp ears they wouldn't be working for me. It's my business to know what goes on in my place, especially when it means losin' a hoofer the Clover Club wouldn't have been able to keep for two weeks except for a fluke — " I wasn't listening. I was staring into his swarthy face and whispering, "Rudy, what did he say? Tell me, what did Mr. Lane say?" I felt as if I knew already. "According to my report," Rudy answered cheerfully, "Lane said he'd take Eddie on a double contract only if he couldn't get him any other way. Eddie says that's correct. Lane gives him a lecture about draping a woman around his neck, especially a woman that doesn't belong in show business— " "Oh!" I caught my breath the way you do after you've been struck. Then I gritted my teeth. "Go on, Rudy." "That's about all." Rudy said, watching me shrewdly, "Lane just kept on arguin', and pulls that old crack about him travelin' fastest that travels alone — " "Wait." This was enough. "Rudy, tell me something. Is that true, that Eddie could go faster without me? Is he better than I am?" Rudy laughed. I don't think he meant it to be a cruel laugh, exactly, but it cut right through me, the truth cut through me. He came over and put his hand under my chin. "Kid, it sure takes a sledge hammer to knock facts into a stage struck dame. Look, baby, don't get me wrong, you know I'm all for you. But do you think I could afford to keep a girl like you singing in my club if I didn't have some real first-class talent to even the score? Like this Lane guy, I figured the harm you did wasn't too steep a price to pay for keepin' Eddie in a joint like this — " "Oh!" My head dropped on my arms, and I was sobbing. I didn't know quite why, at first. But slowly, with the tears streaming hot down over my hands, my eyes burning with the mascara, I realized what was breaking my heart. It wasn't the knowledge that I had been kidding myself about my career, though that humiliation stung me fiercely. No, it was the thought of Eddie being so sweet, helping me all these months with his endless patient kindness — and me taking it and never letting myself even think how I felt about him. Now I knew. I knew I loved him. But it was too late. For of course I couldn't sign up with Eddie now. I couldn't hang on to his coat tails and hold him down to my speed. He travels fastest who travels alone! I lifted my head and wiped the masContinued on page 50 NOVEMBER. 1942 «$ 0h n IB Com MARJORIE BELL, this month's Radio Mirror cover girl, is a very pretty young lady who would just as soon not be so pretty. If that sounds crazy, remember that acting is a crazy profession. Marjorie's ambition is to be a good actress, both in radio and on the stage. But she has discovered that when a pretty girl, smartly and neatly dressed, walks into a producer's office his first thought is that if she's so good looking she probably can't act. "Really," Marjorie says bitterly, "the only way to impress most of them is to come in looking as dowdy and unattractive as possible. Then they think, 'This girl looks so awful she must be intelligent, and if she's intelligent she ought to be a good actress.' " So far, Marjorie's career has progressed to the point where she is heard practically every Saturday noon as one of the players in the Armstrong Theater of Today, over CBS. Of course, you hear her other times too. Like all radio actors and actresses, she is apt to bob up in a "one-shot" on almost any dramatic program, day or night. On Junior Miss, for instance, she was in the dramatized commercials. Her real last name is Belcher — she's the daughter of Ernest Belcher, well known West Coast ballet teacher, who has trained many dancers for the movies. Marjorie's own dancing debut — of course she learned to dance! — Marjorie Bell acts on the Armstrong Theater, Matinee at Meadowbrook, and other shows. was made at the age of thirteen in the Hollywood Bowl. Three years later she went on the air for the first time, in an interview with her father who had a twice-weekly program on a Los Angeles station. ' Her dancing ability came in pretty handy for the next four years. It got her a job with the Disney studios, where she was the artists' model for the dancing figures of Snow White and the Blue Fairy in "Pinocchio." She even modeled for the dancing hippopotamus in the "Dance of the Hours" sequence of "Fantasia," although in this case it's only fair to point out that it was just her movements that were copied, not her figure. In between chores at the Disney studio she acted on a Saturday-morning children's program on a Los Angeles station, toured the Pacific Coast in a company playing Noel Coward's "Tonight at 8:30," and finally came to New York with a vaudeville troupe. As proof of how serious she is about being a good actress, Marjorie studied drama with Maria Ouspenskaya, the wonderful old lady you've seen in so many movies. Since she's been in the east, Marjorie has made one summerstock appearance and is now waiting eagerly for the theatrical season to start on Broadway. She says she can't think of anything better than being on the air in the day and on the stage at night. 49