Radio and television mirror (Nov 1939-Apr 1940)

■ Backstage Wife and her husband especially posed by Vivian Fridell and Ken Griffin, who interpret the roles of Mary and Larry on the air. ■ THIS NOVEL OF RACKSTAGE WIFE IS IY HOPE HALE, ADAPTED FROM THE POPULAR RADIO SERIAL CURREHTLY HEARD OVER NIC-RED AND SPON. SORED IV DR. LYONS TOOTH POWDER I Even the cleverest of scheming women can make a mistake. Mary diseavers Is th.s dramafc serial at marriage in the theater reaches its thrilling climax "'he story thus far ARRIAGE to Larry Noble, I Broadway's handsome matinee idol, at first had meant the most :omplete happiness Mary Noble had ver known. But she soon learned le must fight for her husband's Impetuous and susceptible, le all too frequently forsook Mary's juiet devotion in favor of the glam)ur of other women. And Catharine Monroe, who agreed to finance Larry's return to the stage after |a disastrous accident, was the [worst adversary Mary ever had to meet. All through the preparations for the play's premiere, Catherine and Larry drew closer together, until at last Mary was forced to leave her husband, only remaining with him as manager of the dramatic company, not as his wife. Meanwhile, a dispute over the rent of the tiny Greenwich Village theater brought Ken Paige, its owner, into Mary's life. Besides being the executor of a large estate, Ken was a portrait painter, and his interest in Mary led him to make a bargain with her: if she would let him paint her, and the portrait won a prize, he would give her the theater rentfree for a year. Mary consented, but did not tell Larry. Meanwhile, a bad fire in the tenements owned by Paige and his sister, Sandra, had aroused angry neighborhood feeling against the Paiges. Gerald O'Brien, a crusading young lawyer, began a campaign with Mary to interest the Paiges in rebuilding the filthy slums. vThen, one afternoon, Catherine Vonroe walked into Paige's studio while he was painting Mary. She lost no time in letting Larry have th&news, adding to his bitterness against Mary because she herself hadn't told him. He stamped an grily out of the theater dressing room just as a wave of illness swept over Mary, assuring her of what she had already half-feared was true— she was going to have a baby. But she was determined not to tell Larry. She would not use this news to buy back his love. WITH dry fury in her eyes, Mary stared at the two items from Wally West's gossip column. Against their impertinence, their effrontery, she was' helpless. She could only ignore them if she wished to keep her dignity. Yet how could you ignore something so crude, so brazen? The first one, from yesterday's paper, read: "What actor about to make a bid for his old grip on fluttering hearts of matinee matrons looks to lose the love of his own wife? Ask him if he knows she's posing for a certain millionaire society painter — and how?" Well, Mary had told herself, vile as that was, it might be worse. At least no names were mentioned. But then her eyes strayed to the second item again — the one from today's paper: "Double come-back due Broadway's one-time heartthrob. With his marriage skidding, who could pass up consolation in the form of a beauteous high-born heroine of Washington spy ring capture? Query: If a gentleman backer can back his lady star up the aisle to the altar, why not vice versa?" Under the garbled, ridiculous slang in which they were written, the meaning of the two items was plain enough. That Catherine Monroe had given them to Wally West Mary could not doubt. And in them Catherine was calmly publishing to the world the death of Larry's love for his wife— while she suggested herself as the perfect successor. It was just the sort of thing Catherine would do— And then Mary pulled herself up short. Was her jealousy running away with her? Was it possible that Catherine was innocent, and that her own friendship with Ken Paige was already a subject for common gossip? She didn't know. She was too confused, too unhappy to be able to dissect human actions and reactions with her old clarity. So many things had happened in these last few hectic days before the Broadway opening of Larry's play. Her own realization that she was to be the mother of Larry's child ... a sudden friendship, dazzling in its sweetness, between Sandra, Ken Paige's sister, and Gerald O'Brien, the crusading young lawyer who was determined to alleviate the misery of the dispossessed tenants of Medley Square . . . Ken Paige's day-by-day change, as he painted Mary's portrait, from the stern business man he had once been to a warm, vital human being . . . the almost complete break between her and Larry, with Larry living in his apartment and she in a room near the old theater in Greenwich Village. And now ... it was nearly time for the Broadway opening of the play. In a few hours now, this very night, it would all be over. The play would be on — in the big uptown theater that had been Catherine's choice, not hers . . . and it would be a success or a failure. Whichever the result, this night would spell the end of her connection with Larry Noble. She had vowed to stay with him, as manager (Continued on page 74)