Radio-TV mirror (July-Dec 1954)

but the printer persuaded me we might need some extras and 1,000 would cost very little more. That was my first mistake. The second one was that I got confused and gave him the wrong price to put on the tickets, I figured the tax incorrectly, and got the total wrong! When the tickets were delivered and I saw what I had done, I was sunk. I decided to get rid of them and order a new batch at my own expense, without anyone ever knowing how stupid I had been. So every day I smuggled a couple of hundred tickets out under a big raincoat I was wearing — and had to keep wearing — until the last ticket should have been disposed of. I dumped them into a trash basket on a nearby street corner. "I was about to dump the final batch and place the new order when the director strode in angrily, demanding to know why tickets to our concert were strewn all over the street. Someone had upset the trash basket, and the wind had done the rest. There I was, guilt written all over me, the tickets still under my coat. " 'You can keep that raincoat on, young lady,' he stormed. 'You're through.' "From that moment, I decided that the only place for me in show business was on the stage. The question was — how to get started." There was a boy she knew who was doing very well as a radio actor and he kept trying to persuade her that radio was easy, if only she weren't so scared of trying it. She was scared, but he took her on the rounds with him, and she read for producers and directors and impressed enough of them so that in three months she began to get jobs. Finally, she got so brave that, when the boy decided they ought to write a script with nice, fat parts for themselves, she went along with the idea. What's more, the play was produced on radio and they did the leads, and it turned out to be a very successful job. They might have gone on as a team, except that he decided to give up acting to become an actors' agent. She, in turn, was more determined than ever to stick to it. Soon she was in demand for leads on daytime and nighttime dramatic shows, in both radio and television. She worked for Kraft Theater, Danger, Studio One, My True Story. She still does some roles of this type. But of course her big interest now is in Valiant Lady, When she isn't working, she is usually fussing around her little apartment on New York's upper East Side (in the same block with the concert bureau's offices, and she still ducks her former associates when she sees them coming!). The furniture in her apartment is mostly modern, mostly because she could make some of it herself — "like getting long benches and sanding them down to a smooth surface and then topping them with foam rubber cushions to convert them to inexpensive and pretty divans." She describes herself as "an impossible cook who won't give up trying ... I read all the recipes carefully, but nothing turns out the way it should for me. I have all the right weapons for cooking — long-handled things and short-handled ones, pots and pans and gimmicks of all kinds, but I can't seem to get past hamburgers. They're the only things that turn out right. I put bay leaves in everything, because they look so attractive— and naturally they make everything taste the same and it's a taste that not everybody likes, but I can't seem to resist it. I wonder that any of my friends ever come back. "Sometimes I cook for Earl and he just sits and grins as if to say, 'Stumble through, and you'll make it.' I'm sure he's a better cook than I am. Once in a while, when the going gets too rough, he will lend a hand, but most of the time he looks so superior. I think cooking is creative work and anybody should be able to learn it. Anybody but me, perhaps!" If she hasn't an innate knack for cooking, she has for color, liking to surround herself with blues and violets and all the pastel tones. "I feel that color affects me, makes me gay or sad. For instance, I wear a bright red raincoat because it makes me feel happy on the dullest day, although usually I don't wear much red. Black depresses me." She wears very little jewelry and her favorite ring is a cufflink that her father once wore, which she had put on a band. Her favorite costume is dungarees and a simple blue or pink shirt. But, like all young girls, she adores dressing up in formals. "And I don't get much chance," she moans. "I go out mostly with young actors, and you know they don't take you places where you can dress up too much. (I hope they don't read this, because they may not like my saying it, but it's true.)" Summers she doesn't mind not dressing up. This year she rented a cottage with a friend, Peggy McCay (who plays Vanessa, in Love Of Life). It's on an island in the ocean near New York City, and they have been spending all their weekends sea and sun-bathing and forgetting all the cares of show business. But not show business itself. Not they! Because, "for relaxation," they have been putting on plays on their own front porch, writing their own scripts, composing parodies on popular songs, doing revues and comedy sketches, improvising costumes and even scenery. One Saturday night they put on a gay revue for a few of their neighbors, and suddenly the audience began to grow and grow until it included some seventy-five of the islanders and their visitors. The young people from Valiant Lady have joined them on occasional weekends — for instance, Jim Kirkwood, who plays Dolores' brother, and Joan Lorring, who plays the girl he loves. "We're a happy group on the show," she says of them all. "We like working together. Nancy Coleman, who plays my mother, is really a wonderful person. Lydia Reed, who plays my little sister, is one of the most interesting children I ever met. Did you know she runs a business on the side? It's fantastic. She sells us things, to add to the allowance she gets from her mother, and we get such fun out of it. Her sales approach would do credit to an expert. About two minutes before I go on camera, for instance, she will say something like this: " 'I'm selling these seeds very cheap today. Want some? They're only ten cents.' " 'Not now, Lydia dear. I'll talk to you later, when we're through.' " 'But I'm selling these today with the pots. All you need extra is the dirt.' " 'All right, Lydia dear. I'll take them and pay you after the show.' "She runs away then, happy. Sometimes it's pasted-up pictures, like flowers or birds cut from magazines, very artistically mounted. The point is that she's a fine little businesswoman as well as a fine little actress." Besides being a collector of Lydia's assorted paste-ups (which she couldn't possibly resist!), Dolores collects old photographs of famous actors and actresses, her prize being one of Ethel Barrymore taken in the early 1900's when Miss Barrymore was very young and very lovely and beginning the kind of career that Dolores dreams about today ... a dream which includes a successful Broadway play, a long life being Diane in Valiant Lady, and somewhere along the way — not too far away — a husband, children, and a home in which there is love and laughter and the joy of living. S*8S* Look smart and stylish in these amazingly low priced glamorous dresses that have been carefully cleaned and pressed— in good condition for all occasions! A sensational assortment of gorgeous one and two-piece modern styles in stunning colors and in a variety of luxurious fabrics — silks, gabardines, cottons, woolens, etc. Expensive dresses— original value up to $50! $1 DEPOSIT MUST ACCOMPANY ORDER! MENTION AGE. 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