Radio-TV mirror (Jan-June 1954)

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No. Print POST OFFICE (Town) 'for Quick Relief Ask your Druggist lor DENT'S llinill GUM TOOIH DROPS POUIIICI mm* CHILDREN'S PHOTOS For Calendars • Billboards • Magazines Your child's photo may bring you fll | AfiCC . h\ I TVpfC as much as $200 from advertisers. *LL HUC0 Big demand for pictures of boys and girls 6 months to 18 years old. Let your child, too, have this wonderful opportunity to be presented to the nation's leading advertisers. (Not a contest). Send ONE small photo for our approval (Only One). Print child's full name and age and parent's name and address on back. Picture returned in 60 days if not accepted. iL THIS IS BECKY HANF Her picture has already earned S200 from a national advertiser SPOTLITE PHOTO 5864-MF Hollywood Blvd., DIRECTORY Hollywood. Cal. RUPTURE-EASER T. M . rW U. S, P«t. Off. (A Piper Brace Prodi Dowble...4.95 or left N„ 05 Fitting Required A strong, form-fitting washable support. Back lacing adjustable. Snaps up in front. Adjustable leg strap. Soft, flat groin pad. No steel or leather bands. Unexcelled for comfort. Also used as after operation support. For men, women ond children. Mail orders give measure around the lowest part of the obdomen and state right or left side or double. We Prepay Postage Except on C.O.D.'s. Over 700,000 Satisfied Users! 10 Day Trial Ofter Money-back guarantee if you don't get blessed relief. Defay may be serious-ORDER TODAYI „ , PIPER BRACE CO. 811 Wyandotte, Dept. MWG-24, Kansas City 5, Mo. Everyone Loves Holly (Continued from page 34) warmth and friendliness. Several hundred friends, as well as her husband, are headover-heels in love with her. "Holly is everyone's friend," husband Charley says. "She is considerate of everyone's feelings but her own. The only time she is tactless is when she discusses herself." Hollis came down to New York in the spring of 1947, and in six months brought the big city to heel. By fall of that same year, she had married one of Manhattan's eligible bachelors, starred in a production of one of the country's most famous repertory companies, and landed acting jobs on several network shows. "Sounds easy," she says. "But that was my second attempt to storm the city." When Hollis was graduated from the University of Minnesota Drama School, she made a deal at home. She would go to New York for half a year, with the understanding that she would stay only if she got into a Broadway production. "And no one could have tried harder than I did," she recalls. Every weekday, she was dressed and on her way at nine in the morning, making the rounds of producers, directors and casting agents until five-thirty each afternoon. At the end of six months, she totaled up the number of people she had seen at least once. The list came to five hundred. And she had nary a nibble. She went back to her home in Minneapolis and took post-graduate work at the University, since the school had the only "live" theatre in the city. Her reason was not merely to get more experience. Hollis was and is in love with the stage. "Talk about child brides," she says, "my wedding to the theatre took place at the age of five!" She was in a children's play at the Unitarian Church. After the performance, a woman came up to Hollis, put both hands on the child's shoulders and said, "Little girl, you have a great, great talent for acting. You must do something about it." She did. In her back-yard productions with the neighbors' children, the admission charge was raised to two straight pins. "There was no lack of encouragement in my home," she says. Her father, a tall, handsome insurance agent, had once been in musical comedy. Her mother was a concert pianist. And her home was a very happy one. "Daddy had the knack of making a simple game or trip so exciting," she says. "Mother was my confidante. Mother was a 'progressive parent' before the term was in text books." Any question, no matter how grown-up or perplexing, got her a straight answer. She was encouraged to make her own decisions. "As a result, I went to my parents for advice more frequently than most children." She was allowed to choose her own clothes and her friends. As she got older, her parents carefully refrained from telling her the kind of man they expected her to marry. When she talked about her ambitions, her mother said, "All things being equal, you can do whatever you wish in life." Throughout grade and high school, Hollis snagged lead roles in amateur productions. At the University, she got her first comeuppance. "As a freshman, I was told we couldn't read for any play until we had completed certain courses." To stay close to her love, she worked as a stagehand, carpenter, dressmaker, and got down on her knees to scrub the stage. Then came her first audition for a play. She read for the romantic, beautiful part of Roxane in "Cyrano de Bergerac." She was cast as a salesgirl, the orange girl Then she read for the part of a fairy princess, an elegant, wistful role. She was cast as a cat. Her third try was for "Romeo and Juliet." That time, she made it and played Juliet. From that day on, Hollis was a University star, with the encouragement of her teacher, C. Lowell Lees, who is now head of the University of Utah's drama department. In between her first and second joust with New York producers, Hollis did more plays and, with a friend, opened a summer theatre which was a smash success and scored a $2500 profit. When Hollis came to New York again, she had some ninety different roles to her credit. "I was really en route to London, that second trip," she says. "A friend of mine who had married an Englishman was trying to get me a work permit for the London stage." When she arrived in New York, she brought with her a reference to Charles Irving. Charley was a graduate of the same university, a successful radio announcer and actor who then played the title role in Young Dr. Malone. Hollis had been told to call him if she needed a little cheering. After a month, she did — she did need cheering and did call him. He made a luncheon date, and she was to meet him at the entrance of the CBS Studio Building. When Hollis got there. two men were lounging just inside the door. One disengaged himself and asked, "Are you looking for Charley?" He led her over to the other man and introduced him as Charley Irving. But it turned out that the man introduced as Charley was really Richard Widmark, e radio actor himself at the time (now, oi course, in Hollywood), and the man who had met her at the door was Charley. It was all a joke. But Hollis decided Charley must be a little shy, and she was right. However, she found he was just what the doctor — Dr. Malone, in this case — ordered for the blues. He was jolly and had a vibrant personality. Charley stands about six feet, has blond crew-cut hair. They hit it off instantly. Charley's mother and sister were in town, and for a month they were a foursome. When Charley's folks left, Hollis and Charley solemnly agreed they were in love. "We were quite a conversational twosome," she recalls. "We were in the midst of an intellectual discussion, a few months later, when Charley proposed." They were sitting over coffee, yaking away, when he suddenly asked, "Now. for example, what would you say if asked you to marry me?" "Huh?" "Same question again." "I guess I would do it," Hollis said, "it we were compatible." "That's what I mean," he said quickly "If we were married, could we get along?' So, for the next half-hour, they listed reasons pro and con. "You can bet the scales tipped easily in favor of marriage," she says. "Nothing outweighs love." They were married in October, and by that time Hollis had done something about her acting career. In the first place, she was no longer Minnie. Her maiden namt was Frudenfeld (which translates from German into "fruit field") and she had been christened Minnie. Friends in the business contended "Minnie" was a handicap. There was Minniethe-Moocher and Minnie Pearl. Minnie