Screenland (May-Oct 1936)

8 I SCRELNLAND EASY NOW TO GETTEETH LOOKING TW/CE AS WMTEf PEPSODENT TOOTH POWDER 1 GETS TEETH TWICE AS BRIGHT . . . adds charm to any smile! 2 IS TWICE AS SOFT . . . safe even fo r ch ildren 's teeth ! 3 CLEANS MORE THOROUGHLY . . . foams between teeth 4 LASTS WEEKS LONGER . . .far more economical to use! Large Can 25c Family size 50C Holds over twice as much The Professional Tooth Powder for Daily Home Use Steve hadn't heard a word she said. She was so changed, so alien — as though a year had passed since their last meeting. He simply couldn't conceive that he had ever kissed this girl. "Doing your hair some other way?" he finally asked. "No — what makes you think so? I just got a permanent." "Going to write me when you're famous?" And Ruth replied politely: "Why, of course. What d'you suppose, Steve?" The day of departure came. The train for New York left Bend River at 6:24. Steve locked up at six sharp and started racing for the station. If he ran all the way he could make better time than the street car, bumping through town. Breathless and perspiring, he did manage to get to the station before the train left. It made only a two-minute stop at Bend River. He could see Ruth's face at the window, but she didn't see him. She was wearing a new hat — another new hat, that is — not the one Steve already knew. A group of twenty or so stood on the platform, waving frantic goodbyes. They were all strangers to Steve. Ruth was a stranger too, for that matter. There was no more Ruth. Viola Palmer. A Hollywood star. Goodbye. The train puffed out, and Steve stood there looking after it. The world was gray and meaningless. Suddenly a glimmer of light pierced the general gloom. "I'll see her in the movies," he thought. He went home and to bed, though it was far too early. He even managed to sleep. Nothing came for a week but piffling telegrams for the cotton mill and the uninteresting residents of the river district. Steve took to writing verse during the tedious intervals between wires. He felt desolate and empty — bloated almost with the sick emptiness inside him. But the matter of verse-writing wasn't as easy as he'd imagined it. Nor was the office quiet enough for creative effort. No sooner had he got himself into the mood, when the bell of his Simplex would ring or Joe would start whistling or a man from Fourteenth Street would come in to wire his mother-in-law that an eight-pound baby had arrived, mother and child both doing well. He thought two of the poems had turned out rather well, and sent them to the Bend River Star. They were returned a couple of days later with a printed rejection slip. Once he went out with Tony — a girl he'd known before Ruth dawned on his horizon. But it only made things worse. Tony's eyes were different, her hair was different, her voice was too loud and her skirts didn't swing like Ruth's. MRS. HELEN QTJTRK 376 NORTH 23RD STREET BEND RIVER OHIO ARRIVED SAFE MARVELOUS RECEPTION EVERYTHING TERRIBLY EXCITING STOP LEAVE TOMORROW FOR HOLLYWOOD LETTER FOLLOWS LOVE RUTH MRS. HELEN QUIRK 376 NORTH 23RD STREET BEND RIVER OHIO GOOD TRIP HOLLYWOOD DIVINE MY PHOTO IN ALL PAPERS STOP ADDRESS POINSETTIA APARTMENTS FOURTEEN THIRTY NORTH BRONSON KISSES RUTH MRS. HELEN QUIRK 376 NORTH 23RD STREET BEND RIVER OHIO DONT WORRY EVERYTHING OK APPOINTMENT TOMORROW PHOENIX COMPANY LOVE RUTH MRS. HELEN QUIRK 376 NORTH 23RD STREET BEND RIVER OHIO HURRAH CONTRACT WITH UNION FILM COMPANY SIXTY PER WEEK EVERYBODY PROPHESIES GREAT FUTURE NEW ADDRESS LEMON GROVE APARTMENTS SIX THREE SIX OX E SUNSET BOULEVARD LOVE. VIOLA MISS VIOLA PALMER LEMOX GROVE APARTMENTS 6361 SUNSET IiOULEVARl) HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA CONGRATULATIONS VERY HAPPY OVER SPEEDY SUCCESS STOP HOPE YOU WONT FORGET YOUR OLD FRIEND STEVE Three months had passed since Ruth's departure, and Steve was doing his best to forget her. He went out with Tony, and he gave up writing verse. He was always wrangling with Joe, though Joe was only the messenger boy. Joe declared that Steve was an old grouch and a nervous wreck, and hinted darkly that he knew why, all right, too. Suddenly Tony announced her engagement to the floorwalker of the department store. There were no more telegrams from Hollywood, Ruth was apparently sending her mother all the news by mail. Steve discovered that Silversheet came out twice a month. He circled the dates on his calendar and, when publication day rolled round, made straight from the office for the newsstand at the corner of Main Street to buy the new issue. For six weeks they featured Viola Palmer. There were photographs — Viola in the Five-and-Tcn — Viola leaving New York — Viola arriving in Hollywood — Viola on the beach at Santa Monica — a photograph in which her legs were very much in evidence and her face little more than a smudge. Viola Palmer, HollyiL'ood's latest find. The next picture was captioned Viola and Ducky Dare at the Brown Derby — a darkish snapshot showing Ruth at dinner with a grinning young man. It was such a poor picture that Steve wouldn't have recognized her except for the caption. The photographs were used to illustrate a serial called Life of a Beanty Queen, by Viola Palmer, as told to Rowland Lyman. Steve pored over each instalment, his heart beating a little faster as he hunted the pages for some mention of his name. But it never came. The terse, snappily written story did contain references to various young men who had entered Viola's life at one time or another, but Steve wasn't among them. Hungry for the sight of her face or name, he began buying other movie magazines. Only once was his search rewarded. On a page headed "New Showgirls for the Filmusical Mars Ahoy," he found a picture of her, not much larger than a postage stamp, included among the miniature photos of twenty other girls. Then nothing happened till August. At noon one Thursday an elderly woman entered with the embarrassed, apologetic air of those unaccustomed to sending telegrams. Steve gave her his fountain pen. He could see that she was pondering and crossing out words to get her message within the limit of ten. "Nice day, isn't it?" There was something about her smile — . And when she'd left and he was inserting the form into the machine, his heart skipped a beat. MISS VIOLA PALMER PICO COURT 6428 PICO BOULEVARD HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA WORRIED NO NEWS HARRY CAN SEND SOME MONEY IF NECESSARY MOTHER All evening Steve brooded over the message. What could it mean? Was Ruth sick? Wasn't she getting the breaks? Had something happened to her? It was all he could do to keep from sending a wire himself. He spent half an hour collecting the file copies of every wire that had anything to do with Ruth. In bulk, they made Httle sense. That evening he went to the movies. For weeks now he had been religiously at