Screenland (May-Oct 1939)

1 glatoo /y(tf«r ! lights . ■ • aod Complete every shampoo with your own special shade of Nlestle Colorinse! It rinses away dull shampoo him; glorifies your hair with natural looking color; and brings out sparkle. Colorinse leaves hair flufTy, easy to wave. Not an ordinary dye or bleach. Thousands of women find Colorinse safe, dependable. 2 rinses for I Oc in I O-cent stores ; or 5 rinses for 05c at drug and dept. stores. Consult Nestle Color Chart at your dealer's! OCOLORINSE Relieve Pain In Few Minutes NEURIT! To relieve the torturing ,pain of Neuritis, Rheumatism, Neuralgia or Lumbago in few minutes, get NURiTO, the Doctor's formula. No opiates, no narcotics. Does the work quickly — must relieve cruel pain to your satisfaction in few minutes or money back at Druggist's. Don't suffer. Get trustworthy NURITO today on this guarantee. SONG POEM WRITERS m Write for free book, SO — SO plan. Splendid Opportunity. INDIANA SONG BUREAU, Dept. Nr Salem, Indiana I YOULL ALWAYS BE CONSTIPATED UNLESS You correct faulty living habits — unless liver bile flows freely every day into your intestines to help digest fatty foods. SO USE COMMON SENSE ! Drink more water, eat more fruit and vegetables. And if assistance is needed, take Dr. Edwards' Olive Tablets. They not only assure gentle yet thorough bowel movements but ALSO stimulate liver bile to help digest fatty foods and tone up intestinal muscular action. Olive Tablets, being purely vegetable, are harmless. Used successfully for years by Dr. F. M. Edwards in treating patients for constipation and sluggish liver bile. Test their goodness TONIGHT! \U, 30fi and 60*. Home-Maker at 12 Continued from page 65 when they practice. It's loads of fun." Grand fun in her own grandstand. But I hadn't seen anything yet, as Al Jolson used to say. Jane's double-decker playhouse turned out to be the real eye-opener. Just beyond a huge swimming pool, it revealed a Wonderland which even Alice might have envied. Aside from a long playroom for Jane and her little friends, it included a room with games for grown-ups, a guest room with a bed and everything, shower and dressing rooms, and servants' quarters. But that playroom — whew ! In it were more than 800 dolls. Jane had no end of them picturesquely grouped in what she called "cases." But these were really scenes, historical and otherwise, complete in detail as elaborate stage productions. Producer, Jane Withers. She had put on the whole show. Then there were other dolls who just sat around making themselves at home. One, fondly shown me, was the old rag doll Jane had brought with her to Hollywood. Now and then she would speak of this or that one by name. It seemed incredible she could remember more than 800 names. "Oh, yes," she said simply, "I know all their names." Here, there and everywhere, her mental and physical activities ran neck-and-neck. We brought up at one end of the room before an awfully good framed caricature of Charlie Chaplin. "You did this?" I inquired. She nodded and smiled. "Just for fun." Presently, with a little curtsey, she excused herself and bustled out. "Surprise," mysteriously whispered her mother, with a twinkle in her eye. There was no guessing what it might be till we got back to the ranch house. Then Jane popped out of a door and said, "Will you come in here, please?" And there was a table all set for tea ! Jane did the honors, pouring and passing the sandwiches and cakes. She was trying, her mother explained, for a hostess badge in the Girl Scouts. Well, that badge was already as good as pinned on her deserving chest. All the time there was lively, interesting talk. It went back to days in Hollywood when there wasn't any afternoon tea and mighty little cake for the two lonely strangers from Atlanta, Ga. "It was seven months before we even got through a studio gate," recalled Mrs. Withers. "Jane was eight then. When at last we did get inside there didn't seem to be any chance for her. All she had was two or three little print dresses plain as herself, and Leota, fourth Lane sister, makes her film debut in a Vitaphone short. with her straight hair she couldn't hope to compete with fluffy-haired little girls all dressed up. The casting director would go down the line picking pretty blonde children and passing right by Jane without giving her a second look." "I wasn't much to look at," grinned Jane. "We had agreed to go back horne at the end of six months," her mother was saying, "if by that time Jane hadn't found something. Mr. Withers, who was with an automobile supplies company in Atlanta, sent us a hundred dollars a month. Even so, we found it hard to make both ends meet. Thirty-five dollars went for rent of a single apartment at first, but later we moved to one for twenty-five. We had no automobile, so each time we went to an outlying studio by bus or streetcar the trip would cost us a dollar. Often when we got back without a thing to show for it I'd sit down and have a big cry. It all seemed so hopeless." "I always felt sure things would turn out all right, and would tell mumsey so," said Jane. "We stuck," resumed Mrs. Withers, "and seven months had nearly gone by when Jane finally got her first movie job. It was as an extra in 'Handle With Care,' at seven-fifty a day. We thought that wonderful, and bought a box of candy." "But when the picture was shown," related Jane, "mumsey and I went to see it and couldn't find me in it. We were so disappointed! Then daddy wrote that he had gone without his lunch for three days in Atlanta so he could hunt for me in the picture and that the third time he saw the back of my head." Jane could laugh at that now. But that early struggle was still no laughing matter to her mother. "Our first landlady introduced us to another of her tenants who was in pictures, thinking he might be able to help in getting Jane started. I remember his exact words : 'Madam, you have a cute, bright little girl, but the town is full of them. I advise you to take her right back to Atlanta. There isn't a chance for her here'.' What a blow that was ! We didn't quite get over it till Jane was given her first part, that of the brat in 'Bright Eyes,' with Shirley Temple. "I got it by giving an imitation of a machine gun," laughed Jane, then popping right and left with rattling effect. "Do George Arliss and one or two of your others," suggested her mother. Magically, the austere British actor, monocle and all, was sitting there of a sudden having afternoon tea with us in the true English manner. Next, Zasu Pitts fluttered tremulously into the party. Then Greta Garbo, in melancholy tone and face to match, let us know she wanted to be alone. Finally, Charles Laughton, of all people, pulled a mug calculated to sour the cream in the small pitcher beside the silver teapot. What a free show it was ! Watching it delightedly, • I marveled at that childstar's versatility. It was done with such effortless ease that I couldn't help wondering whether Jane felt her acting in pictures to be work. "Oh, no !" she protested. "It's like play, lots of fun. If I was not in pictures I'd walk around in circles." That being the case, it was assumed Jane would continue to be an actress when she grew up. "Yes," she agreed. "But then I want to be a character actress, not the kind that sobs all the time. And in between I want to solve mysteries. How? By being a lady detective. Yes, a real one, not the screen kind." Full as she was of surprises, I wasn't prepared for that one. But Mrs. Withers 92 SCRE ENLAND