Screenland (May-Oct 1941)

Waikiki, land of sunshine, romance, music and pineapple. Definitely pineapple juice. As for romance, ask Judy Canova about that. She upped and married sudden-like while vacationing in the vacation paradise. Judy's serenading Gene Smith and Johnnie Makua. mine and do excellent work. The pictures are shown in the leading theaters, and the models consider them one of the best possible methods of coming to the attention of the movie bigwigs. Frank Swann, a youth who went to Hollywood straight from my set, was formerly president of The Pierrots, a dramatic club of the University of Illinois. Jack Lueddecke was sent to me by the University of Miami, where he was taking dramatic work. For several years now, various companies, especially Twentieth Century-Fox, have been sending certain of these young people to the Coast. Phyllis Brocks, that pretty brown-eyed thing who was seen in "Panama Hattie" on the New York stage last season, and Priscilla Lawson were the first two girl models who had worked for me to be sent. Stanley Hughes, Michael Whalen, and Alan Curtis were the first boys. That was before 1940. Kay Aldridge, Georgia Carroll, Ruth Warrick, Frank Swann and Elyse Knox went out after that. But this year, whoops ! Six of my prettiest gals were shipped out to Hollywood in one fell swoop to appear with Don Ameche, Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda in "That Night in Rio." Five of them were tall — and one was a "cutie pie." Here they are : Roseanne Murray, Lillian Eggers, Mary Joyce Walsh, Betty Avery, Marion Rosamonde, and Bunny Hartley. One is a red head, one has titian locks, two are brunettes and only two are blondes. These striking girls have been used to enhance several other pictures including the new musical, "Moon Over Miami." The gorgeous gray-eyed Roseanne Murray, New York colleen with copper-red hair, red eyebrows and Irish eyes, had a line in "The Cowboy and the Blonde." Since 1935 she has been constantly at work to improve her acting. I feel like a mother whose baby has had its first tooth ! Because Roseanne — and all of these girls — have worked with me in various pictures, and some have gone on picturemaking trips, and I have watched their progress. But you don't need me to tell you that 1941 has been a big "model" year in Hollywood— the biggest in the history of the films. What else could you say for the year 70 that bags that six foot five "he" sailorman Stirling Hayden, who is now stopping traffic wherever he shows his blond head? He modeled six months in New York, showing collars and clothes and even something to make a gentleman's hair stay in place, before his epoch-making debut for Paramount in "Virginia" with Madeleine Carroll and Fred MacMurray. And ever since "Ziegfeld Girl" gave away the secret of how to do the "Mannequin Strut" I'll wager that thousands of you gals all over the country have been slinking up and down the house a la Lana Turner and Judy Garland with a book on your heads, and your cute little derrieres tucked in smooth under your hips. Right here let me pause to say, that if you have acquired any mastery over the "Mannequin Strut" you may be smarter than you know. This walk is the basis of the fashion parade, and is as necessary to the mannequin as the A.B.C.'s are to the typist. It is taught in all the model schools, which require an hour's practice of it daily in all their students. (That is partly what the $200 or $300 tuition fee is for.) The procedure is to select an 8 x 10 book, and follow a crack in the floor up and down ten times without resting. If you do so without spilling the book, you are promising material. "Books both on top of and inside the head," is a rule I tell every girl who asks my advice. Practice in balancing a book develops beauty of neck and shoulders, while reading (you can't get too much) gives interest to the face and mind. Take modeling as a means to a greater understanding of life, rather than merely an end in itself. Then it will not be so awfully serious if you do not reach "tops." "Fannies in" is another rule for mannequins which is very stern indeed. A smooth back is necessary for satisfactory line and chic, whether you are a model or not. Also "Tummies out of sight." I thought of the importance of spirit and fine bearing recently when I saw Ruth Warrick, that charming contrast of dark hair and white skin who had made her first screen appearance in one of my fashion subjects, in what has been called the outstanding picture of the year. This was Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" in which she played the first Mrs. Kane. Always dashing and stunning lookii Miss Warrick's personality made such impression on Mr. Welles when he n her at a party in New York that he hit her on the spot. At any rate, he asked 1 to have a screen test made, and then hii her. She has since completed her secc picture at the RKO lot. Elyse Knox is also one of "my" mod with wonderful grace and photoge beauty of face. She is one of the lead: photographic models today. And what time Twentieth Century-Fox had gett that dove-eyed beauty to leave New Y< and go West ! They had fallen in love w a close-up of her in a wedding veil, wh finished a fashion subject. But si worked too hard to get to the place wh she earned $300 or $400 a week model in the East to take a chance with mov Then, you may be surprised to hear the salary she was offered as a novice pictures was very much below par. Wr is one reason why Dorothy Temple j other highly paid models turn up tl noses when you say films. Finally, after she had eluded them a I j time, the Fox talent scouts, the houi tracked her to a hospital one day and [ suaded her to sign on the dotted line w she was too weak to resist! "Footli ! Fever," RKO production, was the last ture I recall seeing her in, but she se< to have become reconciled to Hollywi j She is also doing considerable posing ! the side. People frequently ask me if I believe 1 luck has anything to do with the "bre: a person gets in this modeling field, answer is "yes" — or at least the thing r people call luck. Others may define i: "being in the right place at the right tii ' or "being ready for a thing when it co along." The wedding gown which put E Knox over in such a big way, was n for another girl who couldn't come at last minute ! On another occasion, I had ordere sports suit altered. The boy it fitted called away, and I offered the job of mc ing it to a youth who delayed giving his answer for several days. Finally I cided if I did not hear from him h i o'clock on a certain day, I would give j ob to someone else. He did not phone fore 3 but Frank Swann did. He got part. The suit fitted him perfectly. When he came out of the dressing r all fixed up in his sports suit, every o including Joe Pincus, Meyer Mishkin Joe Holton, of the talent department — bowled over. Frank looked like a bronzed Adonis in his maroon slacks tanned shoulders. We had never seen before in anything but prosaic, every attire, and were much impressed by likeness to Tyrone Power. "Gee whiz, ain't that sumpin'," we! said as we walked around him admirii ! That led to a film contract then and t — and the company hurried him out to pear with Shirley Temple in "Yc I People." The second lead in "Argei Nights" with the Ritz Brothers, and "S Sinners" with Marlene Dietrich 1 others of his pictures, before he retu to New York to do "Sweetheart of Si i Chi," "Friendly Swinging Polka" ai lot of other "Soundies" for James Rc velt, and to sign up for nine week summer stock experience with Jackson | liday's company at the Theatre by the near Newport. His friendship with two ex-girl mo Nancy Kelly and Linda Darnell, were quently mentioned in fan bulletins. Bu seems to have come back heart-whole ready to do a hard summer's work. I did not learn until he got back