Screenland (Nov 1941-Apr 1942)

Why Hollywood Women LOSE Their MENS BROKEN ROMANCES are the worst blight on Hollywood's reputation. Why can't the loveliest women in America hold their men? Learn from their unhappy experiences. Screen Guide tells the intimate truth! Other Scoops in December Screen Guide: Greta Garbo Exposed— Now she's no longer such a mystery! How Bette Davis is facing the new crisis in her career. Why Bing Crosby won't retire— no matter what "they say"! Is Joan Crawford ready to try an escape from Hollywood? Why Irene Dunne is Hollywood's most "interesting" woman. Ann Sheridan's own personal wardrobe— real-life fashions. How Joan Fontaine found her formula for happy marriage! How "Blondie" gets along without "Dagwood" in private life. Giant Portrait of Claudette Colbert in Full Color! FooVProo* SPECIAL! Hollywood's own diet, designed for stars and now available to you only in Screen Guide! Lose a pound a day — and then follow simple instructions to avoid gaining them back. Created by Terry Hunt, served at "The Brown Derby," followed by the most important stars. It's yours! awsfl/fpxs. Screen Guide DECEMBER ISSUE Now on Sale at ALL NEWSSTANDS I0< ike. As my step-father was quite wealthy, , I entered into the idea so enthusiastically [hat I spent $2,000 on coats, dresses, hats id shoes. But in time I sold nearly everyMag to the other girls of the Group, most 5 the dresses for $5 apiece, or anything I appened to get." Naively, I wondered what had happened b the boy. "He got married," was the .fend reply, "but -not to me." . My ready sympathy went out to a life, particularly a Bohemian life, starved of Fpmance, only to be met with the astonish; lg disclosure : "I fell in love with twins. M it was rather confusing. Not that I ouldn't tell them apart. But, somehow, I J&pt getting my dates mixed." .' With the unerring instinct of a Los I j uigeles realtor, I speculated as to whether Miis duplex attachment had led to a further financial investment. 'Yes, it did," confirmed the twin-dej' eloper. "With another girl of the Group, , |( bought a house for $30, so that we could . ;et away from the earthquake house for ■eek-ends. It was really just a shack on I 'ishermen's Wharf down at Monterey, i Chough not much to look at, it had a lot . . f atmosphere— fishy. In fact, it smelled Mo strongly of fish that we had to keep i :h the doors and windows open day and , light. Of course, keeping open house like lhat made it seem all the more Bohemian. JA'e furnished it accordingly. For example, j i used rejection slips from editors as drink i isters. In its simple way, it was really jr lovely. The twins would come down to 'iunch — fish. We all enjoyed it immensely • until one of them nearly strangled on a I hi ne and the other choked sympathetically. ! Naturally, it was impossible to tell which ! wis which — that is, which one had the ; = bone. So my girl friend and I matched ' pennies to decide which twin we would ! pound on the back. Then we hit 'Tails,' as we called him, so hard that we knocked him right out of doors, where he fell off the wharf. As he bobbed to the surface, blowing like a whale, he spluttered, 'S-sorry, but you soaked the wrong guy!'" Miss Gilmore grinned regretfully. Then, asked whether she had found Bohemia to be the land of romance, she gravely replied : "Romance is like gold — it's where you find it. For my part, I did not find it in Bohemia. None of the boys in the Group interested me romantically. There, I was interested only in the work of the theater — acting, production, lighting, direction, and the like. We were always busy. They kept changing casts, and everybody got a chance. There was little friction or jealousy, though I did have one rather unpleasant experience. Another girl kept interrupting my scenes. One night when I was playing Winifred in Wiedekind's 'The Awakening of Spring' she walked into -my best scene with the boy four minutes before her time and utterly ruined it. I was so upset that I decided to leave the company. After the performance I got into an old car for which I'd paid $20 and started out of town with no idea as to where I might be going. It was just a matter of driving blindly all night. At five in the morning I found myself in King City, two hundred miles from San Francisco, and out of gas. I'd just enough money to pay for a bed in a little hotel. By that time I was so tired that I didn't wake up till late in the afternoon. There was no way of getting back for my performance that night, so I wired for gasoline and returned the next day. Missing a performance was the only result of that foolish escapade. My work meant everything to me then, just as it does now. But when Mr. Goldwyn brought me to Hollvwood, I didn't do any acting for two and a half years, althought I was Scree nland paid first $50, then $75, a week. I was taught French and Spanish and given dancing lessons, and I hated it all. I thought it silly. It may have been just my conceit, but I felt they were missing a good bet by not letting me go to work." Of all things, Virginia Gilmore surely was not conceited. And, curiously enough, there seemed to be nothing of the Bohe .. mian about her. "You don't have to be a Bohemian in Hollywood," was what she had to say to that. "Anyway, it's not a matter of a girl's going out every night. I've gone to a night club on the White Strip only once. To me, it just seemed terribly expensive. And it's so much more fun to have a talk and a drink with a friend or two at home or in some other quiet place. In a night club it's so noisy you can't hear yourself. And the cost is ridiculous, there's no sense in it. Hollywood Bohemians, from what little I've seen of them, have lots of money, but they let it run through their fingers. It is very valuable to you if you don't have money, for then you won't ever be sunk by it. Now, I've had all the advantages, so to speak, of a child of wealth. But, as I see it, the mere display of money, the _ sheer waste of it, is a terrific pretense. I still say it is much more interesting to sit in the peanut gallery at a concert than down in the third row. There are many ways of taking your pleasures innocently. Morally. Bohemia— which often is just another word for license — is a matter of taste. There was nothing of that sort in the Group. Had there been, I think I might have accepted it, though it never would have interested me. Bohemia, as I know it, is adolescence without money. And I wouldn't trade it, the brave spirit of it, for anything in the world." 77