Screenland (Nov 1942-Apr 1943)

tingly, "we got pretty tired of having all e producers in Hollywood tell us we're j old and we decided if Hollywood doesn't mt us any more maybe Uuncle Sam es. So we cooked up a swell show. Good .isic, a lots of acts, everything. Then we jk it over and offered it to the Victory iravan to sell bonds and to go around d entertain the soldiers at the camps "Why, that's a wonderful idea!" Pene!pe broke in enthusiastically. Certainly yv didn't think you were too old?" "No," Bobby tried to grin. "They said 2 were too young!" "But then we had an even better idea," lanky MacFarland spoke up eagerly. This'll wow you. We decided to call our o\v the Tunior Victory Caravan." "Wonderful!" Penelope enthused. "Didn't ey jump at that?" "Not exactly," Bobby said slowly. "They ought the idea was good, but — well, I iiess Uncle Sam is a bit like the movies, e doesn't like has-beens, either, even >ung ones. They told us to get a star name r the lead and then they'd take us^ And p that's why we're here, Ann. It's up I vou. Will you be our star?1" "Ale?" Penelope looked startled. Then ie remembered who she was supposed to and glanced fearfully at Harry. "That's impossible !" the agent said lickly. "You know how it is, kids. In the ■it place Ann hasn't got the time, and in e second place, she's a star." "Oh, but Mr. Fabian! Ann!" Bobby said ;sperately. "Listen, you've got to look at ir show before you make your minds up. ,'e've got numbers that'll roll you in the sles. Butch and Buddy, the swellest swing ;.imber you've ever heard, and Johnny 's ritten a terrific military routine. He's 3ing into the Army himself soon and — " But Harry had had enough. With an nperious gesture he dismissed them and 'enelope felt as if she were going to cry 3 they filed dejectedly out of the room. Eer gamin mouth looked almost as deterained as Ann's as she faced Harry. . "I just can't believe Ann Winters is that different from her pictures, Mr. Fabian," she protested. "It just doesn't seem possible she would have turned those kids down." "It's a matter of business, Penny," Harry said briskly. "Ann is too important to be tied up with a bunch of failures." "Yes, darling." Biggy looked disgustedly at Harry as she put her arm around the little girl's shoulder. "And after her agent gets ten percent of her importance, he's too busy even to listen to them." Penelope looked up defiantly. "I wish I could talk to her," she said. "Don't we all !" Biggy sighed. And for once she didn't feel at all the confident, self-assured Miss Bigsworth. "I wonder where that girl is !" Ann was exactly forty-seven and a half miles from Hollywood according to the speedometer on the car and seventy-three and three-quarter miles as the crow flies from Lake Shore Inn, her destination. Only even a crow couldn't fly very straight along those twisting mountain paths or get any sense of location from the confusing signs, all seeming to point the same way. Ann felt all the exhilaration of running away leave her as she saw the sun dipping closer and closer toward the horizon. But she wasn't really frightened until darkness came and she realized she was lost and the car radio that had been comforting her with its gay programs grimly announced the escape of an armed killer somewhere in these same mountains. And only a few minutes later the car ran out of gas and she had to walk. Everything became more scary than ever then, the strange wood noises, the soft padded steps of animals she couldn't see, the piece of an old rope she tripped over in the dark, the ominous hooting of an owl that seemed to mock her despairing cry. And then just as she was realizing she would play kid parts for the rest of her life if only she' could hear Biggy's comforting voice again, she saw the house. It was one of those typical mountain lodges and it looked as if it were used only ohn Payne and George Montgomery, facing oge, welcome Alice back after a year's bsence during which time, as Mrs. Phil Harris, she became mother of a baby girl. Below, left, Cesar Romero greets Alice with a kiss before enlisting in Coast Guard; and Alice, with Payne, below, who co-stars with her in "Hello, Frisco, Hello," her comeback film. CAST "JOHNNY DOUGHBOY" (A Republic Picture) Associate Producer-Director: John H. Auer. Screen Play by Lawrence Kimble. Original Story by Frederick Kohner. Ann Winters { Jane Withers Penelope Ryan ) Oliver Lawrence . . . .Henry Wilcoxon Johnny Kelly Patrick Brook Harry Fabian William Demarcst "Biggy" Bigsworth .... Ruth Donnelly Mammy Etta McDaniel Jennifer Joline Westbrook S Bobby Breen Baby Sandy "Alfalfa" Switzer 20-Mintis Club. Y'Spanky" McFarland j Cora Sue Collins \ Robert Coogan for vacations and was deserted now, but Ann ran frantically toward it. Then as she knocked she heard footsteps inside and the door opened and a huge colored woman peered at her over the candle she was holding. "My car ran out of gas," Ann explained frantically. "I'm looking for the Inn and if you would loan me some gas — " "Ain't no gas here." Mammy shook her head. "The boss man done took the car and gone, land knows where. And the Inn's seventeen miles away, clear around the other end of the lake. You better get along in here and let me put you in bed and in de morning you can chase around and get all the gas you want." "You — you're quite sure it's all right to stay here tonight?" Ann asked apprehensively. " 'Course ah's sure," Mammy nodded vigorously. "I run this house to suit myself." "Aren't there any lights?" Ann whispered nervously, following her into the house that seemed so forbidding and mysterious with only that small, flickering candle lighting her way. "Naw, sumpin' wrong with de lights," Mammy said imperturbably, opening the door to a bedroom. "Boss man'll have to fix it when he get back. Now you hop in there and get some sleep." It was more frightening than ever now that even the faint light from the candle was gone and then Ann's heart skipped a beat as she heard a car outside and peeking out of the window saw it stop in front of the house and a man get out. He looked so huge there in the darkness and his hat drawn down over his eyes made him seem more sinister than ever. With a gulp Ann remembered the escaped killer and leapt into bed, pulling the bedclothes over her as she heard him fumbling with the lock on the outside door. She had to force herself to keep from screaming when she heard him come into the house muttering under 1is breath as he stumbled on something. Then still clutching the blankets around her she sat up startled as the lights suddenly went on and the door opened and the intruder stood there. "Well !" he said, staring at her. "Who are you?" "Who are you?" Ann quavered. "Oh, no, you don't!" he chuckled, and 61