Screenland (Nov 1944-Oct 1945)

REDUCE V-TABS! Anti-Acid .... Anti-Fatigue . . . Vitamin Tablets don't bloat and It a few of the what "LOST 17 Lbs. IN 14 DAYS" . "Lost 17 lbs. in 14 days and feel as good as evei-,'* says Mrs. E. F. "Reduced 1 5 lbs. and never felt better in my life."— J. V. "Used to wear size 42 . . . now wear a 20."— R.M. "Doingme a world of good. Don't have g:as . . . losing weight . . . more enerjr^r."_Mrs. R. S. "Most amazing —lost 7 lbs. in 1 week . . . can't thaijK you enough. "—Mrs. L. I. "Lost I'' lbs. and feel so much better . . have gas."— Mrs. O. K. These are but a ) ^^rX'K. '^ttei's in our files. Why don't YOU V-Tabs will do for you? NOT A CATHARTIC! V-TABS are not a cathartic. They help reduce fat by supplementing your regular diet wlien taken instead of a heavy lunch, and also lend to take away that abnormal appetite caused by over-acidity or fatigue. It you are overweight, always tired, full of acid, and yet like to eat, try V-TABS. As fatigue and acidity disappear your normal appetite will return and you'll no longer crave the quantities of food that cause the excess fat deposits. QUICK ... for MEN or WOMEN with intake curtailed, the body feeds on its own surplus fat, and weight eoes down . , . quicklyl Mall coupon today with r 1.981 and save postage, or order C.O.D. plus postapre. Take the full month's supply according to directions in the booklet. If not satisfied with results ... if you do not lose weight and feel better ... we will refund the cost. Act NOWI V-TAB CO.. Dept. SU-9. Box 205 Times Square Station. New York MONEY BACK AGREEMENT V-TAB CO., Dept. SU-9. Box 205 Times Square Station, New York Send me one month's supply of V-TABS (120 tablets) [ ] I enclose $1.98. [ J I will pay postman $1.98 plus postage Name . . Address City No Canadian . . . . State Please print plainly. SONGWRITERS POEMS WANTED AT ONCE Send Your Poems, Any Subject.for Immediate Examination and FREE BOOK:— ■'YOUR FUTURE IN SONGWRITING." RADIO CITY MUSIC ACADEMY 1674 Broadway, New York 19, N. Y. — THAT ^ GRAY HMR Why go on letting that tell-tale "painted look" give away your Gray Hair secret — humiliated by streaks and discolor at ions from inferior tints ? Now you can keep your secret with Kap-I-Dol's sparkling, high-lighted, natural -looking shade matching the original true color of your hairl At Beauty Shops everywhere! FREE— GRAY HAIR ANALYSIS! Send name and address with a few strands of your hair for FKEE confidential color analysis and expert advice. (CAUTION: Use onlv as directed on label) RAP-I-DOL DISTRIBUTING CORPORATION 151 West 46th Street Dept. 318 New York 19, N.Y RAP I DOt SHAMPOOTIIi! think Carole will be the actress in the family. She's a real actress riglit now. She loves to sing and to give little dramatic performances and singing performances at home. She and Pat will arrange a group of chairs in a row and then Carole will go into her song and dance. 'This is the Tomato Sisters bringing you the evening's entertainment,' she'll announce to the empty chairs, and then she'll begin to improvise a musical comedy, right on the spot." Carole loves to have her picture taken. Patty isn't so keen about it. She'll pose for an occasional picture to oblige me, but she doesn't love to have pictures taken, as Carole does. "Even when she was very sick just after an operation, Carole thought more about singing than about the operation. Ten minutes after it was over, Carole called me up and started to sing. Ann, my wife, got on the phone and said, 'That was Carole.' I began to worry, wondering if Carole was delirious. My wife explained, 'Oh, no, she's just imitating Deanna Durbin.' 'Are you all right.?' I asked Carole. 'How do you feel.?' 'I feef fine,' she said, then began singing again. Then she said, 'Mother, am I hitting a nice note?' "When we had difficulty getting her to drink her orange juice, I persuaded her to drink quarts of the stuff by telling her that when Deanna was in the hospital, she drank orange juice and it was the orange juice which gave her such a fine voice. "'Just drink some orange juice — then try to hit a high note,' I suggested, 'and you'll see how clear it sounds.' So Carole tried it, and I raved about how wonderful it sounded. 'Yes, dad,' she said, 'I think my tone does sound better now.' And from that time on, the nurses couldn't give her enough orange juice! "Patty is the scholar in the family. When she first started to attend school, the Sisters were astonished to find she could already read. They told Mrs. Costello and myself about it and wondered who had taught Patty to read when she was so young. 'I don't know,' I had to admit. 'She must have learned from the stories I read to the kids.' " Both children are fond of the movies • — particularly when Johnny Mack Brown, Deanna Durbin, Tex Bitter and Peggy Byan are on the screen. "And put Abbott and Costello on that list," Patty ordered me. "We loved their last picture, 'Here Come The Co-Eds.' " "Put Abbott and Costello on my list, too," chimed in Carole, who echoes everything Patty says. "WTiat about their other pictures? Did you like those too?" I asked Patty. "Oh, no," she said, "they were just — " she sought about in her mind for a word, and not finding the right one, made one up, "muffs." Lou, who was sitting nearby listening, chuckled. Bud and Lou are their own severest critics, and therefore are always willing to accept criticism. But they're hoping their new picture, "The Naughty Nineties," will meet with the approval of even those two stern critics — Patty and Carole. The Costellos have their own private projection room, and the largest film library in the country. Here the children are permitted to view pictures chosen for them by their parents. Given a choice as to what pictures they want to see, they usually call for a Johnny Mack Brown Western or a Durbin picture. Recently, however, they have requested "Frankenstein." So far, Lou has turned them down on this. After all, he doesn't want his youngsters to have nightmares! Bud Abbott also has a private projection room where he shows carefully selected pictures to his five year old adopted son. Buddy Abbott, Jr. Bud, Jr., likes Mickey Mouse and Abbott and Costello best. The Abbotts adopted him after twenty-five years of childlessness. Always Bud and Mrs. Abbott had wanted children, but the stork failed to bring any. At first Bud was afraid that he wouldn't love an adopted child as much as most parents love their own. He was also afraid that an adopted child might not take to him. When he heard parents by adoption talk about how much they loved their children, he found it hard to believe. But the time came when the Abbotts had to assuage their hunger for a child. They were in a position to give a child the best of care. They soon discovered that you have to go through quite a lot of formalities in the ordinary child adoption. But finally they got a break. When Bud and Lou went on a bond tour, they spent a month with a Treasury representative, with whom they became quite friendly. He knew of Abbott's great desire to adopt a child. One day he asked, "Bud, do you still want to adopt a child?" "You bet," said Bud. The Treasury representative then explained that his niece had died; and that if Bud wished to adopt his niece's son, he would do everything he could to make it possible. The moment he saw him. Bud was enchanted with the youngster. The boy had blond hair and blue eyes just like Bud's. In fact, if you didn't know he was adopted, at your first sight of the boy you'd swear he was Bud's own flesh and blood. The baby was two and a half years old when he was taken into the Abbott home. At first Bud couldn't get used to Junior's baby talk. It seemed like a strange new language to him, and he wondered if the kid was putting on an act. "Gradually, however," he told me, "I got hep to the fact that baby talk was natural for him. Now I spout more baby talk than he does. I'll talk Pig Latin to him for several minutes and when he asks what it means, I'll say, 'That's what you used to give me. Don't you understand your own lingo?' "I wouldn't take a million dollars for the kid," Bud told me. "And I'm so happy about having him that I want to adopt a little girl about three years old to play on these grounds with him." (We were talking at the Hi Neighbor Ranch, which is what Bud calls his home in Encino.) "Maybe later on we'll adopt still more children." The coming of the boy into their home has changed the Abbotts' lives tremendously. Formerly, they used to like a bit of cafe life and they spent a good deal of time visiting friends, going to 86 SCREENLAND