Screenland (Nov 1945-Oct 1946)

T I j I Philip Morris ! — proved less irritating to nose and throat— famed for finer flavor and aroma . . keener smoking pleasure! ; V'/ dustry, trying to figure out what I could do. Then I said to myself, "I won't give up hope. We'll see what the story is when my bandages are taken off." When they were, the doctors said, "Well, even if he does act, there must never be any closeups." I'm glad Mervyn LeRoy discounted all that, and gave me a chance to go back on the screen. I believe that work is good for everyone. However, I also believe that now that the war is over, women will be wise if they go back to working in their homes, rather than in offices and factories. That's because it takes an exceedingly fortunate as well as intelligent woman to make a success of both marriage and a career and they should .therefore concentrate on making a success of their home lives. Love and Marriage. Sometimes I think Byron was right when he said, "Man's love is of man's life a thing apart. 'Tis woman's whole existence." All women need love and should have it in their lives. Men can get along without it, I think. Every guy is secretly afraid of getting hooked; even when he falls in love he spends a couple of sleepless nights before he takes the fatal step. Men are really, for the most part afraid of marriage; and it takes a smart woman to persuade a man that he's really desperately anxious to lead her to the altar. Frequently men sound off on what their dream woman will be like. I've done it myself. But I've noticed that, invariably, if a man says he'll never marry an actress, he does just that; if he says he'll never marry a plump girl, he leads to the altar not a slick chick but a gal weighing 200 pounds; if he says he'll only marry a girl who can equal Mme. Curie for intelligence, he winds up with the dumbest cluck imaginable. Nine times out of ten, a man marries the complete opposite of his so-called dream girl. As for me, there's just one thing I'm convinced of. If I ever marry, it won't be to a dumb dora. (There I go riding for a fall.) I am sure that even if I'm wrong about everything else, the girl I fall for will have more than one brain cell working. Another thing, if I marry, I won't do it hastily. It will be a long, slow process of getting to know the girl first. Happiness. I believe to achieve happiness, health is needed. Also, if not success, at least contentment in your work. When it comes to real happiness, I have seen people in little towns earning very small salaries who had it all over the richest boys in Hollywood. So I think that success is not actually necessary. Friends, on the other hand, are important. The word "friend" like the word "love" is, I believe, often used too lightly. We say, "I love lemon meringue pie" when we should use the word "love" only about a very real and honest emotion. And in the same light way in which we talk about our love for a particular kind of pie, we talk about John Doe being our friend or about the way in which someone has accumulated hundreds of friends. Hon SCREENLAND estly, I think that's almost an impossibility. Friendship, like love, takes time, and what human being has time to develop and cultivate a hundred friends? As for me, I consider myself lucky in having three good friends, and I think it's a rare individual who can't count his friends on the fingers of one hand, and have a couple of fingers left over. Old friends are a comfort to be with, and one feels as much at home with them as with a pair of old shoes. There are people to whom I seldom write — they may think I've forgotten them, but when days and weeks pass without any such letters arriving, I realize that perhaps some of the people I once knew think that I have changed and am no longer interested in them. I don't think I have changed, but people assume that all movie stars change and lose interest in their former friends. Once you get into the movies, you're pretty much of a target, and some people watch you like hawks, waiting to see if you've gone high-hat and misinterpreting actions which would never be misunderstood if you were not in pictures. Actor or not, I like people. I think they are stimulating — yes, all kinds of people are. I think you can learn more from them than from books. Someone once said that there is no such thing as an uninteresting subject, only such a thing as an uninteresting person, and I'll paraphrase that, for I belieye that there is no such thing as an uninteresting person. To me, the lowest salaried telephone 73