Screenland (Nov 1950-Oct 1951)

Mitzi Gaynor, who plays the title role in 20th's "Golden Girl," with fiance Richard Coyle at studio party at Romanoff's following the Academy Awards. anxious to add my personality to it. A man wants comfort most of all in a home and that we have. Beauty is secondary. Mike wanted an especially large dining room table so there'd always be plenty of room to put your elbows on it and relax. I love his passion for hospitality that this reveals. I haven't indulged in frills and when I've been stuck about the color of drapes, who do you suppose has come to my rescue with the right idea on the most harmonious shade? You've guessed — Mike! We agree perfectly about entertaining. I've been working so steadily that I haven't had time to become a hostess at any elaborate parties, which is all right with both of us because we aren't crazy about parties. We're normal about them — go out some, but not a great deal. When we're being social, I'm content to sit around and listen and watch. I don't believe in a torrent of talk. I don't underrate anyone's intelligence, though, which is why listening and learning appeal to me, perhaps. Most of all, I'd rather sit home alone with Mike. He's the most original conversationalist I've ever encountered. I don't mean to imply that we're oblivious to our idiosyncrasies. We love each other for, and in spite of them. I can make a decent cup of coffee, but there my cooking ability ceases. I'm always such a failure in the kitchen; I get so nervous trying to make everything come out at the same time. Mike is as bad at letter writing. He thinks cooking can be fun when he's in the mood for it, and I have my moments when letters are a challenge I can't resist. He has no fear of being absolutely 64 truthful, and I find this irresistible in him. I feel a woman misses much of living if a man won't be honest with her. How can you share things if you conceal or won't discuss them? I used to be ill at ease with men, pre-Mike. "Why suffer in silence?" he asked me when he detected my hesitancy. "A man always knows an effect, so why pretend?" he'd say. Now I can't help but show my feelings and this is a much better way to be. My vanity isn't childishly hurt when Mike doesn't like a new hat; I simply return it. I've got to get more pillboxes, however, and stay away from lopsided hats, I've told myself, recalling Mike's preferences. I am more practical in my shopping now because he is saner in his. He likes a natural, scrubbed look and when he comments on how sweet a woman appears, I look twice at her and see what he means. Men run from phony affectations. I think women look at another woman to study her clothes and speculate about her evolution as an individual, but we should remember that this doesn't matter a tenth as much to a man. Whether she remains sweet and natural is what concerns him. To be exciting and triumphant to a man, we have to excel in the ways he believes a woman should. Mike is grand about my career, but he views my work as a craft. He's sympathetic and encouraging and proud of progress, as he would be if I were in any other profession for women. He thinks any woman who enjoys a career enough to strive seriously for it deserves the rewards it may give in return. "It makes you so much more understanding," he says with a grin. I know he's probably referring to my learning not to dumbfound a man with a gift he doesn't particularly want. I glow a little when I think of this step. Maybe women are inclined to give" a man what they decide he wants. Not me! I don't have any notion of what I'll achieve for next Christmas, but Mike was never more thrilled by a gift than by the rifle with which I astonished him. He'd been so tempted to buy it when we were shopping together that I knew I'd solved my Christmas present problem. We're all for sharing our thoughts and our spare time and this extends to the future, also. This year, we've bought a ranch in Arizona as a business investment, in partnership with Verne Goodrich, a friend who's well-known as a rodeo rider. Verne is a veteran rancher and we're going to stock the place with beef cattle and even raise some cotton. It's a whole day's drive, to this thirtyseven hundred acre adventure. I'm not the one to stay in Hollywood when Mike's ready to jump in the car and head for it! I'll have a home on the range yet. And it'll always be nice to have a man around the house. I should start bothering him? Oh, no. Not me. If You Want Success Continued from page 31 Languages, literature, art, music, history: all are self-evident helps — and even mathematics and sciences, by training memory and demanding the analytical approach, are helpful by indirection. If I were tackling Hollywoood today, I wouldn't stop studying after my arrival. I continued my vocal studies, but I wish now that I'd taken some college courses too. Many of the younger players today take courses either in the evenings or between pictures and I admire them for their effort. This is an amazing business, creative and mechanical at the same time,, and there is so much for the newcomer to learn. I didn't realize this when I first arrived and for many years I tried to "go it alone." I managed all my own business affairs and believed the people who flatteringly said, "How smart you are to do that and save the 10 percent you'd have to pay a manager." Finally, I learned! I had made a picture for MGM and they wanted me for another, but when I went up to Louis B. Mayer's office and told him I wanted twice as much salary for the second one, he laughed at me! (I can tell this because we've become good friends since.) I didn't do the picture and didn't go back to MGM for several years, but I did go right out and get a manager whose business it is to know just how much more one can ask for one's talents! So, if I began today, I'd want a good manager. I'd also want a term studio contract rather than trying to make good on a freelance basis. A young ac