Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

to a particular group that's aloof frorr wide wondering. Rock continues to be j spontaneous, to prefer to park his gigantic feet nonchalantly wherever they're comfortable. In spite of the long list of gals he's been dating, he isn't thinking of any one of them as a wife. He is purposely enjoying the good times today or tonight — and that's all. Because he won't let himself love as he intends to again some future day until he is positive he won't be hurt once more! Women have hurt Rock. He doesn' for one second put himself up as the ii resistible male. He's smart enough t know no man, or woman, ever has a 10 per cent appeal. Inevitably, there'll b| the few who don't get your message, i, any language you can learn. He's been taught by his past romance too, that his fatal mistake was not beir^ ready for all love demands. He wa" crazily impulsive. In high school i> Illinois he went steady for two years, an* was quitting school without graduating to elope with the girl who'd become all, of sixteen. He intended to support her by driving a truck the rest of his years. Fortunately, a seventh sense seized them at the last minute. They had nothing in common but their youth. Rock has been shown by others since that similar tastes are a must for happiness. Hollywood also has persuaded him some financial stability is necessary. He assumed he could marry the movie star he fell in love with when U-I signed him. It took unanticipated reflecting to realize he'd never make a go of it as her husband in Hollywood with that vast gap that existed in their pay-checks. He concedes he was sophomorie then. He'd never given a second thought to the high cost of holding up your heads as a married pair in whatever community you choose. He has no ambition at all to be .-nooty. But he admits two can't live as well as one when the husband is still only a novice at his job and might be dropped before he could ever click. Rock won't propose again until he's earned the right to be the head of the family. He intends to stay in Hollywood. It's apparent to him he can at least eliminate the trap sprung when the wife is the conspicuous breadwinner by first establishing himself in the business he picked. He'll be able to afford a wife and kids, he's promised himself. You bet it's lonesome for him without love! Yet this, he's decided, is the price he has to pay tor the old-fashioned brand of home happiness he wants, no matter how modern the world has become. In return, he views a career woman as handicapped. He won't insist upon a wife abandoning a career that intrigues her — not as long as she guarantees it won't interfere with her old-fashioned obligations as a wife and mother. This is the -teep price Mrs. Hudson will have to pay, he says. This grown-up acceptance of the responsibilities he finally foresees is why he's resisting repeated dates with the same woman. The gossip columns will go on being full of items about Rock, but don't be fooled. He will remain a bachelor 62 for a couple ot )eai.. m ^xe won t be financially clear in less time. This past year he began making a solid salary and cinched his tomorrows in pictures. He celebrated by eagerly pouring all his spare cash into an annuity that will pay him small dividends twenty years from now. He isn't moaning about the world possibly exploding before then. Realistically, Rock's buckled down to do his best. This last year he functioned under the expert guidance of the stern business manager he hired to put him on an extremely modest, sane budget. No longer is he splurging as he once did when he was making incomparably less. He went hog wild for a luxury when he was a boy, he grins, existing on peanut butter and crackers to catch up. For anyone who relishes platters full of fine food as much as he does, he has wised up the hard way. His three months in Britain and France have left those clodhoppers of his on the ground and not on a cloud, even if he did fly the Atlantic. The loan-out to RKO to film "Toilers Of The Sea" abroad gave him a bonus of exciting spare time in foreign countries he's ached to explore. However, he won't confide whether Parisian beauties kiss longer. He didn't flip too desperately over anyone he dated while away. Remember, he won't let himself go! He isn't a wolf with the actresses with whom he teams. He doesn't have to be a heel. He'd infinitely rather be regular than a jerk. Rock expresses himself with such vivid honesty that you might suppose you know all his emotions. When he went to Judy Garland's vaudeville act, for instance, he was so carried away with his enthusiasm for her that he unconsciously stood up to applaud madly, to the amazement of the ardent but less uninhibited audience. Rock thinks so highly of the exce u3 ui otners that he could be classified as the perfect fan. Yet even though he sweeps you into the same fever pitch, and you're suddenly having a ball at his side, don't take him for granted. You'll fumble if you're that silly. Here is a man who is past the fast pangs of jealousy he once felt as an adolescent. He's become comparatively patient through his campaign for seif-discipline. The one thing that will save him all his life when he is deeply disturbed is the firmness with which he can never be plagued by a circumstance again after he has done all he can about it. Literally, he'll never worry or mention it forever after. Women who are made miserable by a man who broods on indefinitely admire this trait in him. But don't assume you always can read his mind, for you can't. No one knows all that's going on now in that Hudson head. He can cover his feelings as deftly as he can pour them out. He's slowly mastered both tricks. Until he became a success from the Hollywood viewpoint recently, he was one of the shyest walking skyscrapers I ever encountered. The affectionate approval of others has finally given him the self-confidence he couldn't demonstrate. Yet experience with women also has tutored him in concealing what he recognizes he must solve himself. Growing up, he blurted out his notions and was severely criticized when he was mistaken. He'll never do that anymore. If you don't detect his sensitivity, and try to aggressively pry news out of him, Rock can be as quietly stubborn as his first name. He likes to argue, when the battle of words is kept impersonal. He's too full of dynamite to be docile physically, emotionally, or verbally! But don't pull phony claims, for he'll be disillusioned when he punctures the pretense.