Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1953 - May 1955)

1 HIGH-TENSION TROUBADOUR [CONTINUED FROM PACE 47] like you and I guess it's true, but why didn't I have the good luck to look like Mother. She's so pretty." Chris, the eleven-year-o'd also has an eye on show business, but he hasn't bothered with the formality of waiting to grew up and complete his education before working out a comedy routine. A student at St. Paul's School, he has developed one of his teachers into an excellent straight woman for his gags. Whenever he hears a routine compatible with his style of clowning, he takes it to school and instructs the Sister, saying, "First I tell you, then you give me the straight line, then I deliver the punch line, but you don't react. You just look deadpan — see?" She sees. Very satisfactory partner. Chris regrets only that she won't be able to go on tour with him. Bob, Jr. is — at the moment — the Crosby Confidential Investigator. lie collects information, correlates it, reaches conclusions. Recent dinner guests at the Crosby home were Mr. and Mrs. Hubbell Robinson. Mr. Robinson is an official of CBS. Bob, Jr., taking advantage of a lull in conversation, fixed Mr. Robinson with a stony eye and inquired levelly, "Do you OWN CBS?" "No. I just work there," was the Robinson response, delivered in a tone that implied the satisfactions of the job. Bob, Jr. pursued, "You make much?" "Maybe a couple hundred thousand a year," confided the guest, playing it very straight. Bob, Jr. was unimpressed. Grandly he said, "Hmm! My dad does that well." Stevie, the seven-year-old, is at that charmingly worshipful stage which pays tribute to a hero. His particular enthusiasm is Steve Dunne, the warm, handsome man who announces Bob's show, and who has two youngsters of his own. One Sunday afternoon Stevie caught sight of Dunne and came bounding over to announce breathlessly, "I LIKE you. Oh, I like you VERY much." Malia, the baby, is so perfect at this stage that Bob says he'd like to put her in a deep freeze and keep her as she is forever. The mother of this talented brood is, as one might guess, a woman of distinction in her own right. Born June Kuhn, Mrs. Crosby was within two years of having earned her M.D. degree when she and Bob were married. Now that her family is well launched, she is once again in college, enrolled at UCLA, and hopes to become Dr. June Crosby in June, 1955 or 1956. She and Bob have a special song and recitative. The song is "Remember Me" and the commentary goes: " ' . . . and if I'm not mistaken, dear, I'm paying still . .' the story of every happy marriage. The payments are made daily and the coin is love and devotion — two of the three most valuable things two people can share. The third is joy. It's important not only to give kiss for kiss, but smile for smile, laugh for laugh. For if it's true that tears are the salt of love, laughter must certainly be the pepper, the spice that keeps it gay and interesting. So when you hear a door slam and a voice call, 'Hey, honey, I'm home — remember me?' . . . don't think he's silly to talk that way at the end of a tiring day. Be glad he wants to. Let his gaiety be music to your ears and the sight of your smiling face will make him as happy as the sound of his voice has made you. Next thing you know, you'll be in each other's arms, laughing at something vague and wonderful, the only two people in the world. And his kisses will say 'For I'm the boy whose only joy is loving you . . ."' Happy people, huh? END DORIS DAY IS NOT A SNOB [CONTINUED FROM PACE 31] the anchor it has needed. She's changed and she's grown." I had arranged to take personal depositions from Doris over lunch at the Green Room at the Warner Studio. I got there first — more out of eagerness than gallantry. As I awaited Doris' arrival everyone was sitting at his own table, minding his own business, concentrating on food and conversation. The door opened. Doris breezed in, and the dining room immediately was transformed into a sea of greetings. Chairs scraped as the occupants scrambled to their feet. Faces which had been knotted in lunchtime frowns broke out in spontaneous smiles, and sunshine — genuine, the real article, not saccharine, sychonhantic mush — spilled all over the place. 62 When she sat down at my table, the waitress hugged her and asked how she was. This was not, as it easily could have been, a theatrical or self-conscious gesture. Can you imagine a waitress allowing herself such a display with a stuckup movie queen? This is a portrait of a snob? Puhleeze! Doris had begged off singing her Oscar winning song, "Secret Love," at the Academy Awards presentation, and this, too, had furnished ammunition for those who delighted in crying snob. Doris faced the issue squarely when I put it to her, and her answer made it clear that her shunning of an Academy appearance was far from the act of a haughty beauty who considered such a performance beneath her. Corinne Calvet dances with Johnny Ray but her heart belongs to Jeff Stone. "It's just that I have a terrible fright of I doing shows," Doris told me candidly. "I I used to do a lot of them. I used to go on the Bob Hope tours and I appeared before thousands of people. But since I've been making pictures, I'm sort of out of the habit. Now it's gotten to be a monster to me and I felt I just couldn't do the Academy Awards. I was petrified at the thought of it. I suppose it's silly because I don't have one nervous moment on the set. I'm sure you know how it is. When you haven't done something for a long while, you develop a terrific fear of it." The mouthings of a gal with delusions of a Hollywood hotshot? Sounds more like the honest admission of a normal, sensitive human being. Compounded with the whispers of snobbery were the snide whispers ol temperament and self-indulgence. From every corner of Hollywood the surreptitious slanders had been put out. Doris Day had gone prima donna! First there were the reports that she was out to shov Peggy Lee who was queen of the Warnei; roost. Unadulterated poppycock. Ther Judy Garland was hoisted up as her rival and the gossip columns were shotgunnec with reports that" Doris was determinec to indulge the same excesses which Jud}< ostensibly was being allowed to enjoy j They said that when Judy arrived late oi J the set, Doris followed suit and als< j showed up late, presumably to prove tha anything Judy could get away with, Dori could get away with better. Anyone for facts? Doris and Warne executives were appalled at these un founded slurs. To begin with, neithe Judy nor Doris has been party to an rivalry. Each realizes that the other is completely different personality, rulin out even a basis for professional jealous> Quite the contrary, they happen to b outspoken in their admiration for one an other. They met several times while th poison pen kids were having a field da at then expense, and they were com pletely friendly. The first thing you appreciate abo\