Screen Mirror (Jun 1930 - Mar 1931)

• JOHNNY MACK BROWN, who, as any fan will tell you, is one of filmdom's finest fellows. Johnny has successfully hurdled the microphone and his talkie performances have established him firmly in the cinema scheme. • JOHNNY selected a tie with great tare and knotted it with greater difficulty because dance music was pouring up the stairs and through the open door. TheT rue iOve St ory °f John Mack Drown e lea nor packer but he forgot his triumph when he saw the girl in the doorway. She was all in white and her hair was black as coal. As he sort of gulped Johnny thought that he had never seen such a red mouth or such white teeth. Then she was gone, piloted toward the stairs and Fred’s room by some grinning freshman. “Who was that?’’ Johnny asked, when he and the girl with the auburn hair were leaning against one of the veranda pillars. He hoped that he sounded very casual and he was lighting a cigarette. “Who was who?” the auburn-haired voice was slightly annoyed. Most men didn’t ask about other girls when she was along. “The girl who just went in. The one in white.” “Oh, that baby! That’s Cornelia Foster. She’s just a high school infant. Gee, it’s swell to have you back, Johnny. We missed you during training season.” “It’s great to be back.” After a while Johnny finished his cigarette, returned the auburn-haired girl to a group of admirers and went in search of the high school infant with the black hair. He found her in a corner of the living room, her white chiffon dress splashed against the high back of the house’s prize chair. When the orchestra returned from a vacation, Johnny and the white dress danced together. It had been very easy. The freshman was afraid of all upper classmen and doubly afraid of the awe-inspiring He bent his six feet and odd inches closer to the mirror and listened to the music and to the voices of unseen girls, dashing and laughing in and out of Fred’s room down the hall. The brothers always selected Fred's room for the girls when they entertained with house dances, because Fred's room had the best rugs and the wall paper was the newest and the cleanest. Satisfied with his tie, Johnny reached for the blue serge vest and coat on the lower deck of the double-decker bed. He whistled and felt excited. It was his first dance since football season ended and he always liked fraternity dances at the house better than the ones the brothers threw in hotels or clubs. Then, too, he was stagging the party. He didn’t have to worry about dragging a girl or taking her home. He whistled louder because he was free and at peace with the world. “How soon you coming, Johnny?” Fred yelled, passing the door, “the girls are crying for you. Come on and play handsome hero.” So John Mack Brown, star half back on the Alabama team, sophomore prize of Kappa Sigma, walked down the unusually clean stairs and into a group of smiling girls. “Johnny Mack,” a dozen voices shouted, “Welcome back to the fold.” They descended upon him and Johnny enjoyed it. He thanked his lucky stars that he had had sense enough not to bring one girl. The brothers surely had good taste when it came to the selection of feminine charms. And he was free. While the orchestra, in the long living room, played and crooned and sang, Johnny danced. Girls with yellow hair and red hair and black hair. Girls in filmy pink and white and green and black. Girls lovely as only Alabama girls can be lovely. When the orchestra was taking a rest, Johnny laughed and talked and was heroized by these same girls. Then he saw her. She was late and she was coming in the front door just as johnny was escorting the season’s most popular junior, an auburn-haired dream, out onto the veranda for a breath of fresh air. Johnny was feeling very important over the capture of the belle of the evening,