Silver Screen (May-Oct 1939)

Silver Screen for October 1939 75 job, began an almost tearful recital of his plight. He didn't need to finish it. She knows too much about jobs and what they mean to you and me. Then three hours with a group of syndicate writers who threw the book at her, in spite of the terrific heat New York was enjoying. Her replies to questions are direct and not without wit. And being interviewed is no snap— ask any reporter who's ever been grilled, himself. At four she arrived at smart magazine No. 2, with Toni Frissel and this writer — and soon husband Fred Wallace joined us in the studio. They're a cute pair. All of a sudden Fred sang out, "It's five o'clock, dear!" She looked distressed and answered, "Oh, we'll have to hurry. I'm so sorry. . . ." He turned to me and whispered, "I have to save her. Once they get started taking her picture they'll keep her all night. We haven't got to go anywhere for hours but we want to spend some time with you." Fred's not her manager. He's a firstrate make-up man — but he is her husband, and in that capacity he does a lot of protecting. Now, at the hotel, she leaned back in a big chair and said, all in a rush: "I'm a little tired, I want a bath, where is the bike, Fred?" To translate. She had a right to be dead-tired. She deserved a bath and the bike was an English one brought back 'for Skipper, the young Wallace. This young couple are so like the many young-marrieds who live right around you that if you could meet and talk to them you'd find yourself saying, involuntarily "Why, they're just like Eddie and Rose, next door!" But, that's only one of the points to' be made in this article. She's thrilled with her success but she isn't carried away with it. There's too much commonsense in that beautiful head for any nonsense like that. She has sold too many diapers and mixed too many frosteds not to know that she isn't the only pebble on the Hollywood beach. To walk around with her you'd think that she was any young girl from out of town here for the Fair. She swears that the view from her thirty-fifth story hotel window is something akin to heaven. She is certain that there are no store windows like New York's. And she appreciates their contents because she had good enough taste to be trusted with the buying of the ordinary $10.98 dress she wore in "Sing You Sinners." Anyone can do well on Adrien's drawing board but it takes a sharp eye to pick a pretty number from a bargain counter. "I'll admit that New York isn't exactly the place for a rest, but if you're bored with wherever you are — there's nothing like it," she said. "We're calling on some old friends tonight. Tomorrow we're going to the Fair if we can and then home — home to my baby! "Seems like ages since I've seen Skipper," continued Ellen, half-closing her eyes. " 'Way over there in England, living in a place Henry the Eighth built for Anne of Cleves, I'd think of our little place in Hollywood. Then I'd close my eyes and say, 'Hyah, Skip!' "But wait a minute, I'm going terribly sentimental on you. About our trip — Fred got up to Scotland, one week-end we both tried to get to Paris but no soap — too much picture work." Fred broke in. "The English are a great race," he chuckled, "some of them are so steeped in tradition they've boiled down to a fine simmer!" "Look out!" warned Ellen, leaving the room hurriedly, "he'll follow that up with 'in the good old simmertime!' " She came back with a picture of the baby. He looks like both pa and ma but he hasn't pa's moustache. "Fred was only kidding about the English," she said. "We were both very much taken with them and it's going to be much more fun when we go back next time — knowing someone. But there's one difference between my baby and some of the English kids we saw. They stood around like little sticks, dressed in Lord Fauntleroy costumes that no boy could do anything in. Look at this little guy," pointing to Skipper's picture, "no ruffles on that play suit!" They both went into a huddle over the picture and a few minutes passed before they remembered that they had company. Keep an eye on this Drew girl. You're not going to hear a breath of scandal about her. But you are going to see her in some good movies. She has a curious idea that she's in Hollywood to work in the studio. Besides this she has a reputation as a cook and a good housekeeper that she's unusually proud of. She's a sincere actress. She ain't the night-club type. At drug and department stores everywhere CREATED BY W/J BOURJOIS