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Too Beautiful
while. As a matter of fact, it was almost as if she weren't alive at all. She wouldn't play tennis for fear of the muscles it might develop in her slender arms and legs, she wouldn't go swimming, because she was afraid the sun might coarsen the dehcate texture of her skin. She was never at parties, for she knew the value of rest in preserving beauty, and her maid once told me Wilma had never stayed up later than nine in all the time she had been with her.
Even reading was taboo, because she was afraid her eyes would lose some of their luster. Wilma had one interest only and that was her beauty and the only joy she got out of anything was having an audience, preferably a male one, around to admire and flatter her.
It wasn't hard getting that audience. You never saw Wilma unless she was surrounded by men and all of them breathless in their admiration. It didn't make much difference then that it never was the same men you saw, that most of them left her after such a little while to take less attractive girls out dancing or to dinner and that in time most of them married other
wrapped up in the youngster. The child had never been really well and Deems had taken him to Cahfornia on his physician's advice.
The first time I met Deems was at a luncheon at Frances Marion's, the scenario writer. [Continued on page 74]
Upper right: Deems Donaldson was a young millionaire whose life was wrapped up in his youngster, Dirk. Right: Wilma and Dirk were beside the pool and she looked like a kid herself again, too.
women. Wilma never gave as much as a flicker of her amazing eyelashes for any of them. The only love she had ever felt was for her face.
And, gosh, how we fan writers hated having to interview her. There wasn't anything to say about her, you see, except how beautiful she was and the fans didn't have to be told that.
Her first picture was a tremendous success. Critics raved over her beauty and the fans took her to their hearts, and the studio put her on a long-term contract. Afterwards, it was different. Remember that list of stars who were listed as Box Office Poison? Well, Wilma was right up in the top listing and the studio congratulated itself she had only one more picture to make for them. Fans demand more than beauty in their favorites. They want them to have a heart, too.
It was just about that time that Deems Donaldson came to Pasadena with Dirk, his little son. His wife had died when the boy was born and Deems' whole life was
for May 1940
He didn't know the story then; he didn't have to with Wilma's face telling all of it there was to tell. She wasn't beautiful then, if you count beauty in soft contour and freshness, but if you can see it in suffering and a love so great it transcends all thought of self, you would have known Wilma had never been so beautiful before.
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