Silver Screen (Jun-Oct 1940)

Silver Screen for October 1940 95 licity men who would lean her way in sending out copy to the papers, directors and executives to see that she got more and better parts. So it wasn't surprising that she reached the top at last. Gerda was awfully excited when she started on her first starring role. "Think of it," she said to me that day I interviewed her. "A year ago we'd be talking our heads off while we shelled peas or peeled potatoes or something. There wasn't a subject we didn't touch on and here I am scared to death to talk to you now that it's for publication. I didn't know being interviewed was so scarey. For Pete's sake make me glamourous, won't you? None of that nice, homey kitchen touch or anything like that. Let's see, just where did I go to finishing school anyway and should I make my father a banker or a doctor?" But she wasn't really kidding for all her pretense. It was one of the hardest jobs I ever tackled writing a story about her that she would approve of. If only I could have done it the way Gerda really was, get that fine quality of hers down on paper, the way her eyes softened when she looked at Charlie, the way she had looked doing her housework in the little bungalow, her bright hair tied up in a blue ribbon, the way she'd nibble at the strawberries she was hulling for preserves, popping them in her mouth one after the other and laughing as she saw how few there were left and deciding to make a short cake for dessert instead. And I thought how sad it was, the way people have of growing away from themselves and becoming the kind of persons they think they want to be as I read the story I'd written, the story of a girl who really wasn't Gerda at all. But she loved it. _ "Your story was swell," she said, grinning. "It sounds so grand and important and all I can't believe it's really me." But the tragedy was that she did believe it. It was just before the picture was finished that Gerda knew she was going to have a baby. Charlie came over for me that night and asked me to talk to Gerda. "She's in a state," he said, and his eyes looked so hurt and unhappy that he didn't look like Charlie at all. "I was so excited when she told me about it, but Gerda's having hysterics. She doesn't want it." Gerda met us at the door, her face swollen and red from crying and all the things I wanted to say froze on my lips as I looked at her. Her words came tumbling out of her twisted lips, resentful and harsh and it was awful listening to her and knowing it was Gerda who was talking. ., , ,, "The worst thing of all is that it should have happened just now when I'm beginning to get somewhere," she said rebelliously. "The fans will love thinking of their pet ingenue as a mother, won't they? I'm finished before I ever really got started." She had to turn down two offers in the next month. And she brooded so much that Charlie took her away from Hollywood. They rented their house and took another, smaller one far up on the coast near Monterey, next door to Charlie's -URGENT MESSAGE! to you women suffering functional FEMALE COMPLAINTS Read Every Word! Few girls and women today are free from some sign of functional trouble. Maybe you've noticed YOURSELF getting restless, moody, nervous lately — your work too much for you — Then why not try Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound to help quiet weary, hysterical nerves, relieve monthly pain (cramps, backache, headache) and weak dizzy spells due to functional disorders. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS HELPED For over 60 years Pinkham's Compound has helped hundreds of thousands of weak, rundown, nervous "ailing" women to go smiling thru "difficult days." Made especially for women from nature's own wholesome roots and herbs — Pinkham's Compound also contains a special ingredient which a leading medical authority says is most essential for good health. WORTH TRYING! Vegetable Compound LORETTA YOUNG FINDS REAL LOVE AT LAST! Beautiful star who marries Tom Lewis this week, is featured in SCREENLAND'S intimate story! Get a grand thrill out of this story! Buy your copy of the October SCREENLAND Now on Sale 1 0^ Everywhere ftGUl of teStS ¥ t the SttP*' ^isS 0A tw° sets ot n