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Show Can't read Breakdown was no friend with whom | could share_my alarm. Should I call up the American Embassy? , While deep in thought, I found my gaze fixed-on a piece of needle point I had bought at the Galerie Lafayette. I picked it up, still in a daze, and started automatically to work on_it, my hands shaking so violently that it was hard to.get the stitches into line. Little by little, it began to seem very important that the row of small crosses should be straight. 1 was forced to steady my hand, to concentrate on the needle—in and out it went .. . the line began to straighten .. . good... nowthe little crosses were uniform. Almost hypnotized by that row of even stitches, I reached a point where it was necessary to change to another Color of yarn. Jt must be just the right nuance . . . not too light .. . not too dark. I found the proper shade, went on with a blotch of yellow that would soon turn into a daisy, and was going great guns when | was rudely interrupted by John walking in. He said that his plane had been delayed in taking off from London —after which he had enjoyed a perfect flight: nN ence. Such periods werefrustrating, other writers used to chafe with or gradually disinte- grate through boredom. I, however, put my previous medical discovery to good use. But because needle point required too Jarge-an-assortment of yarn, I-took to knitting. While waiting for conferences on a script I-wrote for Jean Harlow titled “The Red-Headed Woman,” | knitted a scarf which, when you consider the time I put in on it and the $3,500-a-week salary I was being paid by MGM, could have been valued at about $85,000. But as long-range therapy it was worth that sum. There were two other girls on suggestions. She had always been a witty letter writer. Why couldn't she write professionally? Or take huge, clumsylights to be arranged, for cameras to be adjusted, for make-up to be freshened, for costechnical details. Nothing ages a * girl so much as boredom. It dulls the eyes, brings on wrinkles, and deadens the spirit. But today both Joan and Paulette look years younger than their age. Can this partly be due to the fact Conn “Show-Chord.”It shows no equipment except their own imagined good taste.” substitute. She had discharged her servants and was doing all her own housework. She took the occupation very seriously, made a very precise schedule for dusting, scrubbing, schedule from which nothing short of doomsday would ever jolt her. The schedule not only assured her physical and mental health but enabled her-to do away once and for all with the sérvant problem. And she saved much more money on servants’ salaries and food than she could ever have earned as a phony inexpertly and produces as much a movie script for as long as five years. Most of the time was spent waiting for conferences with Irving, whose duties, both as executive head of the great studio and as inspiration to a waiting staff of more than 100. authors, were staggering. Sometimes a writer would be forced to wait for months before Trving was available for a confer- ing World War IJ, knitted enough is easy to keep house efficiently by socks to outfit a regiment? (One adhering to a schedule. A job that doesn’t have to be rushed is never tiring, and with its accomplishment of mine who some time ago lost her adored husband of many years. It’ was one of those losses so tragic that it would have been understandable had she taken to drink. For many years she had been a pampered wife living among the most excitiig people of both her” . EE companiment. Conn “Show-Chora” YOu actually shows yenhow. create music in minutes, yet “Show-Chord” . never restricts or limits.your ability. It’s. like a built-in teacher that helps you gain proficiency faster than you ever i You'll find this amazing Conn exclusive on Models 432 and 460 home spinet organs. Both offer solid state circuitry, with such dramatic features as a two-speed built-in Leslie speaker system and repeat percussion. Both comein your choice of popular decorator Tange convenient terms. And even if you can’t read a note 4 of music, we'll have you playing familiar tunes in minutes! confusion, frustration, jllness, and fatigue as does idleness. But it Any sort of manual activity can be a substitute for needle work. I can cite the experience of a friend " dies. enjoy a rich chord: ac- ica by overburdened wives, but, in the majority of cases, it is done that during long periods of boredom ting needles.) beginner’s ‘waaay simplest melo- styles. Conn models start at $895. on studio stages, Paulette did acres hooked on sleeping pills, had become addicted to needle work or sought tranquility in a pair of knit- chords without the aid of a book. With “Show-Chord,” a professional. There is, of course, a great deal of housework being done in Amer- down my nose on it as a work of can only wish that poor little Marilyn Monroe, instead of getting want to make music without a lifetime of learning. It’sacompletely automatic, visual playing guidecalled the you how to play basic organ art. But as therapy it never failed. During the 1930s | went to California, where I spent 18 years in “the seenuris department at MetroGoldwyn-Mayer. It was a period when MGM dominated the entire Hollywood scene because of the genius of Irving Thalberg, who headed the organization. Irving was so great a perfectionist that we often used to work on of needle point and that Joan, dur- At Conn Organ, we've invented something for people just _like you— people who rate, see an analyst! To all this advice, our friend had very sound objections. “I'd be only an amateur writer,” she said. “As to the decorating business, it’s already too full of women who have vacuuming, and ironing. It was a is spent in waiting: waiting for Fine! up decorating as a career? At any any film actress is that acting occupies a-very small portion of a day’s work. The majority of time ducted a successful experiment in years. I can’t remember when, or if, it ever got finished, which is just as well because the pattern was pretty banal, and I came to look it was appalling to think of what her future might be. She was totally unequipped for loneliness. Her friends came forward with As for an analyst, she explained that she had found an excellent tumes to be changed, for endless piece of needle point did duty for own country and Europe. She had had no other occupation than that of being hostess for her famous husband, At the time of his death. « the old MGM lot who had stumbled onto the therapeutic value of handiwork—although I’m sure they had done so as unconsciously as I had. They were Joan Crawford and Paulette Goddard. The most common complaint of Without realizing it, I had conthe control of nervous tension. That of music? Author of “A Girl Like |,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, “But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes,” “A Mouse Is Born, and, sitting outside Irving's office, impatience a note. By ANITA LOOS comes a glow of well-being that’s practically a beauty treatment. If you take to handiwork instead of to an analyst, it will not only saye you the wear and tear of selfpity—it will also save the high-cost of therapy. It has long been my ambition to hear of a case where an analyst has said to some patient, “I will now tell you good-bye, dear lady, because you won't, have to come back here any more.” After all, analysts like to keep busy, too. + Your Conn dealer can ar- CONN ORGANS/ PIANOS Made by C, G. Conn Lid., Elkhart, ind. World’s largest manufacturer of bend and orchestral instruments...since 1875 CLIP COUPON AND MAIL TODAY GET BOTH FREE: 1, Record of wusie, Reged come oe 2. New brochure, “(Conn Organ Decorator Handbook.” ELKHART, INDIANA 46514 Family Weekly, March 19, 1967 3 |