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Show STAR PROFILE/By Peer J. Oppenheimer Marlo Thomas—Rayof Sunshine Or Lonely Star? Some actors and actresses are difficult to figure out. Others common denominator of five, but I am a 10!' So | = are impossible. In-laws coming tonight, but the dinner’s ali set and the table’s all set and you cantakeit easy for a while and... Marlo Thomas—alias Margaret Thomas—alias Margo Thomas—alias Margie Thomas—alias “That Girl” is somewhere hiding in-between. I first met her in the early 1950s when I interviewed This... is the Put yourfeet up andrelax. Now’sthetimeforthe rich, full flavor of L&M. EM moment. her famous father. According to Danny Thomas, the It’s a small reward, but honey, youdeserveit. i RICH, RICH EM first indication of his oldest daughter's tendency to be dramatic had been evident 19 mg. “tar”, 1.3 mg. nicotine av. per cigarette by FTC method. (Jan.71). years before. He recalled the time Marlo burst into the living room panting, “Daddy, Daddy—I’ve got the principal, ‘ turn everyone into apples!” In spite of Marlo’s disenchantmentwith school, she got excellent grades and de-j if she turned to acting, peo: ple would think she was cap: italizing on her father’s fame. When she graduated with a B.A. in education from USC, she wasoffered one oftwo available jobsi Beverly Hills but in the las momeni decided on sho business, instead. She stud: to go to the drugstore quickly! Will you take me? Will you?” Danny had turned pale, ied with Sanford Meisnemm for a couple of years, gol her first professional job iq a small role in TV’s “77 Sun} thinking something terrible must have happened. May- set Strip,” her big theatrica opportunity when Mike Ni be she’d swallowed ant poison, or worse. “What's the chols selected her for thi London production of hi matter? Whatis it?” Marlohesitated for a moment, and then calmly an- Broadwayhit, “Barefootii the Park.” She did such a! outstanding job that hem name could have beegf nounced, “I want to get a new comic book.” “T could have killed her,” Danny had remembered, “but instead, I had to laugh. Smith or Jones, and she’ have made it anyway. But she still couldn shake the idea that people were impressed with h¢ only because she was Dan And I took her. She knew all along that if she simply asked me to take her so shortly before dinner, I may Thomas’ daughter. And shige reacted accordingly. Afteaie she allowed herself to 4 talked into playing Jo¢ have said, ‘Ah go chase yourself!’ ” Marlois not an easy girl to know because of her ex- Bishop’s daughter in one Gi treme sensitivity. “I don’t her father’s television pri communicate very well with ductions, for instance, si people who are hostile to me,” she told me over lunch the other day at the Beverly Hills Polo Lounge. “I get angry because I get frightened.” Just about every reporter will make her tense. “Usually, I don’t even feel like being interviewed. Like now. I don’t like to have notes taken! [f you really want to know me, you come over to my house, and we'll sit around and talk ali night. I love to talk when I am not inhibited. My idea of a good time is to have 14 people over for soon insisted it was a mistal and quit. She was come 3 vinced everyone was afraliiy to have her around beca' she was Danny’s daught and might repeat what th did and didn’t do on te conversation.” She forgot that I'd been to her house, and she'd been just as tense. I’ve also seen heratparties and found her at ease only with close friends but difficult to approach for anyoneelse. Marlo didn’t avoid any ques- Family Weekly, May 2, 1971 tions, but the questions were resented. The answers clipped. She showed impatience. “I al- we had an algebra test and I got through with my paper real ways have shown impatience,” there with my hands in mylap. When the teacher wanted to know why I looked so bored. I told her, ‘Because I am finished. You want me to be a she stated frankly. “That’s why I was thrown out of class so many times. I remember when I was in the sixth grade. One day fast and was very bored sitting set. Another time, while s was still living at home, television crew did aninte view with her. Marlo insi§ : ed they show only her o¥ ; room because, she said the time, “This is my int view!” F Invariably, when repomiey ers bring up her fathegea. name, she gets upsel. [am |