It’s Magic

RUSS TAMBLYN: This boy’s magic is love. Not the romantic headlines type: just an unaffected, vital liking for people in general or in particular. It comes across in his friendly grin, his young, eager voice—and is enthusiastically returned. Five feet, ten inches tall, he weighs 148, is twenty years old, and hasn’t lost a bit of the enthusiasm that got him his start. This occurred at the tender age of five, when neither convention nor theatre ushers could prevent him from climbing out of the audience and onto the stage of the Granada Theatre in Los Angeles to do an entirely spontaneous and unrehearsed dance. Since that day he’s never regained his amateur standing. His one unfulfilled longing is to do as much for others as his brother, a Mormon missionary in Germany, is doing. His romantic interests are reported to be centered around one Cindy Robbins, blonde. His latest picture is MGM’s Hit The Deck.

GEORGE NADER: To George, miracles, like most good things, come in threes. His first happened shortly after he appeared on TV’s Fireside Theatre. He opened an envelope, expecting a check, and lo and behold—it was something better, namely, his first fan letter! He read it twelve times, pasted it in his scrapbook. It came from one Florence Lewis, He doesn’t know the name of the girl who worked his next miracle for him. He was driving down a street in the San Fernando Valley (in dark glasses, mind) and, as he went past Corvallis High, heard her say, “Why, there’s George Nader!” That was just after Six Bridges To Cross. The third—and probably not the last—occurred before he went to work on The Second Greatest Sex. A fan asked for his autograph! This so overwhelmed him that stalwart Navy veteran George shakingly signed, “Thank you very much”—and left off his name!

FESS PARKER: His great loves are adventure, the outdoors, women ‘and fighting. He’s had more than his share of all four, though, “Competition for girls is very tough in Texas, where I come from, and I lost out.” He’s six feet, five inches tall, and is Davy Crockett to millions of TV fans. He has a knife scar, chilly feet, veteran status (he was on a mine sweeper in World War II) and a new house. It stands in Benedict Canyon, has plenty of room (“. . . in case I should find me a girl to marry”) and radiant heating in the floor to keep his feet warm. Twentieth wants him for The Tall Men, Disney has big plans for him (Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier,a full-length film), everyone likes him—but the magic spell of stardom didn’t hit until he was introduced to a four-year-old. “The little fellow didn’t say a word, but all of a sudden he gave me that quick bear-grin, like in the picture. Just about bowled me over and I said to myself, ‘Fess, looks like you’re getting to be somebody!’ ”

 

It is a quote. MODERN SCREEN MAGAZINE JUNE 1955