The Secrets Of Kim Novak’s Hand And Heart

A drizzly summer afternoon, and Kim waited eagerly for palm-reader Stephanos in her New York vacation headquarters, the penthouse suite of the elegant Sherry Netherlands Hotel.

When Photoplay First invited Kim to a Stephanos palm-reading session, she refused. She didn’t want her palm revealed, she told us, for a number of very personal reasons.

And then, via the Broadway grapevine, she heard of Stephanos’ success with cinema stars and the jazzy international set. He’d pinned their characters right down to a T, Kim was told. And so, finally, she couldn’t turn down our dare!

“You don’t mind, do you—letting me read your palm?” asked Stephanos, once he was seated comfortably next to Kim in the luxurious living room of her suite.

‘I’m doing it on a dare from Photoplay—for fun!” Kim answered.

And so Stephanos took Kim’s left palm in his, since she writes with it, he explained, and began to study it. He looked at it long and intently.

“Your left hand is the hand of action,” Stephanos began. “In it, the lines of the palm change and develop according to the way your character changes and develops.”

“But let’s have one understanding,” Kim insisted. “Although I said this reading is ‘for fun,’ you must promise to tell me everything. I don’t want a sugar-coated reading.”

“When we only reveal the good things, we call them upbeat readings,” Stephanos laughed.

“Well, I want you to give me all the downbeat items, too,” Kim answered, smiling.

“Understood. Now then, let’s begin with your Heart—or Love line,” said Stephanos, settling down to business.

“That’s the one I’m most interested in,” Kim said.

“Isn’t everyone?” Stephanos smiled understandingly. “But first, before I go into your specific loves, I want to tell you your Heart line is terrifyingly overshadowed with doubt.”

“What?” Kim asked, surprised.

“Yes, it’s full of uncertainty. I’d say, without qualm, Kim, that you don’t trust love. You want it, yet you’re afraid of it. You don’t believe it can happen to you. Every time you fail in love, you have a miserable time because you’re busy doubting, doubting, doubting all the time.”

“How can you tell that?” Kim asked curiously.

“By a series of damaging lines that are cutting into the body of your Heart line. This doubting of love worries me. You’ll never achieve a mature love relationship if you don’t get it into control. I’m trying to think of a good word to describe it. Maybe I’d call it love-testing. Yes, that’s it—you’re a love-tester.”

“What do you mean?”

PALMIST: There are many men in your life . . .

KIM: No marriage signs?

PALMIST: Your career will skyrocket . . .

KIM: But all I want is to be a housewife!

PALMIST: Wait! This line is strange . . . it shows trouble . . .

“Well, before I explain it, let me say there’s no shortage of love in your palm. You want love, demand love—and get love. But, deep down inside, where all your defenses are bare, love frightens you. It scares you because you won’t believe it is for real. ‘How can anybody love me?’ you ask. So you start testing like crazy to prove the love is true. And invariably, this tremendous testing destroys whatever love you have.”

Kim interrupted. “Can you give me an example of what you mean?”

“Sure. Let’s say someone you’re fond of tells you at the beginning of a telephone conversation, ‘Hello dear. How are you? Are you going to tell me how much you love me today?’ You’re pleased for the moment, delighted. Soon the conversation changes to—let’s say, food. He tells you about a terrific dinner party he went to last night at a client’s, where the client’s wife served a fabulous shrimp casserole. You begin to say to yourself, ‘Why is he raving over it? Is he telling me I’m a poor cook? Is he trying to tell me I’ll never be a good wife—that I can’t entertain?’

“Actually, he couldn’t care less about whether or not you can make a shrimp casserole,” Stephanos continued, seriously. “But you’ve started twisting this thought in your mind. You don’t feel confident as a cook, so you mistrust any comment he makes about cooking. Ultimately you put yourself through the worry wringer—you don’t believe in yourself.”

“It’s my inferiority complex,” Kim confessed. “I never think I can measure up to what’s expected of me, to what I expect of myself. Did you know I was born on February 13, 1933—at 3:14 a.m., in Room 313 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Chicago? When they told me thirteen was an unlucky number, I’ve been afraid of myself ever since. Soon as I began to go to school I wanted so much to belong to a gang, a group of kids to have fun with. But I never made it. I didn’t think I was good enough. I figured I was an ugly duckling—someone who’s born unlucky.”

“Then,” said Stephanos, “if the man we were discussing doesn’t say ‘I love you’ at the finish of the telephone conversation you’ll get yourself sick over it, isn’t that right? Maybe he was called away quickly or maybe someone came into the office while he was using the phone and he was embarrassed to continue a personal conversation in front of someone else. Maybe, like many men, he’s not very good when it comes to expressing his love with words. But, no, you don’t think of any of these things. all you think of is, ‘He doesn’t love me,’—and you put him through a terrible trial the next time you see him or talk to him.

“Remember, Kim, you mustn’t be afraid to trust love, once you’ve accepted someone’s love. In fact, do you realize your palm is riddled with fear? Your lack of trust prevents you from giving completely of your love, and, before you know it, you’ve ruined something which may have been very beautiful by doubting and brooding.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Kim sighed. “I’m shocked that you’ve found this out about me. It’s really a disturbing part of my character. tell me, what can I do about it?”

“A palmist can’t always give you the Solutions. He’s primarily interested in revealing your character to you—in order that you may learn all about yourself. All I can say is you must trust love if you want to enjoy the deep love relationship you so desperately crave.”

“What about my loves?” she asked quickly, and then cut her own question short.

“There seems to have been a series of them, many of them shallow. You’re looking for a deep, involving, uplifting love—the kind that’ll knock you off your feet. And you’re lucky. There’s a long line of affection here that’s going to surprise you so suddenly one day. There’ll be nothing premeditated about it. It’s going to happen with a bang—and, wow, are you going to have a ball!”

“Any marriage signs?” Kim asked, leaning forward a little.

“This new love I see could very well be your marriage love—” Stephanos spoke slowly. “However, there’s another love hiding behind it. If this other love taunts you, you won’t marry the head-over-heels love I just told you about. There are other small loves that may woo you, distract you from this big love—and then, look out!

“Your Heart line scatters, dissipates. If it spreads itself too thin, you’ll never achieve the love you want and need. So, be careful; don’t let your love go off into too many directions. This can harm you—and ruin your Heart line.

Kim looked into her palm with great fascination. “Can you see all that here?”

“All of what you are is here,” the palm-reader answered assuredly. “Now, for your sensitivities.”

“Are they good or bad?”

“Nothing to do with good or bad. There are simply too many of them. They prevent you from developing. They clutter your life. Trifling, petty details that take up hours of your time—for ridiculous reasons, meaningless ones.”

“Such as?”

“Suppose someone from the studio gave you a couple of hundred photographs to autograph for your fans. Instead of sitting right down to autograph them, you’d spend ten or fifteen minutes of your time counting them. If. by chance, one’s missing, you’ll think you’ve miscounted, then count them all over again. This time you count an extra one. So you go through the whole rigamarole again, and before you know it you’ve spent an hour counting pictures when you should have been signing them. It’s petty matters like this. Kim, that take up minutes here and minutes there of your time. Before you know it. these minutes add up to hours.”

“You’re so right,” Kim admitted slowly.

“I let the littlest things bother me.”

“You mustn’t. You have a few controls over your sensitivities, but not many. Another thing, when you’re hurt, the whole world knows it. You can’t disguise it. In order to be the actress you are, you need sensitivity. But not to the extreme these sensitivities dominate your palm.

“Take your reviews, for instance. If a big reviewer gives you a thumbs-down review, it doesn’t bother you as much as maybe the notice from a small town that you once visited on a personal appearance tour, a little town where you made a few friends. You’ll think your new friends’ll hate you because of what the reviewer said about your acting. And you torture yourself over this.”

Kim smiled. “I asked for a downbeat reading, and I’m getting it.”

“Now, about your career,” Stephanos continued, “You are blessed with one of the most beautiful Stars of Success I’ve ever seen. It’s overpowering.”

“What does that mean?”

“Your career will skyrocket and blaze in the heavens. The whole world will be at your feet.”

“But all I want to he’s a housewife.” “Really? A housewife?”

“Can you believe that? Most people don’t,” Kim said.

“You’re destined for success. Worldly success.”

“But I can get married, too?” Kim persisted.

“Well, you’ll never be able to run away from success. Look here, your success is protected in your Fate line with a dazzling shower of stars later on. Success follows you wherever you go, whatever you do.”

“Will success rule out marriage?”

“No, it doesn’t have to, necessarily. Oh, here’s something interesting. I see you had a short career before the Star of Success flashed into your life. But it was unimportant—and in another field altogether.”

“I modeled for a while,” said Kim. “That’s how I got to Hollywood from Chicago. I was out there on a temporary assignment.”

“And after this brief career, your mount of Apollo called you. Apollo is known in palmistry as the mount of the Sun or Success. It produces great artists and people who have a magnetic brilliance. You have a strong love for gaiety, color, beauty and travel. Apollo tells us you’re often the center of attraction. People treasure your friendship.”

“Would you say I was a good friend?” she asked.

“Yes. I say you are a better friend than lover. As a friend you aren’t afraid. You give fearlessly of yourself. But, back to Apollo. You have a crying need for self-expression. Apollo offers you the opportunity to fulfill yourself with your art.”

“Good!”

“But here’s the trouble,” Stephanos frowned. “Saturn conflicts with Apollo. Saturn represents wisdom. A lot of things you do as an actress conflict with your wisdom. You know what I mean. Things like having to spend hours for costume fittings, having constantly to be on extra special behavior when you’re in public—particularly to offensive people. You question these things, wonder if they’re necessary. You have a native intelligence, which doesn’t always jibe with many of the superficial things you’re called upon to do as a film star.

“But you need to develop more courage and patience. There’s a tendency toward belligerence . . .

“You fly off the handle too easily. Lots of times you’ll say things you’ll regret. An extra moment of thought, and you’d realize you were wrong.”

“Don’t I know it! My philosophy’s been ‘When things go wrong, it’s a waste of time to be calm.’ And I have paid for it in anguish! Every time I’ve sounded off to the papers they printed everything, but everything—and after I read what I’ve said I’d bite my lip and say ‘Darn! Why didn’t I think twice?’ ”

Stephanos looked kindly at Kim. “You’ve got to exercise greater control. Now, here’s something interesting. Your Life line reveals a dual personality. When you were young, for instance, didn’t you have trouble making up your mind? Weren’t there two completely different personalities pulling at you, one telling you to do what the opposite you didn’t want to?”

“This is incredible!” Kim flared. “How can you see that?”

“By the wishbone in your Life line.

See it here?”

“Oh, it’s so true. I used to call my personalities Kim Number One and Kim Number Two. They could never agree. If Kim Number One wanted to visit a girlfriend, Kim Number Two wanted to be all by herself in her room, play-acting in front of the mirror.”

“But now they’re beginning to merge,” said Stephanos. “You’re becoming one—strange as that sounds. You’re beginning to subdue one of the personalities; the other one is now more important to you—the Kim that’s more outgoing, the actress Kim.”

“It’s true. I think I know more of what I want. The lavender Kim’s emerging.”

“In your early life, Kim, you had a devil of a time trying to work out the problem of independence. You wanted to be independent and did everything in your power to achieve it. Then once having achieved this, you came to the conclusion that maybe you didn’t want it. Your character, you’ve realized, is a dependent character. You like people . . . want to be with them . . . are anxious to please them . . . wish to learn from them. Interesting people give you great pleasure, and you depend on them for enjoyment and learning.”

“Oh, I can’t believe you can tell all this from my palm.”

“But I can. And Kim, if I were going to tell you one overall thing about your palm, what I consider to be the most important thing—”

“Yes—?”

Stephanos’ eyes leveled with Kim’s, as he spoke slowly. “I’d say this: trust love. Don’t squander it. Don’t mistrust one love, then run to another, mistrust all over again and run off again. You have a fabulous capacity for love, and your mount of Venus shows this, but I don’t have to check Venus for that! Give yourself completely to love, and you’ll find real love agrees with you one hundred per cent. You’ll never doubt it—from then on!”

THE END

KIM’S IN COLUMBIA’S “BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE”

Your life is in your hand. Compare your palm with Kim’s… Here Stephanos gives you a few tips for your party fun.

1- Are you a materialist? Thick, chubby hands or fingers show a tendency toward materialism and self-indulgence. Thin fingers reveal refinement, love of beauty.

2- If your palm has lots of little lines, no doubt you’re sensitive and impressionable. If there’s an overabundance of thin, thin lines, you’re terribly temperamental, too.

3- Is there a Star sign (like an asterisk) on your Fate line (the Fate line runs parallel to the Life line) ? Watch out. You could be involved in some kind of scandal.

4- Your thumb is the steering wheel of your palm. It guides your personality. Long, strong thumbs reveal dynamic personalities—people who’ll go places in the world. Very short, weak thumbs indicate highly emotional people who are overly concerned with the petty in family, business deals.

5- Directly below your thumb is a mount of hard flesh This is called Venus, the mount of love. Venus is the thermometer of your affections. Feel it and if it’s well-padded, and fleshy, you’re a generous, loving person; if hard and bony, you’re selfish and stingy.

6- If the mount of Venus bulges, you appreciate art, music, writing and acting. You revel in the dramatic, and you’ve a warm personality, making you fun to be with.

7- Opposite Venus mount, on the pinky side of your palm, is Luna. If it’s springy, it means you have a very active imagination. If it’s too springy, you belong in the fantasy world. If it’s Hat and hard, you’re much too practical!

8- Look at the ends of your fingers, where your fingerprint is. If it peaks in the center—you’re inclined to be quite stubborn.

 

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 1958