car"
Debbie and Tony Curtis rehearse an emotional scene for "The Rat Race," her most recent film.
my life has just begun (Continued)
Williams suggested I join her dancing classes,
I eagerly accepted. But my progress was
too slow to suit me.
One afternoon, in a fit of temper, I yanked
off my ballet slippers, threw them into the
corner, and stormed out of the studio. Once
outside, I plunked down on the curb, right
smack on Hollywood Boulevard. I was so
mad I was purple.
Camille followed me a couple of minutes
later. "Frannie," she said softly (my real
name is Mary Frances), "there's no reason
for you to get upset. Those are difficult
exercises."
"Well, it doesn't look difficult when you do
it!" I shot back.
"But I've been at it since I was seven years
old," she explained patiently.
Neither reason nor persuasion could get
me to go back to class till Camille had shown
me the steps right on the sidewalk and let
me try them out, to the amazement of a
dozen bystanders. Only after I felt I had
mastered them adequately did I go back.
Fortunately, neither Carrie nor Todd is
like me in another respect not yet!
When I'm described by reporters as the
typical girl next door and everybody's kid
sister, I often wonder how they would have
reacted if they had ever heard me cuss like
a trooper as a kid.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not proud of it.
Most of the time I didn't even understand
the meaning of the words I used!
I learned them from an uncle who used to
be in the Coast Guard. He and my younger
brother Bill and I would sit in the back yard
and hold cussing contests. In the process, I
picked up a few dillies, which I used in class.
However, even California's grammar
schools weren't progressive enough to accept
such language, so Mother was frequently
called into the principal's office to explain
my behavior. Of course, Mother didn't con
done it But she feared that if she made a
big issue out of it, the effect might be the
opposite of what she wanted. She was prob
ably right
My mother took the same attitude with
other imagined and real vices. Smoking and
"drinking, in particular.
When I came home from school one after
noon, I told Mom that I had watched one of
the girls smoke a cigarette behind the gym.
It didn't take a psychiatrist to figure out
what was going through my mind.
"If you want to smoke or do anything else,
I'd rather you did it at home," she insisted.
So I lit a cigarette in front of her and
coughed for two days. I've never liked smok
ing since which has proved a handicap only
once so far.'
In "The Rat Race," I play a young woman
who's been around. I wear a coarse blonde
wig, talk tough, and smoke cigarettes. To be
able to do it convincingly, I started to prac
tice three months before the picture went
into production. "
It almost killed me. I felt sick to my stom
ach; I burned my eyelashes, my hair, and
my fingers: but I kept at it till I could do it
like a chain-smoker. And I stopped the day
the movie was finished!
Similarly, my parents didn't object when
I asked for my first drink at the age of 16.
I didn't care for the taste of it and, except
for. an occasional glass of wine, I've stayed
away from liquor ever since.
Because my parents' attitude has worked
so well with me, I'm taking the same
approach with Carrie and Todd.
Like when we drove to Palm Springs re
cently. Because I'm always worried about
automobile accidents, I got special safety
belts for the children which allow them a
certain amount of freedom to move around.
Yet when I put them on the children for the
first time, there was a more than mild pro
test from both Todd and Carrie."'
As long as they kept their belts on, I didn't
care what their dialogue was like. But when
Todd tried to tear his off, I pulled over to
the side of the road, stopped the car, and
whacked him where it does the most good.
Just as my outcries made no difference to
my mother when I was a child, Todd's loud
wails got little sympathy from me. He had
to be taught a lesson, and if this was the only
way to teach it, I had no choice.
I realize that it will be far more difficult
for me to raise my youngsters on my own
than if they had a father to discipline them,
too. That's why I can't afford to be lax in
matters that really count
(Hollywood wonders if there's a "new
Debbie," worldly and hard. Only Debbie her
self can answer that, and she does in next
week's installment of her frank story.)
Family Weekly, February 14. 1960
f pSr ill
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