Evening star., 1942-03-22
One Magpie
Might Be
All Right
Miss Fitzgerald
Claims Two Are
Bad, However
By Franklin Arthur,
Wide World News.
HOLLYWOOD.

HULL r WOOD.
Ten, nine. eight, seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
Good morning, Jack! Good
morning, Jack!
Gross your fingers; you can't
catch me-"
You'd gasp a little, too, if sud
denly the very normal-looking young
lady curled up in the big chair in
front of the fire ratified that at you.
Again, please?" you ask, bewild-
eredly.
She repeats it.
That's what you thought she said.
That takes the curse of two mag
pies" she exclaims triumphantly.
You are properly impressed,
though your chances of seeing even
a single magpie in Hollywood are
about as remote as stumbling on
Greta Garbo in a 5-and-l0.
But Two Magpies Are Bad.
Geraldine Fitzgerald. as Irish as
her name, has the reputation OF
dOOuI lAAooS ouPSA s~S
person in the movie colony.
But Geraldine says it isn't so:
she's superstitious about only three
things-magpies in pairs, the 18th
of any month and talking about
something that isn't accomplished.
Try sometime, for example. to draw
her out in the prospect that she'll
be selected for some choice movie
role.
A single magpie is nothing to
worry about. she goes on. But In
pairs, anything can happen. That's
the why of the chant above. Ger
aldine, however, found herself re-
peating it all day long in her Irish
girlhood, so she shortened it to
watch out, Jack, or Ill get you,
and found 1t worked just as well.
It seems that magpies in Ireland
are about as common at fat women
in slacks on Hollywood boulevard.
She Does Break Mirrors.
AS for the 18th, she'll barely get
out of bed. A year or so ago she
confused things no end by refusing
to open in a play in Santa Barbara
on the 18th.
They'd made all the arrange
ments," she says blandly, but they
neglected to inform me until the
18th. just wouldn't do it. Why
that would be counting all sorts OF
disaster"
The other superstitions, the COM
mon garden variety. hold no terrors
for her. She'll break mirrors with
abandon, walk under ladders, stop
to admire q black cat strolling across
her path.
THIS pretty daughter Of Galway
Is one of the most entertaining
interviewees in Hollywood, chiefly
because she can talk intelligently
about other things than her current
picture. She becomes extremely
entertaining when she talks about
such things as pixies and lepre-
chauns, for example.
Does she believe in the little men?
IT think I do" she answers with q
trace of hesitation.
Can she prove they exist?
What Can You Prove?
"Can anybody disprove it?" She's
quick with that one.
Just what is a pixie and7or .
leprechaun, anyway?
i've never seen one, you under
stand. But they've been described
to me many times. They're about
so tall (she holds her hand about
IS inches from the hoor). They
have white whiskers and they live
In the roots of big trees and they're
always shoemakers, and each has q
pot of gold. It's always buried under
q thorn bush at the end Of the rain
bow"
Her eyes light up as she recalls
racing through the hills after q
rainbow.
But they always move" she re-
fleets.
The leprechauns kidnap only little
boys, she goes on, who. after they've
been taken away. never grow up. But
the pixies always leave another child
(see ARTHUR, Page ESD