Evening star., 1954-10-12
Viewing Tv
HOLLYWOOD.

real life is Florence Halop, 20
years younger and four dress
sizes simmer than Mama Bron-
son. who is seen weekly on the
popular Meet Millie" comedy
series.
Florence, whose Brooklynese is
well known to radio devotees of
the old "Duffy's Tavern" show,
is actually a native New Yorker
but the Gowanus lingo she speaks
so f1uently drops away in real
life, even as does Mama Bron-
sons excess poundage.
"You could never call Mama
Bronson type-casting where I'm
concerned she laughed.
"Why, it takes me As minutes
in the makeup department alone
for them to age me to Mama's
48 years. And it takes another
half-hour to wiggle into the
padded underclothes which make
Mama about 20 pounds heavier
than I actually am"
One of the amusing incidents
about Florence's new baby.
Bonita Lee, born last June, con-
cerned that padding.
81 was able to work right up
until the week Beanie was born,
though I gained quite a bit of
weight" Florence confided. II
just didn't bother wearing my
lamb's-wool lingerie. And even
the studio audiences didn't guess
that Mama was about to be a
real-life mama for the second
time"
Florence and her husband,
agency executive George Grus-
kin, have another daughter,
Georgiana, now Az.
4 X
"No," she continued, I'm
about as different from Mama
Bronson in my personal life as
it's possible for an actress to be.
She's a nice lady. mind you. I'm
quite fond of her. But we
haven't much in common.
"She putters about the house
in cottons and utilitarian robes
most of the time. And when
she does dress up to go out with
Millie-well, she's not exactly
glamorous.
'Ne, I love the glamor bit! I
have a complete wardrobe of
cocktail and evening gowns =
Traina Norells, Diors, Carnegies.
I love to go to clubs or to enter
tain with formal parties at
home"
Although Florence was too
modest to mention it, she is on
movietown's unofficial list of
best-dressed women for her fab
ulous wardrobe of "after six"
gowns.
How else do Mama and I diff
fer? Well, she's more of a
Mama than I, in the stricteSt
sense of the word. She partici-
pates more in Miles life than
I would, if my daughters were
grown up."
Playing Mama Bronson, how
ever, gives Florence a certain
anonymity. She is probably the
only television star in Hollywood
who can walk down the street
and not be recognized.
Don't get me wrong" she
laughed. I'm mighty grateful to
the old girl. Look what she
bought Florence Halop for get
ting her option lifted!"
She proudly displayed a new
73-karat heart-shaped aquama-
rine. 1t pays to have a split per-
sonality-if you're, Florence Ha-
lop and Mama Bronson.
TO TOAST" WARMERS =
Before "Toasting" the entire
movie industry early in Decem-
ber. Ed Sullivan plans to come
out about November to do
Sunday TV show glorifying Jack
Warner and the Warner Broth
ers-just as he did for Daryl
Zanuck and his Goth Century
Fox outfit a few weeks ago. Sud-
den eagernesS to be back-slapped
by television comes as a surprise
to those watching their bitter
antagonism toward the medium.
Only a few weeks ago, after
first granting permission to Alan
Ladd to film one of his TV shows
on their lot, they had a change of
heart and ordered the video-
makers off the premises. And
for a long time, praisers in the
publicity department were for
hidden to bang out the hated
word "television" on their type