Saturday's Child (13 page)

That was the only big news which is not very big unless you think Pietro saving Lee's life and being too much of a hero to tell anybody is big news. I do. But when I told her about it Mommie said we'll keep Pietro's secret, just her and me and Aunt Sally and not tell a soul. So I only told you, Diary, because you're not a soul.

I love you Diary
.

Robin the country kid

Dear Diary
,

You are a soul, I guess. I have to be more careful what I write in you. Mommie was checking for my spelling mistakes even after I told her I
promise
to look up hard words myself to
save
her from having to correct them. Mommie says I haven't got the hang of writing in you yet and if I don't get it soon she'll hide you away until I'm older.

You see, I should not be putting in these things all the time that really don't have anything to do with me. Like Roberta, because Roberta and I
had nothing in common. Like Miss Monet and you know what. Like Miss Wood and the maybe husbands and her being an actress even when she lets her hair down. Like Rosemary crying to Mr. Nelson and Dickie and the track and Mr. Gabrielson and the booze and the pool. Especially like Pietro saving Lee's life.

I can sort of understand about everything but Pietro because you could say the other things are not positive and might give me the wrong impression when I am old and read you, Diary. But it seems to me that Pietro's being such a modest hero is
very
positive and something I will want to remember as a happy time of my childhood. And I would never show you to anybody now Roberta is gone. So Mommie would be the only person to read you, and then me when I'm old, and both Mommie and me already
know
about Pietro saving Lee's life so I don't see what was wrong about writing that in you.

But I don't want to be difficult all over again and Mommie almost had nerves over it so I'll just obey which will give me another star on the chart at least. I'm sorry, Diary. But that's the way it is. You never know.

Still your friend anyway
,

Robin

Dear Diary
,

There are lots of things I'd like to write in you tonight but I don't think they've got the hang of it so I just better say Hello and I love you. Besides, I'm tired. I think maybe I'm sort of depressed, I guess.

Robin

Dear Diary
,

I know it's almost Easter and Pesach (spell? I couldn't find it) together and I haven't paid you much attention. I apologize. I've been very busy doing important things but I still love you. I'm going to appear on 5th Avenue on Easter Sunday with Steve Allen (who talks on TV) to do television commentary together about the Easter Parade. Some famous hat person named Lilly Dashay or something is making me a custom Easter Bonnet.

My new agent Miss Olga Lee got me out of the exclusive contract with Miss Irwin and CBS so now I can play Dagmar and other parts too if they don't have what is called a time conflict because playing Dagmar has to
come first it's steady. And we had to give up the pay raise in order to get the contract different. So I'll be very busy Diary, you have to understand and not complain. I finished reading
The Snow Queen
by Hans Christian Andersen and it is one of my favorite stories in the world. I
love
the Little Robber Girl. I love Little Gerda too. I even think the Snow Queen isn't so scary. I think she's beautiful, in fact.

Your friend
,

Robin

Dear Diary
,

Mommie says we're going to give me private swimming lessons at the Dalton swim school so I'll never die like Ophelia. I'm scared of learning but I know it's important not to drown. If I die in the first lesson, remember that I loved you, Diary.

With love, for real
,

Robin

Dear Diary
,

I know I've missed weeks and weeks, but I'm working hard. I'm doing lots of one-shots on radio and on TV I did a guest shot on
Suspense
. That was with Boris Karloff playing a lighthouse keeper where I got stranded at an old lighthouse in a storm at night but off camera he wasn't spooky at all and sat me on his lap and told me stories about old times when he was young in silent movies where you never had to learn lines. Aunt Sally says I'm making good money. Oh, and I did
Danger
where I got to co-star with Darren McGavin who says all children and dogs are horrible scene stealers. I like Darren McGavin but I have not stole anything and I do not like being put in the same group with dogs.

The best part about doing
Danger
was Sidney Lumet who was the director. He was once a child actor, Diary, so he understands. He always says I should call him Kid Sid Lumet. He's short and very funny and hugs people and never talks down to me. Everybody says he's full of beans which means he jumps around and gets real excited and tells everybody how good they are. I think Kid Sid is like a grownup child and I started liking him last year when he directed
Mama
while Mr. Nelson was on vacation.

That reminds me, Diary, our cast had a
big scare
. Dickie got drafted and
had to go in the army for the Korean War! It scared me because of my father dying in the army you know. We had a goodbye party and everything, and there were auditions for another Nels to take Dickie's place. Miss Irwin and Mr. Nelson found somebody and he started coming to rehearsal but it seemed funny. He must have felt left out because he was new. He was real quiet but he had a nice smile. Then, Diary, it was like a
miracle
, Aunt Sally said. Because after only two days of rehearsal, Dickie walked back in! His eardrum was busted up so the army didn't want him after all! Everybody laughed and cried and was happy, except for the new actor who was supposed to play Nels. He just plain cried without laughing. Honest. He put his head down and
cried
. He said “I need this job bad.” It was awful. Mr. Nelson and Miss Quinlan told him “You'll find something else for sure, Jimmy.” Everybody called him Jimmy, Diary, but his name was James Dean. I felt so sorry for him. He said he was washed up in New York and was going to try his luck on the Coast (that is the West Coast, Diary, which means California). Then he left and we never saw him again but Dickie had to learn his lines real fast.

My swimming teacher, Hank, says I have a terrific (LIU!) backstroke and he could train me to be in the Olympics but Mommie says I should just learn not to drown. She says there I go again, her little talent factory!

Esther Williams

(
no, really Robin
)

Dear Diary
,

Mr. Jones says if I work hard on my piano then in a year or two he might enter me in the New York State piano competition where I could win a medal. Aunt Sally says she always knew I was musical and Mommie says now Snibbin—that's another one of her names for me—winning
that
would be
some
thing, not like being in the Olympics. It gives me nerves so I am practicing hard and won't have much time to write in you.

Arthur Rubinstein

(
no ha ha Robin
)

Dear Diary
,

Like Mommie says, how time flies! Here it is September and school starts soon. I meant to write more in you over the summer but I was very busy
doing a lot of extra shows. Like Aunt Sally says, that was more fun than going to camp like other kids get sent away to. I'm making more money but we're still in 3-A and can't be in an elevator building with my own room yet. Mommie gets depressed with her stocks but we're being positive and we have faith. Maybe next year.

Robin

Dear Diary
,

Today is November 18. I know it's been a long time since I wrote in you. But Mommie said I should tell you Thanksgiving is coming, and I'm going to be Queen of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and wear a crown and the tutu and ride on a float! Phil Silvers who is also a TV star will be the King. I have met
many
famous people, Diary, and Mommie says now
that's
the kind of thing I should tell you and will want to remember when I'm old.

Usually when I meet famous people it's at a personal appearance for publicity or else at a benefit (which means to raise money) for poor people or sick people. I do lots of benefits because Aunt Sally says it's a great way of getting your face out there and also helping people is nice. Once when I was young I met Abbott and Costello who are a very famous comedy team. I did not like Abbott who is tall and serious but I
loved
Costello who is short and fat and can make funny faces. He put my hair ribbon on his head and made me laugh and then he whispered to me about his little boy who drowned in a swimming pool just about my same age back then maybe 4 and I felt so bad for Costello but am I glad I can do a backstroke now. I also met Kate Smith who sings and is very
very
fat, more even than Costello. We sang together on the radio for people to call in and pledge (LIU!) money for research to cure polio. We sang “Home on the Range” and “Buttons and Bows.” I met Sister Kenny, too, who has a whole foundation that invented special exercises to cure some kinds of polio and after I made a speech she took off her corsage (LIU!) and gave it to me. Also I met Gloria Swanson the movie star who wore foxes around her neck biting each other on the tail, that was for the March of Dimes benefit. And Rosalind Russell another movie star. And Ernie Kovacks who is on TV and smokes a smelly cigar, that was for PAL which is the Police Athletic League that raises money to help poor children. I did a lot of benefits for
PAL, and so did Sid Caesar who is a comic and Perry Como who croons and Gene Autry who is a cowboy star who made me sit on his lap and then on his horse and I did not like his lap or his horse. PAL made me an Honorary Police Captain with a pin and everything. Once I was on a radio drama show, DuPont's
Cavalcade of America
, with Robert Taylor the movie star and I played Henrietta Edwards the little girl who grew up to marry Eli Whitney (that was Mr. Taylor) who invented the cotton gin that must have something to do with booze. And I met Raymond Duncan who always wears sandals and a sheet even in winter and he said I was an old soul and had a third eye I think he's a little crazy but nice. He is the brother of a famous dancer Isabella or some name like that who died from being choked by a scarf. I danced the part of The Little Girl (that's what I am, after all, Diary, until I grow up!) in
The Nutcracker
ballet at New York City Center, that was with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and so I met the great ballerina Alexandra Danilova and the dancer Frederick Franklin who starred in it. Once when I was five I danced (tap) with Bill Robinson who was also called Bojangles and who had danced with Shirley Temple but was famous for himself. That was at a big benefit for The Negro Actors' Fund at the Apollo Theater in Harlem which is way far uptown and had LOTS of famous people appearing. There was Sophie Tucker who is Aunt Sally's favorite in the world, and Jackie Robinson and Noble Sissle and Fannie Hurst and Sarah Vaughan and Ed Sullivan and Mel Allen who does sports and I met them all. But everybody said Bojangles and me stole the show. Also once when I did a benefit in Lake Worth, Florida (where I was born, Diary, did I tell you that?) I met the Mayor who I heard Mommie say later they put in jail for something and I met Representative Dwight Rogers who is in the Congress from Lake Worth. I got made an Honorary Life Member of the U.S. Congress! (I don't know what that means, Diary.) And I met Milton Berle when we both were MCs at a benefit but he wasn't funny backstage, he yelled. I met Prime Minister Nehru of India who gave me a red rose when I appeared at the United Nations in a benefit for UNICEF which is sort of a company that gives money and medicine and food to poor children all around the world.

Soon Mommie and me will give the food and old clothes to the poor Negroes next door. I wonder if we'll see anybody special. Today was OK. Rehearsal, a tunafish sandwich and milk before catching the train back to
school, ballet and modern dance class one after the other, homework, piano practice, the script, supper, and bed for the beauty sleep.

Robin

Dear Diary
,

Today was Thanksgiving Day. I have so much to be thankful for. The Parade was nice but it rained. I was
freeeeeeeeezing
cold. Still, I was a trooper and am the luckiest little girl in the whole world. We ate turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and cranberry sauce in a restaurant. It was very traditional (sp? Help Mommie!). Happy Thanksgiving!

Robin

P.S. We gave food and clothes to the poor Negroes next door and they were thankful. The only little girls over there now are bigger than me so there wouldn't be anybody to give an organdy dress to anyway, even if it would not be an insult which Mommie and me would never ever make. Nobody else was there.

Dear Diary
,

Soon it will be Christmas and no school and a
whole week
with no other lessons either. But we still do the show. Every Christmas we do the same script which is now very popular and traditional. I have the biggest part of anybody. I play Dagmar like always but I also play her great grandmother back in Norway (that's a flashback, Diary) who lived on a farm and heard the animals talk on Christmas Eve. It's this old Norwegian myth. Mr. Nelson always swears a lot at this show every year because it means he has to put up with a LIVE cow and a LIVE donkey right in the studio on the set!!! One year the cow needed to be milked even. The first time I ever met a cow or donkey or watched anybody being milked it was in a TV studio! Anyway Mr. Venza decorates us a big tree on the old farm set and another one in the parlor of our regular set. Two trees! Also Norwegian circle cookies called mandelkranser (I asked how to spell it!). And then there are presents, for real, at the cast party. At home we celebrate both Christmas and Hanikuh (couldn't find out how to spell!) and that's more presents.