Irene Dunne's Design for LIVING!

Lovely star star selects her contest winner and writes inspiring advice to all home-makers in search of stimulating ideas! Follow the lead of Hollywood's most charming hostess and you'll be a social success. See exclusive pictures of Miss Dunne in her beautiful home, seldom photographed - and "scoop" shots with her little daughter, her pride and joy

THE PRIZE-WINNING LETTER

Dear Miss Dunne,

Because I admire you so much as an actress and because I have read how wonderfully balanced your home-life is with your work, I am asking your advice. I am married, have a career as a teacher, and have a cozy little cottage home. Our house is ideally arranged and I know it could be made into a wonderful haven from the cares of the business world for my husband and myself - but here is my problem: I don't have a great deal of judgement in the selection and arrangement of furniture. Neither am I gifted in the art of entertaining friends, as I have given most of my post life to preparing for a teaching career with little thought of social graces. What do you advice?

Mrs. Henry J. McCluskey, Dallas, Texas

DEAR Mrs. McCluskey,

Thank you for your very nice letter. I am so glad you wrote to me. And I shall answer the best I can.

I believe women instinctively have a knack for home-building - even if they are "career" women, such as you and I. Naturally, much of your time is taken up with your duties at school and with problems of your pupils, but your own seperate personal world should be arranged so that it is stimulating and cheering to your soul. This detaching your home life from your business life is, I believe, the secret of gracious living. And I make it a practice to see to it that never the twain shall meet.

I order to gain confidence in your own ability to make home, why don't you consult some friend who lives in your city, who has a home you think is charming? The friend would be flattered that you like her taste. Who isn't flattered when asked for advice? Next, take stock of just what you have now that you can continue to use. Perhaps new upholstering of a coat of paint or some new gay chintz will make it possible for you to use everything. Perhaps eventually you will want to discard everything. Maybe a chair that has been in the corner, an obscure corner, of the bedroom, is just what you need in the living room. You will be surprised what can be done with rearranging, and perhaps brightening up, the furniture you now have. What if the bookcase has stood on the north wall ever since you moved into your little cottage home? There's certainly no law against moving it! Try it on the south wall, with an arrangement with divan and table and lamp. If, after trying several arrangements, you are still not satisfied with the result, you will know that there is something basically wrong. That's it - you just don't like the type of furniture you have! All right, your next step is to find out what you do like - because, believe me, a home will never project charm unless there is some of "you" in it. Therefore, you must build the home you like, not one that would satisfy the taste of an interior decorator.

Your first glimpses of the home of Irene Dunne show the star in the gracious surrounding which subtly reflect her radiant personality.

Now, we are assuming that you feel you cannot use any of your present furniture or decorations. And you haven't found a close friend whose taste you like whom you may consult on your problem. Then I would first make up my mind what I could spend to rejunivate the place. Don't think of your house as a whole. That might be to financially depressing. Most of us housewives do oe room at a time. After setting up the budget, I think your next move woule be to go to one of your more important furniture stores. Talk with someone in the decorting department. Tell her, or him, your problems, and ask for guidance - but definitely not for complete advice.

If the budget only permits re-doing one room, you would probably choose the living room as the first room. Set up a color key. Choose a color you like, but also one that is right for the room. If your room is bright and sunny, select a nice cool tone to start from - green or gray or a slate blue. Let the person guiding you what harmonizes best with your key color. If your room is dark and needs brightening, choose a color you like that will lighten up - yellow or pink or chartreuse. Your next move must be to determine whether you want the room massively, or less heartily, furnished. Whichever you choose, be sure and bear in mind that comfort plays an extremely important part in home building. Therefore, whatever type of furniture you choose should be on the "comfortable side. (Your husband will certainly approve of that) It seems to me that if you have no particular choice that, inasmuch as you are living in the West, you should set up as informal an existence as possible. You can use chintz and natural wood furniture, rather than the formal period type of furnishing. However, if you favor the more formal type, have it by all means.

One thing to bear in mind is that it can't all be perfect at once! If it were, the fun of doing it would be gone. If you "do over" your living room and are pleased with the result, and you have to wait a while to do the dining room, you will dislike the dinning room more than ever, in contrast to the new room. But by the same token, the new room will be doubly stimulating and cheering. Also, if you can't find just the right chair for just the rigid place in the room, don't feel you must take something else. Wait until that wonderful day when the right one comes along. It will in time, though it may take months, and lots of "shopping around" on your part. It will be worth that much more to you when you get it. Also, I think for people such as you and I, who are not professional decorators, that after we have visualized a room as a whole we should settle down to making the selection of each individual piece carefully. In other words, it seems to me that much individuality, is lost if you walk into a shop ad say, "I'll take that chair and that divan and those tables and that lamp and rug." Each piece should be carefully studied and chosen for just the right place. If you deal with a furniture store they will be willing to let you try your selections. I am certain.

Irene Dunne at home with her beloved adopted daughter, whose nickname is "Missy," seems much gayer and prettier than she is in her screen roles.

If you collect antiques, you should go back several times, to get acquainted with the piece you are interested in before you actually buy it. As a matter of fact, you should want your important pieces - you should feel that you just can't get along without them, before you buy them. If you buy a chair simply because you need a chair, you will usually find that the chair lacks all personality in your home.

If it is necessary to take five years to re-do your place to your satisfaction, take that long! Meantime, you will be learning along the way, because a strange thing happens once you become home-conscious: you think about it every time you go into someone else's home. You think about it when you are looking at a moving picture, or a play, or reading a book. You find yourself buying magazines that stress the home angle. You pick up bits of information here and there, and this information builds to such a degree that before you know it you have an amazing confidence in yourself, you have acquired taste, and you know how to use it.

A study of relaxation is this photograph of singing-star Irene Dunne. Stealing a few minutes from her latest film, "Unfinished Business," on the Universal lot is an important ritual.

Certainly you will want to entertain simply, inasmuch as you have so little time in which to plan and arrange parties. Either Saturday night suppers or Sunday afternoon "brunches" would seem to be the best time for you to set your parties. You could make quite a thing of either of those functions - and have people hoping for an invitation to your house for one of you nice informal parties.

On the Saturday night party, it seems to me, make a buffet if you are entertaining more than four people. If you have no maid, buffet is easier on you, the hostess. And even if you have a maid, buffet is considered more informal and informality is what everyone likes those days. Have good food, well cooked - it need not be the most expensive food, and certainly not the most heaviest, or you'll find a lot of sleepyheads on your hands after supper! Also, to make it easier on yourself as the hostess, have something for your guests to do to keep them entertained. If they are a musical group of people have some new records, or some old songs for them to sing. Maybe they are people who go for quiz games. Maybe they are bridge or gin rummy friends. If they don't like such strenuous mental games (and you would be surprised the number of people who don't) surely they will like keeno and bingo. The important thing is to have something planned, so they can't get bored. How will you know what to plan for them, what type of entertainment they will most enjoy? With the discernment you must have as a school teacher, that will be easy. And, of course, you will only invite those people at the same time who will be congenial together and enjoy the same things.

This is not a make-believe picture, ladies. Irene Dunne is really having fun preparing her own lunch in her dressing room. She finds kitchen duty a pleasing indoor sport. You would too, if you'd only think of cooking cooking as an art and not a drudge. You're welcome, husbands.

The Sunday "brunch" you could serve about one o'clock. Let all the guests play a part in this. For instance, get a couple of double waffle irons, and let each guest bake his own waffle. These irons are not too expensive and are easily manipulated, and whether your guests know how to cook or not, they can at least turn out their own waffle, and probably have lots of fun doing it. Crisp bacon, strawberry preserves, honey, maple syrup, are delicious with waffles. And, of course, have pots and pots of good coffee. After eating, if the weather is right for it, have a ping-pong contest, or a badminton contest, or a good, old-fashioned, rousing croquet contest. Contests can absolutely make the spirit of a party. With all your guests having such fun you'll probably having a hard time getting them all to go home. You may have to produce one of those Sunday night cold suppers - with hot rolls or hot biscuits. But the fact that you can't get rid of your guests should be very flattering, and not annoying. In time, entertaining will become a delightfully pleasant pastime. It requires practice.

You are blessed with intelligence and knowledge, I know. Else you could not be a teacher. And the fact that you are conscious of a need for a more gracious and interesting home existence will make it easier for you to work out a way of living that will be completely be to your liking. I am positive of that. The very best of luck!

In Irene Dunne's "Design for Living" she makes every waking moment count. Here, while she has her lunch, she also attends to other matters. Her excellent and entertaining advice to our 6-Star contest winner will appeal to countless women with similar home problems.

(Screenland, September 1941)