She'd rather act than eat- but Hollywood would rather see her star than starve. So they've worked out a deal. Piper Laurie can act anytime- and Hollywood will feed her on caviar. BY TOM CARLILE

Universal's had her for less than a year. She was 17 and a high school student when they offered her a salary, shich she refused. "It would have been like stealing," she says, especially since she would have been willing to pay them for a chance to act. Almost as soon as she got her high school diploma she was cast in Louisa, and after that, in The Milkman. She felt a little easier then about taking the money. Now she's 18, lovely owner of a term contract, and star in The Prince Who Was a Thief. That's not bad, and Piper Laurie knows it.
Her big break came about half a year ago. Piper was carrrying a basket of fruit to the mayor of Chicago. (The fruit was a present from Ann Blyth, the mayor of Toluca Lake.) She was standing in City Hall, waiting for an elevator, when Ben Katz, head of Universal-International's Chicago office, rushed up to her. He was red-faced and excited.
"Just got a wire from Hollywood," he told Piper.. "Don't tell anyone, but they're going to star you in a two million dollar Techicolor production. Congratulations!"
"You're kidding," said Piper, calmly.
"No. Honest," said Mr. Katz.
Piper smiled knowingly as she stepped into the elevator. But three floors up she turned white. "He must be kidding," she thought, but she realized then that he wasn't .
Half an hour later in her hotel room the phone rang. It was a long distance call from her agent in Hollywood. "Don't say anything, kid," he said, "but U-I is giving you the starring role in a big Technicolor picture. Isn't that terrific?"
"Teriffic" said Piper, dazedly.
The next phone call was from her mother in Beverly Hills. "Don't say anything, baby," her mother said, "but Universal is starring you in a big picture. I'm so proud of you."
By that time, Piper couldn't have said anything if she'd wanted. It was all too perfect, and she had to get used to the idea. The next day, the script of The Prince Who was a Thief arrived by airmail. It was brought to Piper while she was having a press interview in Chicago's Pump Room, and dying of curiosity, she had to sit on it all the way through lunch. As a matter of fact, because she was doing seven or eight TV and radio shows each day to publicize Louisa, she didn't get a chance to read the script until she got to Des Moines. That is, she started it in Des Moines, and finally finished the rest of it in Nebraska.
Almost as exciting as the script was the letter which came with it. It was sent by Rufus Le Maire, head of Universal's casting department. "Congratulations, Piper, and good luck," it read. "This is a grand opportunity and I'm sure that you will do well. Perhaps now you will know why I asked you to come over to my office and let me measure your height. We had to have someone tiny, and I was worried that you were too tall for the part."
Piper remembered the day that Mr. Le Maire had kept staring at her all during the luncheon in the commissary, then finally had come over to her table with a quizzical look on his face. "How tall are you, Piper?" he'd asked. "Five feet five inches," she'd said. "I don't think you are," Mr. Le Maire had said, emphatically. "Come over to my office after lunch, and bring a ruler. In his office, Piper measured 5 feet 4 1/2 inches tall. "Ha!" said Mr. Le Maire, "Just as I thought." "What difference does it make, anyway?" No difference," said Mr. Le Maire, suddenly becoming mysterious. "I just wanted to know." "And to think," Piper told her mother later, "of all the times I've gone around wishing that I could be taller!"
When Piper got back to Hollywood, after three frantic weeks on the road, she was understandably tired. But not too tired to rush over to the studio and find out all about the picture. When the executives explained that they'd been following her career and were happy to give her and Tony Curtis a real chance, she almost floated on air.
Then she drifted over to the wardrobe department to look at the sketches of her costumes. The dresses were not only beautiful, but every one of the figures had been sketched with her face on it It was almost too much for Piper Laurie to endure.
For the next five weeks she and Tony worked on the script, rehearsing each scene until they had it letter perfect. Finally, the director felt they were ready to do the big Technicolor test which was the last check and doublecheck before the actual shooting began. The afternoon the tests were screened, Piper was treated like Princess Elizabeth by all who saw her in the studio commissary.
First, dialogue director Lee Shollem stopped by to shake her hand. "I just saw the tests this morning," he said. "You were beautiful, Piper." Casting director Robert Palmer came over and said, "Simply wonderful, honey. Simply wonderful." Writer A. McKenzie was next. "Piper," he said, "you have no idea how many people like you. I have to rewrite the whole screenplay just to enlarge your part." Then Tony Curtis strolled in, wearing blue jeans and a western shirt. "I understand they showed the tests this morning," Tony said. "They told me that I'd better start looking for another job, but htat you were great." Tony, of course, was kidding, but he was getting too much pleasure out of Piper's tremendous enthusiasm to let his own run wild. "This girl," he will tell you, with flourishing gesture, "is wonderful."
How wonderful was a secret until a few months ago. At that time drama coach Sophia Rosenstein presented an evening of theater on the lot, starring her young students. Piper appeared in a Tennessee Williams one acter entitled, This Property is Condemned, and the applause she got was deafening. it was a role with range. She was wistful, sexy, fiery...but most of all, she was challenging, extraordinary actress. It was a triumphant evening for Piper, and for her mother and father, who were sitting in the audience.
The commanding ability which Piper demonstrated on the stage that evening was a long time arriving. Unlike most young actresses, she was never precocious. Her first attempt at drama, at the age of two, was an utter flop in Detroit, where Piper was born. Her mother had taught her a short poem to deliver at a children's recital. Piper learned it well, but when her turn came she was too firghtened to open her mouth. She just stood, facing the terrifying audience, until all the lines had run quietly through her mind and then she bolted straight for her seat.
Six years later, after Piper and her family had moved to Los Angeles, she had more or less made up her mind that she wanted to be an actress. But she was too ashamed to tell anyone about it. "I remember one morning when my mother was taking my sister, Sherrye, and me for a walk, she asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Sis said, "I want to be a cook' (which she is, today...an excellent one). Then I said I wanted to be a manicurist. I knew it was a lie, but I also though that being an actress was so far from reality that there was no use mentioning it."
As a child, Piper was such a shy little thing that her mother frequently worried about her. When people came to the house, sh'ed just sit and stare, or walk around with her head down. "I didn't say much," Piper recalls, "but I thought a lot." She thought a great deal about ways to even the score with her sister Sherrye, who was two-and-one-half years older. Piper's biggest resentment was caused by being put to bed a half hour earlier than Sherrye, and she satisfied her anger by daily putting the hairbrush, the alarm clock, or cracker crumbs in Sherrye's bed.
"Sherrye and I had our share of sisterly spats due to the difference in our ages. I always wanted what she had. I remember one Valentine's Day when a boy brought her a box of candy. I nearly died with envy. I thought that her first beau was the most handsome boy I had ever seen. But a year later, when Sis outgrew him, I went out with him and didn't like him at all."
At John Burroughs Junior High School, Piper, who was then known as Rosetta Jacobs, began to take on the nicknames that dogged her adolescence. She was "Carrot-top," "Rosie," and of course, "Red." She was still shy, but not too shy to play an active part on the yearbook art staff, and eventually to deliver the valedictory address on graduation day.
At 15, Piper enrolled in Los Angeles High School. During her junior year she announced to her family that she wanted to study acting. Her father thought the idea was unreal and silly. But Piper's mother somehow managed to get together the money for her to begin taking dramatic lessons. Piper undertook her study of drama with mature seriousness. She enrolled in a small rehearsal group headed by Mrs. Betomi Schneider. The group included a number of established professionals whose experience was extremely valuable to her. They met twice weekly in a rented studio in Hollywood, and in order to be admitted Piper lied about her age. Although she was only 16, the deception was not to difficult to maintain. She had a creamy, enviable complexion, and her figure was already generously endowed.
"I never was 16," Piper confesses, today, "but I've been 18 for two years, which ought to make up for it. I was really thrilled when I finally was 18. so I could start telling the truth about my age."
It was during a classroom production of Our Town that Universal first noticed Piper, and even before a single studio evidenced an interest, the Sam Jaffe office offered to represent her in motion pictures. Finally, they got together and wrote up a term contract for Piper, who surprised everyone by refusing to sign it until she was 18 and a high school graduate, ready for full-time acting.
Piper is still attending the little red schoolhouse on the Universal lot, taking college extension courses in Psychology, French, and Art under Mrs. Gladys Hoene, the studio schoolmarm. "I don't want to grow up to be a dope," she says.
So you can see that at 18 (a real 18 this time), Piper's head is firmly connected to her shoulders. For instance, there's very little of that usual nonsense about the men-must-wait-for-my-career from Piper. When she meets the man that matter, she'll be willing to fall like a rock. In the meantime, she's playing the field, dating Vic Damone, Jerry Paris, and other young Hollywood actors.
"I'm constantly looking for fellows who are really honest," Piper says. "They're pretty hard to find." Until she finds one, Piper will continue to live with her parents in Beverly Hills, study hard, and follow through with the wonderful plans which her studio has in store for her.
That is a pretty good life, now, isn't it THE END

The article is accompanied by the following black and white photos: 1. Full page of PL smiling at the camera while seated at a desk with her hand resting on an open book. 2. Ninth page photo of PL in halter top and jeans, leaning over a croquet ball but smiling toward the camera (slightly risque)- Now eighteen and a high school graduate, Piper is ready to concentrate on her career which already has reached star proportions. 3. Ninth page photo of PL and her mother by the kitchen stove- Piper has lots of beaus, but hasn't settled on any one. Besides Mom's cooking's still too good to leave. 4. Small pairing of Tony Curtis and PL leaning on a railing- bring a movie star to your home. How would you like to have Piper Laurie visit you in person? Would you like to meet Tony Curtis, too? How about seeing a brilliant premiere of their new picture, The Prince Who was a Thief, in your home town theater? All this plus a prize of $1000 Government Bond will happen to the winner of MODERN SCREEN'S exciting contest. Turn to page 88 for the easy rules. over $6500 in prizes