Girls, the greatest danger in sex is too much of it. This is the word of a girl who knows. Piper Laurie assures me- and you- that all sex makes Jill not only a dull and boring girl but an object of laughter. "And nothing kills sex faster than laughter."
So Piper longer eats rose petals or swings her shapely hips in peek-a-boo skirts. Unless the role also gives her some acting to do. Piper actually ate rose petals for the benefit of the nation's press. She chomped on them and smiled sweetly as flashbulbs popped and reporters asked questions.
"They tasted bitter, which turned out to be symbolic. The stunt dream up by someone at the studio, got great notices, but after awhile it turned sour. We just overdid the whole gag, which is a common Hollywood failing. But don't get me wrong- I was all for it. They wanted to make me into a sex goddess, and I was willing. Me, little Rosetta Jacobs, becoming a national sex image- what a delicious picture!
"What I didn't understand was that there are all kinds of sex, and that what I was really building was first of all someone who wasn't really me and, second, an object of laughter instead of allure. After the buildup, Tony Curtis and I were cast in a thing called 'The Thief of Bagdad..' It was a horrendous flop. As a sex-charged harem girl, I got more laughs than longings, more howls thatn hosannas, more snickers than sighs."
It almost ruined Piper. The studio was shaken; she was crushed. But it also made her take stock of herself. "Maybe you don't remember, but Marilyn Monroe made something called 'Niagara,' in which she was so charged full of sex that it became grotesque. She almost got laughed off the screen forever.
"In a way, that was the best thing that ever happened to Marilyn. She studied that picture, determined what was wrong and turned herself into the best sex-charged comedienne the screen has ever known."
Part of the buildup for Piper included various Hollywood guys who threatened to throw themselves under trolley wheels if she didn't make immediate matimony with them. "It's amazing what people believe," says Piper. "I used to get letters of advice from all kinds of people as to which of my phony suitors to choose. Not only were all those romances strictly from typewriters, but I wouldn't have had time for a husband anyway. After all, I was too busy eating rose petals and posing for leg art."
After the "Bagdad" disaster, though, Piper began to think for herself. "That can be quite dangerous when you're on one of those option deals," she laughed. "I knew if I wnt to the powers-that-be at the studio and declared I wanted to become an actress instead of a rose petal eater, I'd be in mortal peril of being just another 'option-dropped' starlet. And since I like to eat- food, not rose petals!- I kept my mouth shut and began to study acting while I played in all those innocuous roles."
Has Piper now shunned sex? "Don't be silly. If you're a real actress, and if you've got sex appeal going for you, too, you're that much ahead. And now that I've learned my lesson, I think I know how to use sex. What do you think?"
Looking her over, I said she'd make any guy giggle. According to Piper, the arto of making guys stand up and gurgle "isn't something, as most people believe, which comes naturally to girs. Not the nuances, the fine points, anyhow. As I discovered so bitterly, there's a very thin dividing line between what's sexy and what's funny. The worst thing, she says, is to keep it turned on. "Only two things can happen: the guys will get too much of a good thing, which eventually means boredom, or you'll come to be looked upon as a girl with only one facet to your personality, which is the kiss of death."
What Piper has learned , from studying Hollywood and other history, is htat the sexiest ladies have always been the ones who could palaver about other topics, and indulge in other things.
"DuBarry and Pompadour, for instance, knew the art of love better than most women in history. But they practiced and used their sex in other, just as important, ways. Politically, for instance, and socially. They eventually became as important to their kings in this way as they were in that other respect, right?"
Personally, I said, I wasn't too sure, but I'd take her word for it. Anyway, Piper doesn't turn it on too often. For her TV and other roles, when the script calls for it, of course. And for certain men at certain times, as the occasion requires. "A girl can't waste it on guys who don't mean anything to her."
Strangely enough, now that Piper has thrown up movies to concentrate on television, critics never fail to mentionher tremendous sex appeal as well as her acting, Piper finds this a vindication of her thinking over the past three years.
"As you know, I've played mostly intensely dramatic roles on TV. As an actress, the critics have been more than good to me, and that of course please me infinitely. But wehn they talk about how sexy I am, too, I get a special kick, because usually the sexiest thing I wear is a house dress. No plunging neckline, no diaphanous skirs, you know? I think if I had anything at all in the way of advice to give girls about being sexy, it would be this: true sex emanates from within, not from your mannerisms or your clothes. You can accentuate it with these things, but that's too dangerous because you're almost always going to wind up overdoing it.
Men hate overdoing anything, says Piper. "They are by nature conservatives; women are the innovators when it comes to personal relationships. Ever notice that when a woman gets too much liquor in her or makes a vulgar display of her sex that it's always the men who frown the hardest?"
Another point to remember is that a girl is wasting her time by showing women how sexy she is. "It's amazing how many women do that. You have a simple little coffee klatch, and some of the girls always arrive dressed to the teeth to show off their curves. After all, the other girls aren't the slightest bit interested in THEIR measurements!"
Piper makes no secret of the fact that her body is her first concern. She still insists on holding grimly to the figure which first popped the eyes of the talent scout who brought her West. She works out daily, she says, because "it tones my mind as well as my muscles. you need both for this day's man. I forget who said it, but I always remember this axiom, 'A girl clears more hurdles, if she doesn't need girdles!"

The.article is accomanied by a full page black and white cover photo of Piper Laurie from waist up in a sweater, with one arm on a tree limb- Piper Laurie Says- Play it Smart Girls- Too Much of a Good Thing Bores Men; and a quarter page black and white photo of PL in skirt and blouse and scarf, holding a sign that reads- WARNING- Watch Out For Curves.