CHAPTER IV Strange Questions
“We’re supposed to be finding out things on this tour,” complained Judyas they stopped to look in on another studio, “but I keep thinking aboutmy hair. I’m like you, Clarissa. I want to rush right out and buy abottle of that golden hair wash. But why? I’d never use it.”
“Maybe you want to buy it for Irene,” Flo suggested.
“I don’t really. That’s just it. I don’t want to buy it at all, and yetI feel compelled to try it. Why?”
“I know why I want to,” Clarissa insisted. “If I had beautiful goldenhair I might not go home at all. I might stay here and get a job doingcommercials. See that girl on the floor now? I could do what she’sdoing. I could demonstrate a magic cleaner as well as she can. I didplenty of cleaning and scrubbing at home, and I didn’t have any littlefairy to help me, either. Look, girls! See that little fairy dancingaround the sink. It isn’t there, but you can see it on the monitor. Howdo they make it look like that?”
The guide explained it. A cartoon film was placed in a camera she calleda balopticon so that the fairy appeared to be helping the girl clean thesink, dancing about in the powder and waving her magic wand. Littlespecks of stardust seemed to fly from the end of it until the wholekitchen was spotless.
“Interesting, isn’t it?” she finished.
Some of the people found it so. Questions were asked about theproperties set up to make the studio look like a kitchen. The floor wasa design of squares painted on with water colors. It would be washedaway when the set was changed.
Others were beginning to act bored. Judy noticed several women stoppingto take mirrors out of their purses and look at themselves critically.One of them asked, “Will we need stage makeup? I’ve heard the stars useplenty of it.”
“Not at all,” replied the guide. “We will appear as we are.”
“Oh dear!” wailed Clarissa. “I look terrible. My hair is dull. My hairis drab—”
“Turn her off, somebody!” Pauline interrupted. “We’ve heard that recordbefore.”
“She has my head spinning like a record,” declared Judy. “I hope Iremember some of the things we’ve learned on this tour. A balopticon isone kind of camera and a dolly is another—”
“It isn’t the camera. It’s the truck that’s called a dolly,” Paulinecorrected her. “You see, it takes two men to work it. That’s the cameraman up there on the funny little seat.”
“Why is he wearing earphones? Did the guide say?”
“She did say something about the men on the studio floor hearingdirections from the control room. It is complicated,” put in Flo. “Youcan’t be expected to remember most of it.”
“Well, anyway, I know that big fishing-line thing is the mike boom. If Iremember that much, Irene won’t think I’m too ignorant,” Judy concluded.“I wonder how they keep all that equipment from showing on a live TVshow.”
The guide took time to explain it, telling them how accurately thecameras had to be focused so that the mike boom which dangled itsmicrophone right over the heads of the performers was always just out ofthe picture.
“It does look like a fishing line, doesn’t it?” she agreed. “Are thereany more questions before we go up to the sound room?”
Clarissa started to ask something and then changed her mind, saying, “Itdoesn’t matter.”
The guide gave a little performance of her own to demonstrate the soundeffects. Rain was rice falling on waxed paper. Fire was the crackle ofcellophane. There were blocks of wood for marching soldiers and othersounds equally amazing.
“And now,” she announced, emerging from the glassed-in sound room, “weare ready to see ourselves on television.”
A little ripple of anticipation went down the line that now followed theuniformed guide to another studio containing a pedestal camera and atelevision set.
“It’s a closed circuit,” she explained. “Your friends at home won’t seeyou, but you will see yourselves and each other. You will each have achance to say a few words—”
“What will we say?” Clarissa inquired.
“I’ll ask you questions. You just answer them. Most of you are from outof town, I presume. People taking these tours usually are. You, sir?”She spoke to a tall gentleman with a thick mustache. “Step up herebefore the camera and tell us a little about yourself. Can you seeyourself on the screen?”
He smiled, showing white teeth that looked even whiter as his face wasframed in the TV set.
“I see. I look good. I am here from Rio de Janeiro on business.”
The man talked about his business which was manufacturing plastic caps.It was hard to understand him because of his accent. The others takingthe tour waited their turns, standing along a wall at the side of theroom. As the line moved up, Clarissa became more and more nervous.
“I may not show,” she kept insisting.
“Of course you’ll show,” Judy reassured her. “You see how clear thepicture is. Everybody else shows.”
As the line moved up, Clarissa became more and morenervous]
“I didn’t show in the mirror.”
Pauline turned to her in surprise.
“Weren’t you joking when you said that?” she asked.
“I was never more serious in my life,” replied Clarissa. “It’s thetruth. Once I really did look in a mirror, and there was no reflection.I’ve been afraid of—of something ever since it happened. My brothernoticed it first and said, ‘Clar, you don’t show!’ He always calls meClar. It rhymes with jar the way he says it. I thought he was teasingme, but then I looked, and sure enough, my face didn’t show at all.”
“Was the mirror broken?” asked Flo.
“No, it wasn’t broken. I’m sure, because I noticed my brother looking init afterwards, and his reflection was as plain as anything. My youngersisters looked, too. They saw themselves all right. There are six of us,including Mother and Daddy,” Clarissa explained. “It was Mother’smirror. She still uses it. I was the only one who didn’t show. Motherlaughed and said I must be a changeling, but I didn’t think it wasfunny. It still scares me. How could a thing like that happen?”
“There must be an explanation for it,” Judy replied. Here was anothermystery for her to solve. But, instead of concentrating on it, herthoughts kept returning to her hair. Would it look dull and drab ontelevision?
The brown-haired man Pauline and Flo thought they knew stepped up beforethe camera and announced that he was from Hollywood.
“No wonder he didn’t recognize me!” Flo exclaimed. “He isn’t the youngman who works in our office and yet he does look like him. Maybe he hasa twin brother.”
“Or a double. Lots of people have doubles—”
“No, Judy, only a few people have them,” Pauline objected, and Judy hadto agree with her. One of the wonderful things about people, shethought, was that no two of them were exactly alike. Even identicaltwins could be told apart by their fingerprints, and usually there wereother important differences. Judy found herself watching for individualcharacteristics as, one by one, the people stepped before the camera. Aphotograph of skyscrapers on the backdrop behind them made it appear tobe a sidewalk interview.
“Are you from out of town?” was the question most frequently asked bythe guide.
Most of them were. Some came from as far away as Brazil or Switzerland.Two were from Texas, and two said they were from the state ofWashington. When Judy replied that she lived in Pennsylvania she felt asif she were practically at home.
“Your hair looked lighter on TV,” Flo told her when she stepped back inline.
“Did it?” asked Judy. “I kept worrying for fear it would look dark. Idon’t know why. Dark hair is pretty. I like the color of yours.”
“I don’t. It’s drab—”
“Please,” Judy stopped her. “You’re next, Clarissa. What’s the matter?Are you afraid to go up?”
“Yes,” Clarissa admitted, suddenly all a-tremble.
“I’m afraid—”
“Come on. Take a good look at yourself,” advised Pauline, giving her alittle push.
“All right. I’ll do it.”
Unwilling and still trembling, Clarissa stepped up before the camera.She stood in the exact spot where Judy had been standing. The guidebegan to ask questions.
“You’re from West Virginia, aren’t you? What town? Look into the cameraand tell me—”
A long drawn-out wail from Clarissa interrupted her.
“I am looking,” she cried, “but I don’t see anything! What’s the matterwith me? Why don’t I show?”