Jeannie Out of the Bottle - Barbara Eden [13]
Then the great day came when Al invited me to a dance, and I floated up onto cloud nine and stayed there. But it quickly became radiantly clear to me that I wasn’t his kind of girl. Quite simply, I just wasn’t fast enough for him. He offered me a rum and Coke, and all I wanted was the Coke. He kissed me on the mouth, but anything else was out of the question, and he knew it. It was hardly surprising that we parted company soon afterward.
I guess I ought to have been heartbroken, but I wasn’t, because my heart was now firmly fixed on something else. Or rather, somewhere else. And not just anywhere, but a place only four hundred miles from San Francisco, though it might as well have been in another world, on another planet: Hollywood, California.
I wish I could say that I was so passionate about following my dream that I simply packed my bags without any hesitation and went off whistling a happy tune, without giving the future a second thought, but that really isn’t the truth. In fact, it took the inspiring Miss Holloway to shake me out of my San Francisco complacency, to tear me away from my safe little world of dance bands, banking, and drama school.
“It’s time, Barbara,” she announced (by this time I’d lost the Jean). “It’s time for you to jump out of the nest.”
Seeing my alarm, she went on, “You’re much too comfortable at home. You’ve got too much talent. Don’t stay in San Francisco. New York or LA is the place for you.”
My head was spinning, but I knew she was right. Nonetheless, my options hung in the air, tantalizing me with their rich promise. Broadway or Hollywood? New York or LA? I flashed back to my pioneering ancestors, escaping from the East Coast and risking untold dangers in the West.
Should I take a stab at conquering Broadway, which Miss Holloway seemed to think was as important as conquering Hollywood?
Or should I play it safer and stay closer to home by opting for Los Angeles, and try my luck in movies instead?
I spent many a night tossing and turning, but still couldn’t make up my mind. After I told of my dilemma to my singing teacher, Edna Fischer, she came up with a unique solution. She confided in me that she had once consulted a famous psychic named Emma Nelson Sims. According to Edna, Emma’s predictions and her subsequent advice based on them had been uncannily accurate. Edna believed in Emma’s powers completely.
Looking back, I am surprised at my own courage in visiting a psychic, something I’d never done before, but the very first moment I met Emma all my misgivings immediately evaporated because she looked exactly like one of my great-aunts. An elegant gray-haired lady in severely tailored clothes, Emma sat extremely close to me and stared deep into my eyes with the most piercing gaze I’d ever encountered. Then she spoke.
Word for word, this is exactly what she prophesied for me all those years ago: “There’s no doubt about it at all, Barbara Jean. You must immediately move to Hollywood and win a part on television there.”
In those days, television was a fledgling industry, an ugly stepsister to the rest of show business. I was offended that Emma had even mentioned it to me.
“But I don’t want to do that. I want to sing!” I said indignantly.
Emma gave me a wise and knowing smile.
“Ah, Barbara,” she said, “we all want what we want. And you will sing. But your future is in television.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
“I want to act in movies,” I said.
Emma smiled again.
“You will act in movies, Barbara,” she said. “But your true future is in television. It is in television that you will make your greatest mark.”
I did my utmost to hide my sharp disappointment from her, thanked her for her advice, and went home, my head spinning. Polite as always, I didn’t question the rest of her prediction, but secretly I was surprised