The Press: How to be Beautiful & Pure in Hollywood

"You are a couple of fine young girls," said the man from MGM. "You are perfect examples of the American girl—honorable, honest and forthright." In Hollywood such praise usually ends with "Now go home to Iowa." But the Churchill sisters were delighted. Reba, 29, and Bonnie, 26, were already home; they are old hands in Hollywood. In a town that makes a business of manufacturing dubious glamour, they have made a virtue of pink-scrubbed cheeks and moral beauty. They have also packaged their wholesome views into a weekly column that is carried by 270 papers in the U.S. and abroad. Last week Theta Sigma Phi, an honorary women's journalism society, named the sisters winners of its 1962 award for women who have achieved the most in journalism.

The sisters shun the seamy side of Hollywood with Victorian primness. They are less interested in Charlton Heston's love life than in how he kept fit for all those chariot rides in Ben-Hur. "This means a lot to the reader," Reba says.

"If he sees that Heston took two inches off his waistline, he figures he can do it too. We tell the reader how to be attractive but not how to catch a mate or how to be sexy—we never use that word." By always being cheerful and never being sexy, the Churchill sisters pry glamour tips from Hollywood stars and pass them along in panting prose. ("The best-made plans of damsels and designers can swirl down the fashion drain if you aren't wearing the proper foundation under your basic dress.") They never miss a chance to add that the prettiest face will turn witchy, too, if the proper moral foundation isn't underneath. "We want our readers to think of themselves as beautiful gifts," Reba says soulfully.

Melting Makeup. The sisters readily accept their own advice. Neither drinks or smokes, and they somehow manage to attract guests to their Hollywood parties although they serve nothing stronger than Coca-Cola. They work tirelessly on their columns, books and television appearances and still find time to give their mother an occasional tip for her Beauty in Orbit column, which is carried by 40 newspapers.

They take credit for new beauty trends too. They popularized the "beret-bang coiffure," for which girls snip their bangs along the jaunty angle of a beret; the Churchill sisters claim they see it everywhere. Their book, Reba and Bonnie's Guide to Glamour and Personality, was used as the official reference for the 1962 Miss Universe contest.

While still in high school, the sisters started interviewing movie stars for community papers. They got onto the glamour gimmick when they visited their first movie studio. The heat caused their hastily made eyebrows to run (they have been sprucing up with cosmetics since pubescence), and the makeup director generously lectured them on the proper use of eyebrow pencil. "Were we embarrassed!" recalls Reba, re-creating her blush. But next day they wrote up the incident in their column and were deluged with letters asking for more tips.