Trudy Kitten

The Sweet Smell of Success

   Minerva inspected a pair of sketches showing what Mr. Ballard had in mind. She shook her head as she handed them back.

   "I'm not sure, Mr. Ballard. I'm not opposed to your product, but I don't think it's best to use an annie skunk to endorse a line of perfume. It gives the impression that we have the same, shall we say, social problem, as a real skunk."

   "It makes for good ad." Mr. Ballard insisted.

   "Maybe so, but I think you'd do better with an actual cartoon, a drawing of a more animal-type skunk. I wouldn't want to give my fans the impression that I have an odor like that. I know what you're thinking, but I have my reasons. People sometimes don't take for granted that annies are just like them. They see the animal features and let those inform them on what annies must be like. Don't take it personally, though. I once turned down a deal from Palmolive for the same reasons."

   "Maybe you have a point," Ballard looked over the sketches, "but a celebrity endorsement is what my company really needs right now."

   "If you're not set on using me," Minerva looked around the studio commissary, "I'm sure you can make an arrangement with one of the other stars. It would only carry a negative tone if I were the one selling the product. What about Daisy Poise? Or Trudy Kitten, or Wendy Marco? I'd be happy to help arrange it."

   "It would mean a completely different campaign, a far more generic one, but I wouldn't turn down your help if I can still get a star's face in my ads." 

   "Trudy might be a good choice. She likes her perfumes and has that up-scale glamorous style that would make a good print ad."

   "Yes," Ballard eyed Trudy as she sat across the room and picked at her lunch, "she certainly has a good look. Soft and feminine, but with a sort of high society poise. I must be guilty of the type of thinking you mean. I just wrote that off to her being a cat. That balance of cuddly and sophisticated."

   "It's all about impressions. Take real cats. They're attributed a sense of pride and poise for the way they move. But if you really look at them, cats are fairly clumsy, and not very bright. That detached manner in which they interact with their owners gives them a sense of sophistication that they don't really possess." Ballard smiled as he looked back to Minerva.

   "You're a dog person, aren't you?"

   "For good reason, I'd say. Dogs are intelligent, at least smarter than other pets. And they're the only dumb animal that seems to know shame. When a dog does something wrong, they try to hide it. And they can be taught a number of things. Cats... They lack the learning abilities of a canine, certainly."

   "Well, I'll grant you we tend to go by our impressions rather than the reality, particularly when we meet new people. I never stopped to think Trudy Kitten's grace on her feet might have more to do with her personally than with her being a cat. Or, looking like a cat, I guess I should say."

   "You didn't really think I was a skunk before you met me," Minnie smiled knowingly as she looked at him through narrowed eyes, "did you?"

   "No, certainly not. But I guess I did have an impression that you had more skunk-like traits. Not the odor, I mean, but I guess I did expect something a little different about you. I never really thought about it."

   "That's more or less why I think you should use another girl in your ads. I don't think people naturally expect someone like me to stink, but it might push some people's impressions in that direction. Imagine some girl in school who has a tail like mine. If I advanced the idea that she had something to cover up, that she only smells as good as she does because she uses your perfume, it might open the door to her being teased for no reason."

   "Yeah..." Ballard mulled it over, "I suppose you might have something there. I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that."

   "I know. Like I said, the ad would work fine with a real cartoon skunk. But, if you really need a celebrity in your ads, I'm sure we can find an actress willing to take the job. Daisy Poise once did a Revlon campaign."

   "She's got a good look, certainly." Ballard looked back toward Trudy. "So does Miss Kitten. The more I mull it over, the better I think she'd fit the bill."

   "C'mon," Minerva stood, "I'll introduce you."

   About a month later, Trudy Kitten began appearing in ads for Ballard Cosmetics. They were lovely ads, with Trudy seen lounging on pink satin bedding, looking at the viewer with a coy smile. Minerva nodded approvingly as she scanned the ad printed in her favorite magazine. She was again seated in the studio commissary next to Mr. Ballard.

   "I want to thank you, Minerva. We've had our biggest sales boost in years thanks to Trudy doing this campaign."

   "I'm glad I could help. I think it's been a boost for Trudy as much as it has been for you. She's got three new pictures lined up as result of the Boss seeing this ad."

   "An ad block has that much power? I mean, you always hope they do when you invest in one, but I didn't think that kind of influence was possible."

   "It was a matter of inspiration. Fresh ideas for the next Trudy Kitten cartoon were coming up short. Then the Boss saw your ad and ideas came flooding forth."

   "From such a generic image? I was convinced we'd dropped the ball on this, until the new sales numbers began coming in."

   "A generic image is open to more interpretations sometimes. It doesn't take much to trigger a good idea for someone with a knack for this business. Wendy Marco became my co-star because the Boss saw one of my publicity stills side by side with the photo of Wendy printed in the local high school paper."

   "I wouldn't have thought Creek Bend would have a school large enough to have a school paper."

   "The school itself is over in Ludley. Students are from there, Creek Bend, and parts of Amsterville. Put them all together and you've got a decent sized student body."

   "That's a market I've been wishing I could crack."

   "Students?"

   "Girls wear perfume from an early age, but it's most important to the young lady just discovering boys. That's the prime market for cosmetics."

   "Do you not make as many teenage sales as you'd like?"

   "Oddly, no. Our chief demographic seems to be housewives. Women who've already landed their man. Our previous ad campaign was built around the idea of using our products to keep those men at home at night."

   "Well, I can see that. Your perfume line does seem targeted toward passions and romance of a level beyond the kids you're talking about. You may want to try something a little more cutsie if young girls are your target."

   "My impression has always been that girls think along the same terms, no matter their age."

   "To an extent. But you said yourself, the current motto of Ballard Cosmetics seems to be 'Keep Your Man' when 'Get Your Man' is more what you want if younger girls are your key demographic. And at that age, a girl doesn't like to appear too forward. What you need to do is take notes from your target audience. They set out to snag their man alright, but with as much subtlety as possible. To get a relationship off right at that age, a girl knows she has to make the boy think it's really his own idea."

   "Interesting..." Ballard hunched forward and stroked his chin as he processed this perspective, "I've always favored the direct approach and that's what I've been playing to in my ads. No wonder our products are most popular with married women. They know from living with men that the best approach with a man is the direct approach. But a teenager... directness is completely alien to them! How could I have not seen it for so long?"

   "Don't you discuss business with your wife?"

   "You know, we've discussed every product, but commercials she's never had much to say about." Ballard was largely lost in thought as he scooped up his hat from the table and waved to Minerva before marching for the door. Minerva watched him go, wondering how something so obvious regarding romantic relationships had so escaped a perfume manufacturer for so long.

   The ad campaign that resulted from the conversation was a cute one. Teenage girls were depicted something like Army commandos, donning their war paint lipsticks and perfumes while eyeing a boy from around a corner, waiting for the perfect moment to leap out and take down their target, as it were. Ballard also dabbled in a new medium. Previously, he'd been content to stick with print ads, but now he was filming commercials for television. For help in this he again turned to Minerva for advice and suggestions of the best studio personnel to help him. The first commercial was adorable, showing a pretty young girl following from a distance a handsome young man. She sized up her prey, selected the right scent, and slid up next to him. All the while, the ad was scored as if it were a military operation. The spot ended with the pair eating at a fine restaurant and the legend "Mission Accomplished" floating over the scene as the camera panned over to the product itself.

   It worked. Ballard Cosmetics was soon the West Coast's biggest supplier of cosmetics to teenagers. This campaign proved such a hit that Ballard was able to open two new factories and take his product national. Mr. Ballard knew how much he owed Minerva, who was recipient of gift packages of perfume periodically. As Ballard's industry grew, so did the gifts Minerva would find shipped to her door at the start of every month. Diamonds, minks, and eventually Cadillac cars arrived at her home. Minerva was overwhelmed. Never, she had to figure, has a man given so much to a girl for so little! The inventory became so voluminous that Minerva had to start giving the bulk of it away as gifts. 

   That's why, if you ever visit Creek Bend and tour the studio, you can smell such a sweet aroma wafting around you. It's the same way if you happen to pass by the campus of Ludley High... Where every girl has her boy and the staff all have Cadillacs....         

Trudy Kitten

Wendy's Wild Ride

   Wendy Marco held up two pieces of fabric, one a yellow color, the other pink. She was trying to figure which best complimented her face. Steve was about to do another photoshoot, and he always worked in color. Wendy had to be sure which color would suit her best, but the decision was coming more difficultly than it needed to. Wendy turned and smiled as she saw Trixie step into the room and make for a changing booth. It looked like Trixie was going to be wearing blue today. Trixie returned Wendy's greeting and noticed what she was doing. Trixie paused and looked at Wendy's reflection.

   "Pink is your color, Wendy. Of course, pink is the color most us around here wear best. Better go with the yellow. Trudy is wearing pink, and Dixie is in red."

   "Thanks, Trix!" Trixie nodded with a smile as she turned back to the changing booth. Wendy held up the yellow top and nodded with approval. This would work just fine, although if anyone wore yellow well it was Trixie. She looked good in any color, really.

   Trixie Hope was a very pretty girl, though she would have blended into the background at most movie studios. She worked with annies frequently, however, which often made her stand out in whatever crowd she found herself in. Although she was an actress of considerable star-power on her own, it was the teaming of Trixie Hope with annie Dixie North for a string of two-reelers which gave Trix her most visibility with the public these days. Though she was never described as such, many in the public saw her as the studio's token 'regular' girl in C.B.I.P.'s stable of "femanimal" starlets. (Before really getting to know the annie girls, the Boss had already coined the label "femanimal" to describe them for publicity purposes.  In the years since, the "femanimal" term had stuck, despite the Boss coming to wish he'd never invented the descriptive for the wrong impression it presents.) Trixie had sort of been accepted into the fold for her constant presence, the unofficial annie starlet.

   Trixie parted the curtain and stepped in front of the mirror to check herself. She certainly wore a Creek Bend bikini well, and blue was very complimentary to her form. In a moment, Wendy stepped into view in her yellow bikini. Trixie shot up an "okay" sign and Wendy smiled as she took a look into the changing room mirror. Wendy had to stop and consider Trixie's partner Dixie. There was a girl with cat features, red hair which included a huge tail, and yellow skin which rather closely matched the tiny patches of fabric which were now encasing Wendy's body. Wendy shook her head.

   "I don't know how Dixie does it."

   "Does what?"

   "Coordinates her wardrobe colors. Must add a challenge to it when you have skin the color of a school bus." Every now and then an annie would be born with a pretty wild coloring. Most were regular flesh tones, a great many of them were paper white, and you had a few shades in between. Every now and then, though, you'd run across a girl with skin that was pink or yellow or even sort of orange in color. Some men with bird features could even be green or blue on occasion! For an annie, this could make color coordination a factor to consider even in finding a spouse (or such was the case according to a popular joke that had been going around for years now). At the least, this sort of shading could make it interesting for a girl to dress herself in the right way. Imagine the typical cares a girl has about lighting conditions, then add the skin of a cartoon character to the mix...

   "She wears a lot of whites and blacks," Trixie noted, "I guess those are the safest choices in her case." Trixie hadn't really thought about it before, but Wendy raised a point regarding Dixie's challenge when it came to wearing colored fabrics. It was a challenge Trixie had been spared by not being an annie. Of course, Wendy didn't have that problem either. Only a few annies really did. Must they feel they got the short end of the stick, so to speak, or do they just feel more unique and thus more valued?

   In Steve's studio, Dixie checked her lipstick as Trudy looked over some notes Steve had written up for today's shoot. As Wendy and Trixie stepped into the room, Steve readied his camera. He planned to snap off a few candids before the girls got down to business. Candid shots offered a freshness which was more difficult to achieve when his models were posed. He got a good shot of Trixie and Dixie discussing hairstyles. Dixie's hair had to accommodate not only the shape of her head, but also her cat-like ears. Trixie almost always wore pigtails to offer a more cutsie, child-like appearance. She'd been wearing her hair like that since childhood, in fact, but still had the youthful features to pull it off.

   Wendy wore her hair pretty loose, aside from the styled curls of her bangs (though she often wore her hair pulled back into a ponytail if she were at all active). Trudy kept her hair cut short due to her own cat ears, but her overall look was balanced by her long feline tail. Each girl had their own distinct appearance, making this grouping an interesting selection for a group photoshoot. The purpose of this shoot was as much to promote the studio's newest expensive prop, said item being a futuristic car with a bubble dome canopy, built for a science fiction picture. The girls were herded outside to the parking lot where the car was waiting. There, Steve got off a few more candid shots as the girls inspected the car they were going to be huddled around for the next hour or so.

   Within a few minutes, Steve could have called the job completed, as he'd already gotten plenty of material before even getting to the posed pictures he'd planned out. By now, Wendy was sitting in the driver's seat. The car had been built over the chassis of an old roadster, but there was little evidence of this origin as the prop had been built so complete as to allow the movie camera to get in close. It was a beautiful design, with lines akin to a Corvette. It looked like a combination of a space ship and a miniature submarine. Wendy scanned the dashboard's numerous dials and switches, wondering which were functional and which were only window dressing. The builder of the car was supposed to be on scene for the shoot, but he'd been delayed -by car trouble of all things.

   "This thing is beautiful," Trudy patted the hood, "do you think cars will ever really look like this?"

   "Some already do," Trixie offered, "at least those dream cars they build for auto shows. A pity those never seem to make it into production."

   "Yeah..." Wendy sighed, "there was this powder blue number from Pontiac I think, had a fin out the back and twin windshields that looked like they came from fighter jet cockpits. I wanted that car."

   "I guess their time hasn't come yet," Dixie ran her hand along one of the curves of the chrome trim, "I wonder if any of us will be around when it does. Annies don't age, but they don't live forever."

   "They live a good while," Wendy palmed the steering wheel, "you might make it, Dix. These things may come to us sooner than we think, too."

   Wendy began to climb out of the car to let the next girl try the driver's seat, but in doing so her foot clipped the dash and activated the control for the giant clear bubble dome. Wendy yelped as she pulled her hands back into the vehicle to avoid the dome as it snapped down over the cockpit. She blushed as the other girls giggled. The mood was light until Wendy reached for the same control to raise the dome back into it's open position. Wendy accidentally flipped the wrong switch, causing the car to roar to life. Her eyes popped wide at this mistake and she reached to shut the car back down. What she didn't realize was that her foot was over the gas pedal, and that her weight was placed on her foot as she shifted her body.

   Providently, none of the other girls were standing in front of the car as it took off like a sling shot. Wendy was so surprised that all she could think to do was grab the steering wheel and do what she could to prevent hitting anything. The other girls were left in a cloud of smoke as the car shot away. Steve ran to telephone the gate. Wendy was headed in that direction. Along the way, Wendy had to hold the car steady as it roared between stages and through lots. An elephant brought in to make a jungle picture was so startled by the vehicle that it reared and made ready to charge. It's handlers managed to get the beast under control, but in the time it took to do so Wendy had already sped through several more outdoor sets. She zipped through a Western town where the combatants of a gun battle came to stunned silence when the bubble car blazed by. On another outdoor set, a string of harem girls parted like the Red Sea. 

   It was all happening so fast that Wendy could only concentrate on not hitting anybody. Whenever she tried to slow the car, it became harder to control and threatened to plow into the side of a building. Wendy gulped as she realized that she had to keep the car at top speed until she was in an area open enough to allow for her to come to a stop without running into anyone. The main gate was opened just in time for Wendy to go roaring through and onto the main street of the suburb area directly outside the gates. Wendy tried to slow down again, now that she was on a wider street, but even this area was too crowded for her to risk doing any damage. She'd have to race through town to the more open areas beyond.

   The town square was taken aback as the futuristic vehicle made the scene, looking like the vanguard of a Martian invasion. The car roared along main street toward the town's outskirts. Although Creek Bend was a small town by any measure, it suddenly seemed like the population of Creek Bend was at least triple what the welcome sign indicated. Wendy wondered if she'd run out of gas before the car got to an area where it was safe enough to slow down. Fortunately, the car could turn on a dime, and Wendy was able to avoid plowing into the fence running along Blake road. Wendy was looking for a pasture where there would be plenty of room. 

   Far behind her was a growing number of cars racing after her. Trixie and the other girls were in the lead car, with Steve directly behind in his own car. A few more cars from the studio followed, joined by the Sheriff, the fire chief, the newspaper editor, and a growing number of curious farmers, store owners, and townsfolk.

   Wendy finally came to the opening to Haskell's cow pasture. The car was turned and sped along one of the few flat stretches of land to be found in the area. Finally, Wendy could power down and let the car drift back and forth as it finally wobbled to a stop. Wendy still didn't know which switch shut off the engine, however. Cautiously, she reached over and touched the switch she was fairly certain was the canopy control. Wendy sighed as the dome raised and pulled back. She jumped out of the car and staggered a bit as she made sure the car was absolutely still. She dared not put on the emergency brake, for fear of not knowing which device WAS the emergency brake. The car was just going to have to sit here until someone who knew how could come and drive it back to the studio at normal speed. Or tow it back, as the car was finally beginning to sputter from limited fuel reserves. 

   When the car finally pooped out, Wendy turned to see the others approaching. Trixie pulled to a stop and the girls pilled out of her car to surround Wendy. Wendy was alright, but she had been so tense during the episode that she nearly collapsed when Dixie and Trudy put their hands on her back to support her. Steve was on scene a second later. He hadn't even had time to think about his camera, which he'd tossed into the seat next to him. He knew his business, though, and immediately grabbed the device to snap off a few more candids as Wendy regained her composure. This rural background offered some much more interesting visuals than the bare lot back at the studio did. They'd have to finish the shoot out here anyway, with the car having run dry.

   Soon enough, what seemed to be the rest of the town had arrived on scene. Steve had to convince the Sheriff that what had just happened wasn't a publicity stunt. Once the matter had been settled and the assembly calmed down, there was a great deal of interest in the futuristic car which had caused the whole thing. The starlets, even in their Creek Bend bikinis, were almost completely un-noticed.

   "Are you sure you're okay, Wendy?" Trixie asked.

   "I'm fine now. I'll tell you this, though, I'm not as upset over not having that dream car anymore."

   "What now?" Trudy asked of her peers.

   "The car will probably star in it's own picture after this." Dixie crossed her arms as she looked on at the crowd of farmers and townsfolk huddled about the car, she and her friends completely ignored.   

Fast Pace, Slow Pace

   Trudy Kitten hoisted the box onto the desk, setting it down with a thudding blow that caused the papers on the desk to scatter. Steve Morrow eyed the box on his desk, while Trudy took a breath and rubbed her arms.

   "What exactly am I looking at, Trudy?"

   "A very heavy box of film reels," Trudy popped her knuckles and limbered her fingers, "the home movies the Boss wanted to see."

   "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that project." Steve opened the box and pawed through an assortment of 16mm cans. Each had been carefully labelled so it could be returned to the owner after the project had been completed. It was a fun idea, Steve thought, assembling snippets from home movies to give the audience an inside look at the annie stars.

   "Most everybody contributed a reel," Trudy said, "Wendy, Doris, Sugar, Missy. Yvette said she didn't have any home movies, but just about everyone else is in there. Daisy, Minerva, Lois, Misty, Dixie." Steve opened one can and inspected the film in the light.

   "All color film?"

   "Most of it. Some girls said all they had was black and white. We did all seem to be able to dig up the kind of shots the Boss wanted, though. Trips to the beach, the lake, the pool. Plenty of cheesecake."

   "I'll go through them with him tomorrow, probably. I'll be sure to keep track of the reels, so you'll all get back what's yours."

   "Showing home movies of the stars really isn't that fresh of an idea, is it?"

   "Nobody has done this sort of thing for annies yet, particularly for our glamor starlets. We can assemble a featurette for screen or for television, and it'll practically be free. All we need to fill in is some host segments."

   "I think Misty would be best for that."

   "Why Misty?"

   "She's so glamorous."

   "She is that," Steve mulled things over as he put the film back in it's can, "but I have a feeling the Boss may want to play up the every-girl aspect that most studios overlook. I think we need someone sweet and instantly lovable."

   "Who do you have in mind?"

   "Nobody yet. What do you think?"

   "It could be an interesting idea. I take it the whole point is to show the stars as regular people. Maybe that's what it needs, a hostess who's not a star."

    "Not a star," Steve thought aloud, "but looks like one. Warm and friendly, natural charisma, an annie... I think I know just the girl. But, I don't know if she'll do it. The Boss has been trying to sign her for a while now, but no soap."

   "Do I know her, Steve?"

   "If you don't, you probably heard of her. Crissy Carrots. Well, Crissy Ralphwit now. She married the son of the annie who founded the Wydmark Rifle Company. As soon as they settle the legal stuff, he'll be the owner of the company."

   "Oh, yeah," Trudy nodded, "she's that cute little rabbit who married the wolf. I remember seeing their picture in the papers... Something about a murder attempt on her, and he saved her life."

   "The Boss has been wanting her to join the studio for a few years now, ever since he met her in the market."

    "Not interested in being a star, eh?"

   "I think she enjoys her life too much to give acting a second thought. Having her host the home movie clips is a pretty good idea, though. I'll stop by her place and see if I can talk her into it. You should see her house, Trudy. Right on the river, with a big lagoon right in the back yard."

   "I'm not doing anything for the rest of the day. If that's an invite to tag along, I'd be happy to." Trudy was indeed impressed by Crissy's house. As she looked out the back door onto the lagoon only feet away, Trudy could see why Crissy would prefer it to a pool. Beyond the lagoon was the river itself, and beyond that a serene riverbank before a picturesque spread of wilderness. It was a paradise.

   "How'd you ever find this place?" Trudy asked as Crissy sat at the table with Steve and Roger. Crissy puffed her cigarette as she looked out the open door to see what had Trudy so impressed. The sight through that door never failed to put a smile on Crissy's face.

   "I found it by accident, really," Crissy offered, "I got lost one day and couldn't find my way back onto the main road. When I saw this spot, I knew I wanted to build my dream house here."

   "And what a cute house you built," Trudy grinned, "I never would've thought to build a house under the roots of a tree."

   "I wanted to hollow out the whole tree and have a second cottage up in the branches, but doing so would have killed the tree. That wouldn't be as picturesque."

   "We could even use some of your home movies, Crissy." Steve tried to get the conversation back to the movie. Crissy thought it over.

   "We really haven't taken a lot of home movies since we got married," Crissy offered, "at least not anything we'd want to share with the public. I appreciate the offer, Steve, but I'm really not interested in getting into the movies. Why not use Trudy here?" Trudy turned back from the door again.

   "The idea is to have a hostess that isn't already a known personality. I may not be Zsa Zsa Gabor or anything, but I do have a face our audience is familiar with. If a civilian, as it were, was hosting the clips, it would better reflect the way life is here in Creek Bend."

   "You know," Roger mused, "a documentary about Creek Bend itself would be pretty interesting. How many small towns have a suburb and a movie studio?"

   "Crissy would be the ideal hostess for that, too," Steve ground the butt of his cigarette into the ashtray, "despite living out here in the wild, I think you could make a case that Cris is really the face of Creek Bend."

   "How do you figure that?" Crissy tilted her head in curiosity.

   "Your family is such a presence in this town," Steve said, "as well as parts of Ludley and Amsterville, but the main street of Creek Bend has the Carrots name all over it. You worked for your relatives in various businesses as a teenager, you became a regular sight. You may not get into town as often as you used to, but you leave an impression. People like you, and most everyone in town knows you."

   "Say I could talk Crissy into doing your picture," Roger reached out and took Crissy's hand, "what exactly would she have to do? How long would it take?"

   "Not long. Maybe four days. All she'd have to do is walk around a set and talk to the camera. And her lines would all be scripted."

   "It would take four days to talk to a camera?" Crissy wondered.

   "Well, we might try to spice things up so it's not just someone walking around on a bare set. We could have a set made to look like a living room, and Crissy could be manning a projector while she makes her comments. Some of the stars could even come in to help set up the clips. Most of our girls are friends with Crissy anyway, so it would make perfect sense for her to share scenes with them."

   "Let me tell you something, Steve," Crissy sighed, "and then tell me if you think I should really go through with this. Back in high school I did a lot of the school plays. I tried to have fun, but I was really only there because the other kids drafted me into the female lead. I never liked having all those people watching me as I pretended to be someone else. I'm not against acting, but it isn't for me."

   "You'd be playing yourself. You'd even have final say on the lines we want you to read."

   "You know me, Steve, I'm always willing to help, but I'm just not interested in being on camera." Crissy turned to Roger. "What would you think about it?"

   "I have no strong feelings either way," Roger shrugged, "I've never dreamed about being married to a movie star, but I'd not hold you back if you wanted to be one."

   "I'm not sure I'd like it. Trudy, honestly, tell me what it's like to do what you do."

   "Well," Trudy thought, "I enjoy it, but then it's something I wanted to do. I will say this. If you were just to try it out to see if you wanted to do it more, this would be the perfect project. If everyone in town already knows you, I don't think starring in one movie is going to change your life that much."

   "You'd get more mail," Steve offered, "that's about the only immediate impact I can think of."

   "All I can do is promise to think about it, Steve" Crissy said, "I'll call you tomorrow afternoon, okay?"

   On the drive back to town, Trudy marveled at the beautiful scenery. She turned to Steve.

   "I don't think she'll do it."

   "Why not?"

   "Best case scenario, she's a hit and the Boss finally talks her into a contract. She becomes a star and has to move closer to the studio. I don't think I'd give up all this if I lived out here."

   "I guess it's a good thing you were already an actress before you moved here."

   "I thought I had a nice place in town, a relaxing atmosphere and a quiet pace. After seeing the place Roger and Crissy have, I still feel like a big city girl."

   "I guess it really is all relative. Patty and I moved here from L.A. and we enjoy the privacy. It's nothing compared to what Rog and Crissy have, though. I don't think I'd want to leave it either."

   "Maybe some girl from the TV station would be a better fit. Someone who isn't known to the world at large but has some experience with the technical side of the process."

   "That's a thought. Or even one of the wives of someone at the studio. Really, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We don't even know yet how much of that home movie footage is going to work for this little project of ours."

   "You know, more of us should take these quiet drives in the country. To remind us of just how fast we live our lives in the picture business."

   "I can't argue that." 

Trudy Kitten

Colors/letters by Jim Luwdig

   Trudy Kitten, like many annies, has worked at one time or another for just about every cartoon studio you can name, and has been acting since 1930. She was already in C.B. International's stable when the glamor approach was pioneered by Missy Mouse. Trudy was immediately chosen as the second such starlet to get the glamor treatment. Unsure the glamor cycle would last, Trudy continued to work for other studios until 1952, when she finally signed an exclusive contract with C.B.I.P. -which remains the only studio to ever give her star billing.