Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 74

DETROIT FREE PRESS Sunday, Aug. 18, 1957 The Sfep Sons Lauqh at Her To Aflieiro, Soe Hyras BY MARGARET McMANUS Free Cress Staff Writer MAMARONECK, N. Y. When I came here to visit the Steve Aliens at their summer residence, my first view of Jayne Meadows was the sight of her talking animatedly with a cab driver at the station. "He wants to get on I've Got A Secret," she said, referring to the show on which she Is a member of the panel.

"He's written in to the show. Every time I see him before he can open his mouth I have to warn him not to tell his secret, or I'd have to disqualify myself. "Our boys think this is terribly funny." The boys are her three stepsons, Brian, 10; David, and Stevie, 13. They are Steve's sons by a former marriage and are visiting with Jayne and Steve for the summer. The two youngest were in the back seat of the bright red convertible in which Jayne had come to pick me up at the nearly deserted railroad station of this town 45 minutes from Manhattan.

They are handsome, well-mannered boys, who address her affectionately as "Jaynie." JAYNE WAS wearing a blouse, shorts and flat sandals, her red hair tied in a blue chiffon scarf. There had been thunder showers earlier on this hot, humid day and the air was still damp and sweet, with a suggestion of Long Island Sound. Raindrops glistened on the giant, old trees and everywhere there was the drowsy quiet of an August afternoon. summer is an enormous, red 5a s- '-vStJ JAYNE AND STEVE and his three children by a former marriage frolic in the water at their summer residence. Jayne and the kids are great pals.

eight Broadway plays and has had leading roles in several dramatic shows on television, said that after her baby is born, she is going to concentrate on finding a part in a Broadway play. If there is one quality which all the great ladies of the theatre have in abundance, it is purpose and determination. In this company, Jayne Meadows, with both emotion and drive, can more than hold her own. apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan, where they live in the winter, but Jayne declared the whole family "adores being on the water, and this just makes the summer for Steve. "He doesn't go into the city at all on Mondays and Tuesdays, so this gives him some kind of a vacation.

"We have a red motor boat, matching the red car, and we all water-ski. Of course, I'm not water-skiing this summer, but I taught Steve and the boys to water-ski." Miss Meadows, who is expecting a baby in October, said the names they have picked out for the addition to the family are Barbara and William Christopher. brick affair, with a living room paneled in dark oak and a sun-room with a dark red terra cotta floor. It overlooks Long Island Sound and has its own boat dock. "This is the biggest house I've ever lived in," said Miss Meadows.

"It has seven bedrooms and seven baths, two dining rooms and a separate apartment over the garage. I get worn out just walking around it, but I took this for the summer for Steve's sake. "I had to find something that would be easy traveling to the city, and we wanted a house right on the water and this was the only thing I could find." THE ALLENS HAVE an "I HAVE ALWAYS wanted to have a family, and I just want a baby, but I do think it would be nice for Steve to have a girl since he has three boys. But isn't that a beautiful name for a boy, William Christopher Allen." She repeated the name several times, rolling it over her tongue as if she enjoyed the sound of every syllable. "I'm very maternal," she said, "and domestic.

I learned to keep house when I was a child. I can iron, and sew and cook. I like to take care of people. Only two things I ever wanted to do were to have a family and be an actress." A VIVACIOUS, spirited woman, high-strung, with nervous energy to spare, Miss Meadows said that it distresses her that the public thinks of her more as a television panelist than as an actress. She said she doesn't see as much of her sister, Audrey Meadows, of the late, lamented "Honeymooners," now that Jackie Gleason is off the air, and Audrey has married and makes her home in Washington, D.

C. "AUDREY HAS AN entirely different life now," she said. "She and her husband have race horses and they follow their horses and they're always going to balls, things like that. "It's a completely social life, but Audrey isn't as interested in show business as I am. This is my life.

I'd die if I weren't a part of it." Miss Meadows, who hu appeared in a number of motion pictures, has acted la SHE SAID THAT young Stevie had taken a three-day business trip to Wisconsin writh his dad. "They'll be home tonight," she said. "Tomorrow is our third wedding anniversary. You know I met Steve five years ago, oddly enough on the first night I started on the 'I've dot A Secret panel. I went out after the show with my sister Audrey and some of her friends.

Steve just happened to be along. "The minute I laid eyes on him I thought, 'I could marry that man. I love that type. He has a nice voice and gentle brown eyes. "I adore creative people, and Steve is basically a writer and humorist.

"WELL, I'VE BEEN on 'Secret' for five years now, WJBK-TV (2) 8:30 p. m. Wednesday, and Steve and I have been married for three years, so that was a pretty good first night for me, wasn't it?" Miss Meadows drove carefully through the streets of Mamaroneck, passing a house where Ethel Barrymore lived when she was the reigning queen of the theatre, going by rambling Victorian houses, dripping with wisteria vines. Miss Meadows finally turned up a winding, narrow road marked. "Private No trespassing." THE HOUSE WHICH tha Aliens have taken for the Ykl yf -Jit 4 mumJ Jayne in 1J17 The Aliens at Home.