Red is his favouirite colour these days. It blazes from the new sweaters and sports shirts he buys. It's the colour of the fire that now courses through Rick's hot blood, He's young - nineteen years old. He's free - he can do what he wants. He's learning to live, to taste all the pleasures of a young man's world. And Rick won't let anything hamper his freedom.

Late in his teens when he first started dating, the dark-haired go-getter quickly made up for lost time. Marianne Gaba, a former Miss Illinois, was his first big romance. The lucky girl was even -given Rick's gold initial ring inscribed, "To Marianne, love Rick." But nice a present as that ring was, it proved to be the beginning of the end for Marianne. She thought it meant more than it did. She thought it meant Rick belonged to her. Rick proved he didn't belong to anyone with his subsequent dates with singer Lorrie Collins.
Lorrie, too, presumed too much when Rick saw her so often. Rumours of a secret engagement began to crop up. They were squelched when Rick was seen with other Hollywood lovelies – including Venetia Stevenson.
Rick won't let any one girl claim him exclusively. He won't allow himself to really fall in love. There are too many things he's just beginning to learn about girls and women and this is one kind of an education he's not going to pass up.

As for more academic learning, Rick turned thumbs down on the question of going to college. His parents left it up to him hoping he would choose to continue his studies, but Rick decided he wasn't having any. "In a few years I'll have to go into the Army," he says. "And I can't see (myself) wasting more time in a classroom. I'm learning my trade now."

As far as work goes, Rick says, "Now I'm on my own." He still does his family's weekly TV show, but his own singing career and the many personal appearances it involves, his budding film career, are drawing him away from the homestead. By the terms of the contract his father had drawn up for him when he first began the family show, Rick is free to leave it anytime he wants. He hasn't yet decided to make that move, but he's made it possible to move in other directions when he's so inclined. Though his schedule is busy, he still has time for the other pursuits he loves - car and motorcycle racing, swimming, tennis, bowling, dancing, beating on the bongo drums, riding his new horse, Tinker-toy, which he bought while filming Rio Bravo.

Nothing in the world is cramping Rick's style and that's the way he wants things to be. Rick may be too wild to tame right now, but he's worth the effort because he's admitted that in a very few years, he will be marriage-minded. "All I can say is, don't rush me," he pleads. "Give me a chance to enjoy the freedom I have. Youth is the time for meeting people, all kinds of people. It's the time for learning, the time when a fellow is groping for a lot of answers."