Hollywood (1938)

^o* ""*«^ Her resemblance to several other actresses is striking, but she is very much a person in her own right By ED JONESBOY ■ Strangely enough, this up-and-coming new-comer of the screen, Marcia Ralston, wasn't lured away from the land of "down under" by the dulcet blarney of a motion picture talent scout, nor was she the winner of a beauty contest offering as first prize a career in the fillums. Nothing like that. As a matter of plain and honest truth, she was going about her pleasant and fairly lucrative business as leading lady in the J. L. Williamson musical comedies in Sidney, and had it not been for the appearance of Phil Harris, the orchestra leader who was making a tour of the Antipodes with his band, she'd probably be there yet and, without doubt, knocking the Antipodians dead with her good looks, voice and acting. But Phil, the "tall and handsome" maestro of the strings, woods and brasses, came along, met her, and almost before Dan Cupid could catch his breath and say "bless you, my children," they fell in love and put a quick and happy beginning to their romance by becoming man and wife. That was eleven years ago. "For several years," says Marcia, "I stayed in the background. And of my 34 own free will and accord, too. Phil and I had agreed that one professional in the family was enough and that's the way it was for a number of years. But finally I began to be bothered by an urge to go back to the stage and when I told Phil about it he surprised me by saying that he'd like nothing better than to have me dance and sing with his orchestra! And that's what I did until a Warner talent scout saw me and later signed me to a long-term contract. I can't recall how many pictures I've been in since then." | But we can. Pretty close to fourteen during the eighteen months she's been at the studio and in the list you'll come across such outstanding screen fare as The Singing Marine, Fly Away Baby, Ever Since Eve, Men Are Such Fools, Gold Is Where' You Find It and Fools jor Scandal. Not a bad score, seems like, for a girl who came from the land of the kangaroo, the duck-billed platypus and the bear that lunches on eucalyptus leaves! "Phil is just as proud of my success as I am of his, but oddly enough, he appar ently has a burning ambition NOT to see me on the screen. Maybe it's because he sees so much of me during the day. Or maybe it's because he doesn't think I'm in his class. He likes to point out that his musical short entitled So This Is Harris won an Academy award! At any rate, he's seen me in only one picture and I can't get him to say when he'll ever see me in another." ■ Marcia was educated in a convent. Her father, John Ralston, was a musical comedy star with a fine flair for the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Her mother was a famous dancer. "Neither of my parents wanted me to become an actress," she says, "hence the convent schooling. But as I grew older it became more difficult for me to keep my thoughts away from the footlights. The stage was in my blood and when I was fifteen years old I definitely decided that what had been good enough for father and mother should be good enough for their daughter. And so — when they left for China, I left the convent. My first theatrical job was in the chorus of the J. L. Williamson productions. After a while I moved up a notch to become understudy to the leading lady, and later moved up a bit higher to become a leading lady, myself, in musical comedies produced by the same company. Then Phil came along — and here I am." ■ Marcia's real name is Mascotte, a slight contraction of La Mascotte, the French opera her father was playing in at the time of her birth. "It's a nice name and certainly an unusual one," she agrees, "and I like it. But when I entered pictures they made me change it because there's a film company called Mascot Productions. More than likely I would have changed it sooner or later because I was beginning to get a little tired of trying to explain how I came by it. Phil calls me 'Scotty' and I prefer that. ■ When "Scotty" isn't playing in front of the cameras she's a great hand at playing farmerette on the seven-acre ranch she and her husband bought a little more than a year ago from Adolphe Menjou. "It's roomy, rural, and restful," is the way she puts it. We have the Al Jolsons, the Edward Everett Hortons, the Spencer Tracys, and the Don Ameches for nearby neighbors and good company. The location reminds me cf my home in Sidney, and don't think that Phil and I have gotten over the thrill of ownership. Believe me, after almost ten years of living in hotels from coast to coast, this little spot is really 'home, sweet home' in the fullest sense of the three words. It's a dream come true despite an occasional bit of family trouble that calls for diplomacy. For instance, after the house was built and we moved in, we decided that we could keep everything spick and span only by a division of labor. The flower and vegetable gardens were to be under my supervision, and to Phil went the care of the chickens, the horses, and the dogs. Well, it has worked