Modern Screen (Dec 1940 - Nov 1941)

THIS year, when Gloria Jean went to Washington for the President's Birthday Ball, she conquered the capital like the British in 1812. Mrs. Roosevelt fell in love with her at once and led her all around by the hand. The President himself told her his famous stories. She was shown their private quarters— a rare privilege; she had lunch in the dining room; she was toasted in Washington's great hotels and J. Edgar Hoover even escorted her through the government offices. She was feted and fussed over by famous national figures on every side. When Gloria got back to Hollywood, someone asked her what had thrilled her most. She sighed soulfully. "Tyrone Power hugged me!" she breathed. Yes, Gloria Jean Schoonover thinks she is the luckiest girl in the world and she probably is. Less than two years ago she was living in a cheap New York rooming house with her ambitious mother, trudging the flinty city pavements hunting a break. Nobody had ever heard of her except a few folks in her home town, Scranton, Pennsylvania. They knew her as a talented, pretty little thrush billed at local benefits, shows and song festivals as "Baby Schoonover." Today Gloria Jean's name is known wherever movies are shown. She is warm and well fed, golden from the California sun and, while not exactly rich, at the rate she's going she will be before long. She scored a solid hit in her very first picture, "The Underpup;" she co-starred with Bing Crosby in her next one, "If I Had My Way;" and she's starring all by herself in her third, "A Little Bit Of Heaven." She's following right in the fabulous footsteps of Deanna Durbin, guided by the same movie magician, Joe Pasternak, who made Deanna what she is today. All in all, Gloria is a cinch for a fat Hollywood future. But that's not why Gloria Jean thinks she's lucky. Fame and fortune are things which just don't make her vibrate at all yet. She simply doesn't understand them applied to herself. When she travelled back to Scranton for the world premiere of "The Underpup," a newsbutcher hopped on the train before they arrived with a stack of Scranton special editions that had BY KIRTLEY BASKETTE Gloria's picture plastered over every page. She flipped right through them without a glance and concentrated on Flash Gordon in the funnies! At the height of the welcome parade which passed her house, Gloria abandoned the cheering throngs to greet her mutt dog, "Wimpy." The fact is, it simply doesn't occur to Gloria Jean that she's a star. What makes her pinch herself every now and then is the realization that she is actually in Hollywood, walking and talking with her own movie idols; hob-nobbing with Academy Award winners! One day, while Gloria was making her first picture, Charles Boyer wandered over to her set to see someone or other. Gloria gazed in awe at the romantic Charles and finally was led up and introduced. She stood on tiptoes and quavered in his ear, "Oh, Mr. Boyer — will you do something for me? Will you just walk down the street with me alone, please?" Puzzled but smiling, Boyer offered Gloria his arm, and together they strolled up and down the "New York Street" on Universal's back lot, as all the other little girls in "The Underpup" cast gazed in rapt envy. "Thank you," sighed Gloria Jean dizzily when the stroll was over. "Now," she said, "I don't care how many autographs you sign, Mr. Boyer. I've had you all to myself!" The first time Gloria Jean met Deanna Durbin, one of her very special private idols, she stared awestruck and blurted, "Gee, but you're beautiful!" I could have said the same thing quite easily the day I dropped in on Gloria Jean (Continued on page 81) Gloria's following right in the tracks of her Award-winning idols! 6 MODERN SCREEN