The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

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Can You Buy Stardom? urged her to show the pictures to studio officials. She did. Or rather a friend of hers did. So impressed were Paramount executives that they asked for an interview with this new patrician beauty. She came, they saw, she conquered. Without further ado they signed her to a contract. These two ladies did not follow a tradition for which Hollywood is notorious. The cult of the false front! Pretense. Sham. Affectation of manner and manufactured background. They didn't have to. But many aspirants come to grief because they put on such airs. Young hopefuls in search of a career seem to be infected with this virus almost as soon as they arrive. Spending their last dime on one desperate attempt they'd buy an expensive gown, hire a Rolls Royce, and sweep out to a studio condescending to give the natives a break. This seemed to be the Hollywood manner. They thought that they had to live up to it. At first studio executives were ■ really impressed. They felt honored to put them in a picture. But things went to such extremes they became a joke. Now money and social position have their drawbacks. It may enable a person to dress attractively and meet picture celebrities on a social basis, but it is apt to classify one as a play boy or play girl. You don't need money, so why work? There are not a few people who have got into such a stalemate. In their hearts there is a desperate longing for a film career. But no one will take them seriously. If they mention work their picture friends laugh. No more than a pat on the back with an amused wisecrack. For all of these reasons the careers of the following heiresses are illuminating as well as instructive. In one respect Virginia Peine is an exception. Her real name is Virginia Peine Lehmann. When Mrs. Lehmann came to Hollywood with her two-year-old daughter, secretary, a nurse and maid, she carried a letter of introduction to Buddy De Sylva, the director of musicals at Fox. She called him on the phone. Because of the letter from a mutual friend, Mi'. De Sylva agreed to an appointment. He was pot acquainted with her real identity. He fully expected to dismiss this movie struck Virginia Peine after a moment's polite conversation. But when he saw a beautiful, lissome blonde sweep into the office he immediately changed his mind. He tossed the letter aside. He eagerly questioned her about her experience. She shook her head. None. But Mr. De Sylva was too enthusiastic to let that stand in the way. He arranged for a screen test. He saw the test and was enthusiastic enough about it to put her in "Bottoms Up." Katherine Flynn's brief career has been much different. Her uncle, the late Daniel Miles Flynn, left her a large share of the fortune he had amassed in turpentine and rosin throughout the (Continued from page 20) southern states. As soon as Katherine came into her inheritance she left for Hollywood. She arrived unknown. But within three weeks she had spent nineteen thousand dollars. THE lavish parties which she gave to various film celebrities, however, did not secure for her the coveted opportunity in pictures. She tried something else. Changing her name to Kitty O'Dare she began dancing at the Club Ballyhoo. She had had some experience on the stage and now her dance, the Shim Sham, created quite a sensation. A newspaperman saw through her nom de plume. A night club heiress! Publicity ran wild. But still nobody offered Katherine a screen test. Her Hollywood friends, Jimmy Durante, Jack La Rue, George Bancroft and others, tried to guide her over the first perilous steps of a screen career. But by this time her mother got wind of what was going on and flew out from New York. Katherine had to change her tactics. No more shim shamming. No more parties. After another month of waiting Kitty gave in to her mother's entreaties and left for a jaunt through Europe. She left with one consolation. Jean Harlow had unstintingly praised her dancing. Janet Snowden, the nineteenyear-old daughter of James H. Snowden, the multi-millionaire oil man, has perhaps been the wisest of them all. She and Doris Duke, the tobacco heiress, and Barbara Hutton, now the wife of Alexis Mdivani, have been intimates since they were classmates at the Foxcroft School in Aiken, South Carolina. All of them have moved in and out of the spotlight. A short time ago Janet had New York society agog. Meeting Prince Don Francesco Caravita when he arrived in New York from Italy, she eloped with him within twentyfour hours. Within five days she had the marriage annulled. A few weeks later while staying at her mother's home in Poland Springs, Maine, Janet was threatened with kidnaping. Then she disappeared. A wireless message from the liner Santa Theresa revealed that she was on her way to California with a secretary. Debarking at Los Angeles, she vanished "into Hollywood" to take up a film career. William Gill, the husband of the late Renee Adoree, became her manager. He began training her with the best dramatic teachers available. Her fellow student was Paulette Goddard whom Charlie Chaplin is keeping under cover for his next picture. Executives at Warner Brothers, impressed by her dark piquant beauty, offered her a contract. Her manager persuaded her to turn it down. She was not ready. Winfield Sheehan finally secured her promise to give Fox first call on her services as soon as she felt she was ready to face the camera. Slipping off to Mexico Janet married William Gill. Hollywood wonders just how her career will turn out. Kitty Carlisle is just getting into her stride. If nothing untoward happens she ought to skyrocket up among the stars. In her last picture, "She Loves Me Not," her ability really began to register. Her foundation has been solid. Her father, a New Orleans physician, died when she was eight years old and left a comfortable fortune. Her mother took Kitty to Lausanne, Switzerland, where she was put in school at the exclusive Chateau Mont Choisi. After that it was winters in Paris and summers in their villa on the Riviera. A year in Rome perfected her Italian. Tutoring in Paris sharpened her wits so that after her debut in the fashionable world of the French capital she became a leader in the younger set. But society palled. She wanted a career. If Kitty had not felt a strange homesickness for a native land which she had not seen in years she might now be the toast of Europe. An operatic career was waiting when she insisted on a return to America. Back in New York in June 1932 she entered a competitive test and was chosen to sing a lead in a condensed revival of "Rio Rita." After a year with this production she accepted an engagement to play a lead in "Champagne Sec." By this time Hollywood was attentive. Very. A contract was laid before her. This kind of introduction is the best that can be obtained. A personal invitation. No solicitation. No attempt to win the favors of the fickle goddess of films. Hazel Forbes combines a picture career with executive responsibilities. She was appearing in Ziegfeld's "Whoopee" when she met young Paul Owen Richmond who had amassed a fortune in dental and cosmetic lotions. Courtship ended in matrimony. In her happiness Hazel forgot the stage. Then her husband died. Wandering around the world trying to find happiness once more she and her mother finally settled in Hollywood. Her blond loveliness was like a song. An agent finally persuaded her to try pictures and she did so well in "Down to Their Last Yacht" that RKO put her under contract. Her future will be devoted to pictures except for quarterly trips to New York to attend meetings of her Board of Directors. In Hollywood she is seen with Ginger Rogers and Sally Eilers. Jack Oakie is one of her many escorts. THESE heiresses have added a piquant spice to the social whirl of the film capital. Each has a dash of personality and indisputable good looks. Hearts have been entangled. But can money buy a film career? A fortune may command attention but it cannot buy blue eyes if you happen to have brown, purchase a merry heart if you are disposed to melancholy or make an actress of one who has no talent for the art. Some of these heiresses have indisputable talent and will rise, perhaps, to the dizziest heights; the others will soon be seen in the fashionable resorts of the world. "YES, MA'M, AND WE'LL NEED HEINZ KETCHUP,™ /"- SO many men always seem to need Heinz Tomato Ketchup with their meals that it's by far the largest selling ketchup in the world. Rich, red drops that give delicious and definite flavor to all sorts of things. Meats, fish, eggs, croquettes, hash, baked beans, and many other dishes. Heinz chefs take the time and pains to make it richly thick with the flavors of fresh-from-the-garden red tomatoes and rare good spices. Always say Heinz to your grocer. H. J. HEINZ COMPANY PITTSBURGH, U.S.A. • TORONTO, CANADA LONDON, ENGLAND The New Movie Magazine, January, 1935 61