Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1943)

Young Mariner (Continued from page 51) I was still determined to get to Hollywood. "So I hitchhiked out here, and landed on April Fool's Day in Culver City, thinking I was in Hollywood. "I was so disgusted," Gig contiried, "I decided a guy that dumb wouldn't have a chance in the movies. So I went out and got a job in a gas station." But selling gas to gorgeous extras, to players in make-up and to youngsters headed for stardom didn't help soothe his histrionic ambitions. "What really did it," admitted Gig, "was reading about a young fellow named Jack Carson being called out of one of the schools that conducted a little theater and signed to a studio contract. After that I was going to be an actor — or else. "I GOT a job as night clerk in a hotel I which left my days for school and a little theater. But it didn't pay enough for me to be able to rent a room at the hotel. So I moved into a joint near the old Fatty Arbuckle studio. The humans that holed up there looked so bad I put a padlock on my door so they wouldn't steal my one good suit. My old 1925 roadster with no top was the classiest thing in the block. It had no starter and I had to push it a couple of blocks to get it going. That kept me in condition. I was always in a hurry to get from one job to another and people got a great kick out of watching me push the car till it got up enough momentum for me to jump in and throw it in gear. Then, as I'd make my rounds, I'd park it on a hill, so that in starting up I could coast until the motor took hold. It got to be a burning ambition of mine to own a car with a starter." Gig Young, or Byron Barr, as he was then called, put his money on the line with the Ben Bard School of Drama and appeared in a number of their productions. In those days, when the script called for him to put his feet on the desk, the holes in the soles of his shoes were evident even to the audience. Once he fainted on stage for lack of food. THEN the gasoline station where he worked failed, so he only had one job, which wasn't sufficient to cover food and rent and pay his tuition at the dramatic school. He tried being a waiter at a night club but that came to an abrupt end. "It happened," recalled Gig, "the night Hal Roach's daughter Margaret, who also went to Bard's, visited the club. I headed for the kitchen with a tray and hid there until she left." Apparently someone complained about the service, for the management confided to Byron that he wasn't working there any more as of the current moment. But opportunity knocked again in the form of the Pasadena Community Playhouse, breeding ground for so many Hollywood stars. This was Byron's meat. You didn't have to pay to play a part. So he and his close friend, Bill Hamner, hied themselves to the City of Roses and whittled away at fame at the Community Playhouse, the while they mowed lawns and did odd jobs to keep the pot boiling. Speaking of pots, Gig said ruefully, "We used to make great big stews, enough to last us a week, and then heat them over each day. But I guess that diet wasn't so good. And I'd been working too hard. I was thin and feeling shaky. The doctor said my appendix had to come out. I had it out on the cuff and was down for about four weeks. "Then I got a chance to take a screen "I found this the Best way to Stop Underarm Perspiration and Odor —one/ Save up to 50% * "Glamour is my Business—" says lovely Ellen Allardice % COVER GIRL "Before I made the covers of the big lational magazines, I had to learn how to stay glamorous even under a 'Turkish bath' battery of photographer's lights," Cover Girl Ellen Allardice says. "I had to find a deodorant that really worked. That really kept my underarms dry. And that didn't rot $100 dresses. I found it in Odorono Cream. "Here is why. It contains a really effective perspiration stopper. 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