Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1927 - Feb 1928)

29 A Whole Succession of Silver Linings When Don Alvarado meant to go to Spain, he found himself in Los Angeles; when he meant to go into business, he found himself in the movies; and when he meant to get a small role in one film, he discovered he had a big role in quite a different one. Who says there's no Santa Claus? By William H. McKegg ONE finds in this v/orld, particularly in the picture world, that though you may lose one thing you have set your heart on, you often get something else even better. Strange forces lead us here, push us there, shaping our lives in unexpected ways. This has been particularly true in the case of Don Alvarado. Six years ago Don came to California from New Mexico. He had wanted to go to Spain, to spend a few years in study there, but various obstacles had prevented. Thus, the unknown forces had urged him toward the great film mecca. He was seventeen when he arrived in Los Angeles. He had come presumably to go into business, but he kept his eyes on the movie studios. They were, he discovered, difficult to enter. So he went to workin an office. A couple of years rolled by. He was still earning only a small salary. "Something urged me to hunt for a bigger job," Don explained. "I figured that if I could get a good position at a good wage, I could save up and try for the movies without fear of starving." So he gave up the job he had and went after a bigger one that had been parily promised to him, only to find that it had been given to some one else. Now he had no job at all! What to do? Might as well try the studios, he thought — for he couldn't be in a worse plight. Don went out to the Metro-Goldwyn studio in Culver City. It just happened that a young man of his type was needed at that particular moment for a Mae Murray film. Thus, through losing a good business job that he had banked on, Don suddenly found himself in the movies — in Mae Murray's "Mile. Midnight." Don's first big break came when he won a contract with Warner Brothers. But except for a few inconspicuous parts, he wasn't given much to do by that organization. So at the end of a year he obtained a release from his contract. "After that," he told me, "I practically had to start all over again. For about six months after leaving Don insists that strange unknown forces have been working in his behalf, shaping his life in quite unexpected ways. Wa rner s I could get nothing to do. My clothes were going ; my money was nearly gone. "Then T heard of a certain small part in a MetroGoldwyn film that T thought I should like to have. I decided to go after it. To suit the character I cut my hair very short — so short that it stood up on end all over my head. I looked a sight, but I had been out of work for over six months, and was ready to go to any extremes to get even a bit." But — Don failed to get the part. However, it was just at that time that he received a call to report at the Fox studio for a test for the leading male role in "My Wife's Honor," featuring Dolores del Rio. Fantastic hair-cut and all, Don reported, somewhat nervously, and to his surprise was given the I'ole. He was told that his hair, with a few days' growth, would be just right for the character he was to play. What had urged him to go after that small part? What had urged him to cut his hair all out of shape in an attempt to get it ? That rash act, which would probably have ruined his chances of getting anything anywhere else, just happened to gain him the role of leading man opposite Dolores del Rio. Who shall deny that unknown forces were working for him ? After that, on the strength of his success, Don returned home to see his parents, his two sisters and his brother in New Mexico. "I had not been home for six years," he said. "Then, when I did at last get home, I was with my people only a week when a call came again from the Fox studio asking me to return at once and take a test for 'The Monkey Talks.' T hesitated, for a test is not a guarantee of a part." Don could have refused but, instead, feeling the urge within him, he returned to Hollywood, and for thus dragging himself away from his people after only a few days' visit with them, he was repaid. For, after taking the test, he was given the romantic lead in "The Monkey Talks." Continued on page 111