Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

the cold and wicked world' . . . which in my case never turned out to I e either cold or wicked . . . and I would have remained in my attractive hometown and settled down as my family urged me to do. I knew I could always earn a good, honest, respectable living'. I almost married a nice hometown girl and if I had, we wou'd have settled down to a quiet, family life. Nothing wrong with that setup .. . but, gee! I wanted to get into show business!" Carleton has always run true to form in what literature has recorded for us about the character of the New England cr . . . shrewd, thrifty, industrious, canny, enormously stubborn . . . who never spent a '"luxurious" day in his whole life. Even to this day, in spite of his success as one of the "bright young actors on the screen," anything over nine dollars always seems like a million to Carleton. But instead of banking all of his sixty dollars, as any sober, practicalminded Carpenter would have done, he threw discretion every which way. He took the whole amount and went to New York. "I left a farewell note for my family, telling them I had gone out to conquer the world." Of course the world to Carleton was Broadway! In discussing this daring flight from the bosom of his family, Carleton says. ''I don't know whether you're afraid of the known or the unknown. I've always been afraid of things I couldn't see or control. But somehow dramatic things, like leaving the old homestead and embarking on a most uncertain career like the theatre, had never presented fear to me at all. It must have been my brash, foolishly courageous youth that got me any place at all. I guess I was afraid of being afraid, and so rushed in where angels feared to tread." To this day, with a great deal of success in every branch of the theatre — singing and dancing and even playing the piano in bars on Third Avenue in New York (wlien there weren't any jobs on Broadway) , doing radio shows, acting in television, writing songs, appearing at the best night clubs, making persona] appearances in every important theatre all over the country — Carleton Carpenter still has that "scared look of a jack rabbit fixin' to jump." So, off went Sir Galahad in his shining armor to slay the dragon. But in this case, Sir Galahad was without his shining armor. He was a sliver-thin beanpole, an awkward small-town boy who gave the appearance of ever-lastingly growing out of his clothes. His sleeves were never going to cover his wrists and his trousers were never long enough to cover his legs. He was fresh as country butter ... a real Booth Tarkington character come to the big city. He came with lots of ingratiating charm to "slay" the big producers, who are sometimes more formidable than any dragon. It must ha\c been Carleton 's youthful eagerness, and his complete ignorance of the ways of show business that landed him a job in three da>s ... in a musical! If he had known any better, he would never have been so foolish as to think one can gel into the inner sanctum of the 66 theatre by knocking on the door of the stage entrance and asking the stage manager if there was any need for a young man of his particular type. But that's just what he did . . . and he landed a job! This was much easier than picking apples, or fixing lobster traps or running a magic shop. "On the third day. I went backstage at the Winter Garden during a matinee. Milton Berle was playing. I'll never forget that day. I asked the stage manager if he needed someone like me. He told me that he had just given a part to a young man who had been there ten minutes earlier. Somehow this encouraged me like mad. I had lost a part by ten minutes, but if I had been there earlier, ii: looked like I might have been in show 1 usiness. He told me they were easting for the road company of "The Chocolate Soldier" in some theatre on 52nd Street. Believe me, I got there like lightning. From there, I was sent over to the Shubert office. A man at the piano asked me if I could sing. I told him I could. All the singing I had ever done was in the glee club at High School. So he played some scales and I sang them and he said I was okay, to come around the next day and sign a contract! New York, Broadway, the policeman on the corner, the Automat never looked so wonderful to me before. I was in a show. I was going to get fifty dollars a week and my name was going on a contract! No wonder Professor Upham believed in magic! "So I went back to Brooklyn and called the principal of my high school and told him what had happened. You see, I was beginning to be afraid that everything was happening too fast . . . and once I got going in a show, maybe I'd never go back to school to get my diploma. I'll always had pretty high grades, and just needed a few credits to graduate, so I suggested that the school send me lessons while on the road and I would do them, and return them by mail. I could take all my examinations by correspondence! The principal was very understanding . . . said he'd take it up with the school board and wire me the next day. Well, he did wire me . . . collect, sixty-three cents worth . . . and this is what he said: "Proposition not good." Carleton never signed the contract. Instead he went back to Bennington to finish his schooling. By this time, his family was getting used to his unpredictable behavior. They had come to one decision about him anyway. He certainly didn't resemble anyone in the family, excepting his grandfather Carpenter's mule who was almost as stubborn as Carleton was and just as determined. In less than three months, by dropping all his social engagements and doubling up on all his subjects, he received his diploma. With this part of his life out of the way, he packed his bag a second time descended again upon his mother's second cousin in Brooklyn who, by the way, was also getting used to the unpredictable .Carleton . . . and went off to get a job. In less than two hours from the time he left Grand Central Station to the time he left his bag in Brooklyn, to the time he went to a producer's office and read for a part, Carleton was back on Broadway ... an actor at last! He explains his quick success very convincingly. "I'm a guy with no sense . . . that's why I got the part, I guess. I just didn't have the time to be afraid that I wouldn't get the break. If I had, I would have gone through the usual channels . . . like going to see an agent first, and letting him make up his mind whether he thought I was important enough for him to handle. Of course, I wouldn't have been, and so I would never have heard from him again and that would have deflated my ego and it would have been back to Bennington and the farm for me. When you come from Vermont, you learn that the easiest way to get a job is to go out and ask for it!" I don't know whether Carleton 's advice would apply to all young hopefuls Roberr Mitchum, director Lloyd Bacon and Jean Simmons, looking as cunning as ever, laugh as they discuss their forthcoming comedy film, "Beautiful But Dangerous," on location.