Silver Screen (Nov 1938-Apr 1939)

When Fred Astaire first danced for the camera, failure called the turn. But now he's a big screen star. Jean Arthur is never afraid to tackle anything. She's Success' Girl Friend. and in England, as such stage "The Love • "Lady Be Bunch and W. C. Fields, a success in five different worlds. / J stage. I don't m^&F want to go back ■HKr ward but for ward. I was good in burlesque, but not so good in a circus side show, so let's forget that. I was tops in vaudeville and made two trips around the world with my act. I was considered tops in musical comedy. I'm a star in the movies and I'm doing pretty well on the radio. Now all I want to do is to figure out how to make the grade when this television business comes along." Mr. Fields is perhaps the best example in the movies I know of the star who has "the habit of success." He ran away from his home in Philadelphia when he was a kid because he was scared of his father. He has knocked around all over the world since then and today, at 58, after having been a success in five different mediums, he is plotting and planning on how to reach the top in a sixth. Another prominent screen «ctor who has this same knack for being the best in anything he tackles is Fred Astaire. Before attempting the movies Mr. Astaire had the pleasure of knowing himself a success on the stage both in America a result of his dancing musicals as "Apple Blossoms," Letter," "For Goodness Sakes, Good," "Funny Face," "The Judy," "Smiles," "The Band Wagon" and "The Gay Divorcee." Even betore this, when he was only eight years old, Fred and his sister, Adele, now Lady Cavendish, were touring the Orpheum Circuit in a dancing act of their own and knocking down 200 bucks a week. That is why, when after being let out by Metro after a small bit in "Dancing Lady," he had the perseverence to reach the top in his new medium. Going over to RKO, the same urge to be a champion in his new field, the same drive which had made him a success at eight, lifted him to one of the ten biggest money makers in the movies. Having been crowned Olympic champion before she was old enough to vote, Sonja Henie is another successful screen star who has carried this same determination, this same ability to forge to the front, into a new medium. Winner of Olympic awards in 1928, 1932 and 1936, Miss Henie was a smash boxoffice favorite with the ice fans long before Hollywood beckoned. W hen she made a deal which was satisfactory to herself with Twentieth Century-Fox, this same habit of winning skating championships at an early age followed her to the coast. Today she is one of the most successful stars in the film colony and when, between pictures, she tours the country with her ice carnival, the "Standing Room Only" sign is out in front of the house long before the day of her scheduled appearance. Perhaps being a successful commercial photographer's model is considerably less exciting than being a star and playing opposite some of the screen's most popular leading men, but this same success habit which made her one of the most popularmodels in New York while she was still a sophomore in high school, was undoubtedly the propelling force which carried Jean Arthur to stardom in the cinema. While still at school, Jean was earning $25 a day posing in her spare time and it wasn't long before her face was seen on magazine covers throughout the country. Her first efforts in Hollywood were considerably less than startling but there was no holding Jean back. Having been tops in one field it was only natural that the same effort would sooner or later catapult her to the top brackets in the movies, where she now rests with the best of them. The next time some of you gals who are secretaries get fed up with your jobs and want to chuck them because you think there is no future in them, it would be wise to consider the case of Kay Francis, one of the highest salaried players on the Warner Brothers' long and interesting list. Although the chances ate that Miss Francis eventually would have become an actress anyway because her mother, Kath1 erine Clinton, was I a well-known » stage player, when 8 she finally finished school Kay B took up secrejf tarial work. Even f in this field she * was satisfied with nothing but the best and chose as her employers such socially prominent women as Mrs. Dwight Morrow, Mrs. Minturn Pinchot and Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt. But Kay had formed the success habit long before this. While in school she excelled in tennis and ran the 1 00-yard dash in 12 seconds flat. Success, too, followed in" her stage career and it is not unlikely that had she remained in the theatre she would have achieved the same high ranking she has enjoyed [Continued on page 73] for November 1938 29