Silver Screen (Nov 1939 - May 1940)

ONE of the girls who didn't get into "Gone With the Wind" was Joel McCrea's protege. You didn't know he had one? Neither did anyone else, including the sixteen-year-old herself! She had been out to the Selznick studio three times before, vainly trying to tell the very busy casting director that she could play the role of Scarlett's sister Careen. She had been magnificently ignored, being nobody. But when she walked in for the fourth time, bravely, in her best dress, her new hat, and smiling uncertainly, a miracle followed. An impressive, smart gentleman stepped up to her, briskly announced that he had been sent by Joel McCrea's agent, and whisked her straight into the guarded inner office of the casting mogul. That important person looked at her with genuine interest. He would be glad to talk to her about the part. Why hadn't she said she was Mr. McCrea's protege in the first place? Dumbfounded, Beverly Andre started foolishly to open her mouth and wave her hands. Fortunately she remembered fluttering would be appalling at that moment. She swallowed hastily, and blurted, "Well, I really didn't— I mean, I didn't think it would make any difference, I guess !" No difference? An appointment was immediately made for her to give a reading of the character before the director of the picture and David Selznick, the producer. She was carefully made-up, and gowned by the wardrobe department. In the end Ann Rutherford was assigned the role, but today a talented beginner is no longer stamped as merely an extra in Hollywood. She is on her way to amounting to something, having been seriously considered for a real part. She is still an unknown, but she blooms with a new confidence that is bound to bring her eventual success. I asked Joel about her. A much bigger man physically than you even expect, he twisted his huge frame in a dressingroom chair that is too small for him. "Her father stands in for me. Her mother has been my secretary for two years. They would never ask for favors, but when I happened to hear that Beverly was in earnest about getting that part I did what I could. Why shouldn't I?" You've heard how cruel they are in Above: Joel and Brenda Marshall get a few last minute touches for a scene in "Career Man." Joel was most helpful to Brenda in this, her screen debut. Upper right: With his pal, Cecil B. De Mille. Right: At his ranch with his lovely wife, Frances Dee. Lower right: Joel discussing the script of "Career Man" with Director Lloyd Bacon and Dialogue Director Jo Graham. He loves his work. Hollywood, how an ambitious person struggles against selfishness and cynicism. Joel confounds that prevalent theory. He speaks from his own experience. "If I decided to spend the rest of my life being appreciative to the people who went out of their way to help me I wouldn't have enough time! I can think of at least eighty men and women right off who have befriended me. "There was Sam Wood, the director, who liked me in a college show and introduced me to Gloria Swanson. She gave me a letter to producer Bill LeBaron. C. B. DeMille gave me my first contract. One after the other volunteered to assist me. I wanted to be an actor, I said so, and if you have potentialities and are sincere and open to suggestion I think you automatically win your opportunities. When I was doing 'Career Man' for Warners, recently, I remembered how I'd worked as an extra on their lot. Billie Dove was one of the top stars there then. So was Colleen Moore. I was playing a bit, a taxi driver, in one of Colleen's pictures when she noticed me and asked John McCormick, her husband and the studio manager then, to test me. He did. His verdict was, 'He stinks!' I'm glad I didn't .smell quite that bad to myself. Later McCormick became an agent and wanted to handle me!" A star as well set as McCrea can choose his companions from among the wealthiest sophisticates. Regularly Joel goes hunting and fishing, and his buddy on these trips is not a man of influence, but Carl Andre, his stand-in. They pack back into the High Sierras where, Carl swears, Joel is a genius at cooking a venison steak over a campfire. When Joel is not working, and is at home on his ranch forty miles north of Hollywood, Carl can keep up his riding in Hollywood — because he has "the grand horse Joel gave me." This democratic independence that distinguishes Joel is no new phase. The Arnold Grey chap {Continued on page 60) for November 1939