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ROBERT CTIMMINGS (Paramount Flayer)
25,
First known by his right name of Charles Robert Oummings, this Joplin, Missouri lad, journeyed to New York, and entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, frcm which he graduated two years later in 1932,
He thought that this training made him an actor but there were no jobs and no hope for one until he hit upon the idea of going to England and acquiring an English background and accent to fool Broadway producers who were anxious to get English actors for their new plays.
He spent a full eight months in England, travelling from one end of the isle to the other, "Learning the names of rivers, small towns and churches and the like and studying the variations of English accents."
Close to the end of this time he bribed the caretaker of a small
theatre to hang a placard with his name and an enlarged photograph in the
lobby so that he could have a picture taken of it. When this was done he
spent hi3 remaining dollars he had borrowed $200 from his father— cabling
New York producers to the effect that he, Bryce Hutchens (he thought that
name sounded British) was one of London's most popular juveniles and would
grant an interview upon his arrival in New York.
The hoax worked and when he got to New York he was immediately
cast for the juvenile role in "The Roof", a Galsworthy play. He passed as
a real Englishman with the cast. His ntxt play was "Strange Orchestra"
and shortly after that in Shaw's "Candida" by which time Broadway had come
to accept him as England's leading young actor. He appeared later in the
"Vanities" and in the 1934 and 1935 editions of Ziegfeld Follies,
The maintenance of his English accent was proving a tremendous strain and one day, as he was playing in the Follies, he told his story to a reporter who blazoned hi3 harmless hoax over the front page. Before this, Cummings had helped Mnrgp.ret Lindsay repeat his same hoax but before she could make her debut in a play she was signed by a movie company and the hoax was out. Cunnings came to Hollywood as a plain Missouri boy with New York stage experience and made good. Paramount signed him to a contract and he successfully appeared in "So Red the Rose," "The Virginia Judge," "THREE CHEERS FOR LOVE," and "Hollywood Boulevard."