Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1953)

At the tender age of three, little Roy Fitzgerald never suspected that he would grow up to be a famous movie star named Rock Hudson. CxcluMe f/kt BULLETIN feature. By LEONARD COULTER Any boy in the United States, they say, has a chance of becoming President — unless lie's lucky. And any truck-driver may, by (he same token, become a film star, as Rock Hudson can testify. The road to stardom, like the road to the White House, covers some pretty rugged terrain. It is, therefore, gently ironic that in all the adulation screendom's famous names receive there is little recognition of the all-important fact that they've had the guts to take it on the chin while they've been learning the movie game. Stardom, it seems, is a compound of both talent and endurance — but especially the latter. As every exhibitor knows, star worship is a vital ingredient of showmanship. While outstanding motion pictures containing no 'marquee" names do sometimes click at the boxoffice, no one can deny the value of popular favorites in attracting the public. So filmdom, like stage producers, baseball magnates, boxing promoters, et al, is always on Are Stars Born or Manufactured? ROSEMARY CLOONEY The Rig Treatment the prowl for a steady flow of new talent and fresh faces, of stars-in-the-making. In recent years, practically every Hollywood studio has been busily engaged in the search for personalities that can be moulded into star material. The sudden discovery that many of the older luminaries had passed their peak, the decline in boxoffice grosses, the ever-present hunger of the public for exciting new faces — all these factors played a part in star-building projects at the various studios. Only a few months back, Rosemary Clooney was just another vocalist going 'round and 'round on disc jockey turntables. One song, "Come On-A My House", zoomed her into prominence and Paramount grabbed Rosemary. She has been getting the Big Treatment, a 21-gun ballyhoo that pushed her into a starring role in her first film, "The Stars Are Singing". M-G-M executives spotted an exciting new face in a minor role in "The Bad and the Beautiful", and almost immediately the company's high-powered publicity machine was rolling in high gear to make Elaine Stewart a name that theater men would want to put on their marquee. Other companies have been busy, too. No comment is needed here on the tremendous job done by the 20th Century-Fox publiciteers in pushing Marilyn Monroe to the fore. Warners is slowing developing Allyn McLerie, who was plucked from the stage cast of "Where's Charley?", while Columbia had Aldo Ray, whose first film role was sheerest accident. He drove his brother to the studio for a try-out in "Saturday's Hero'' and was picked instead. Accidents like Aldo Ray happen occasionally, but the star-building process on a "scientific" basis is most effectively exemplified in a project at Universal Studios called The Development Program. It is the stable which has turned out such boxoffice pacers as Rock Hudson, Jeff Chandler, Piper Laurie, Julia Adams, Shelley Winters, Tony Curtis and Audic Murphy. It was an idea born of necessity when, after a period in the doldrums, Universal realised it had to make pictures the public wanted, and would pay to see — not those which big-name, $100,000-apicture players preferred in the hope of winning critical acclaim and, perhaps, an Oscar nomination. In those days the company was without a long list of stars. It couldn't afford one. So the late great Sophie Rosen stein was brought in as dramatic coach and test director. She launched the Project, which has since grown into a major operation with an annual budget, including the "students" salaries, of around $800,000, under the direction of Robert Palmer, studio casting director. For 1953, says Palmer, the bill is likely to be nearer $1,000,000 for this "new faces" program, which aims at finding promising new talent. The "big push" this year will go behind Susan Ball, Mari Blanchard, Ruth Hampton, Marcia Henderson, Barbara Rush and Russell Johnson. Greatest burden falls, perhaps, on Sophie Rosenstein's successor as drama coach — Estelle Harmon, who is generally the first person these potential starlets meet at the studio. She drags them through their first awesome audition and, from that moment, rarely lets them out of her sight as they progress through their gruelling course of "school". There is the voice class; selected movies illustrating specific values — direction, music, acting; diction or singing lessons; dancing or riding; lectures by Hollywood technical experts or executives, and every day there's physical training, wardrobe fitting, screen-tests or, rehearsals. Then comes the great day in June when Estelle Harmon puts on a stage show at the 400-seat Phantom Theater on the Universal lot, where the (Continued on Page 24) ELAINE STEWART Spotted in a Minor Role FILM BULLETIN March 23, 1953 Page 7