The filmgoers' annual (1932)

Intimate Lives of the Stars 159 in a nail factory, Maurice lost jobs with perfect abandon. Deciding at last that he never could be a labourer, he went to the Concert of the Three Lions one night when he was fifteen and boldly told the manager of some highly-successful engagements which existed only in his imagination. He asked for a chance as a singer. On the insistence of the manager's wife, the boy received his chance. But he was a failure. He had never sung with a piano before, and the unaccustomed chords threw him into confusion. But he gritted his teeth after being shown the door of the Three Lions and continued to search for work as a singer. His next chance came at the Casino des Tourelles. This paid him three francs an evening, four evenings a week. He had become used to a piano by this time and did well, imitating popular hits and stars. A friend in Paris took him to meet the celebrated Mistinguett, one of the foremost musical comedy stars of Paris, and the lady, scanning his sparkling face, is said to have predicted : " You need have no worry about your future, with a smile like yours." A few years sped by and Chevalier found himself, now a tall handsome youth in his late teens, the dancing partner to the great Mistinguett, at the famed Folies Bergere. In 1913 Chevalier joined his regiment to serve his time as a conscript soldier. The war began and he fought through it with distinction until he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. He and a friend escaped from their camp by passing themselves off as Red Cross workers. Although prison doctors had warned him never to sing again, Chevalier got work at an obscure cafe and did sing, at first only a few songs each night, then as his strength returned, putting on the old programmes which had once made him famous. His old friends fbcked back to him. Again he became the partner of Mistinguett and they appeared in the Folies Bergere and the Casino de Paris. His name again glittered in electric lights. He was a star. He went to London and appeared with Elsie Janis in a revue entitled " Hello, America." For several years he was the star in Parisian musical revues, once appearing in " Argentina." It was during this period that he married Yvonne Vallee, with whom he used to sing at the Empire Theatre. Chevalier took his first dancing lessons twenty years ago from an English music-hall entertainer, J. W. Jackson, who, at one time, had Charles Chaplin as a member of his troupe of dancers and singers. His knowledge of English was obtained in 1914 and 1915 from Ronald Kennedy, a fellow-prisoner at the German military camp in Alten Grabow. His latest talking picture, "The Smiling Lieutenant," looks as if it will be his greatest success. Born in Menilmontant, France, near Paris. Height, 5 feet ll'/i inches. Smooth brown hair. Blue eyes. LEW CODY Lew Cody's first appearance on the talking screen was in support of Gloria Swanson in "What a Widow ! " is particularly well equipped for talking picture work as a result of long training on the stage prior to his experience in silent pictures. He was born as Lewis Joseph Cote on February 22, 1885, in Berlin, New Hampshire, where his father was a well-to-do merchant. The early part of his life was spent in Berlin, but he received his advanced education in McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he studied medicine. Deserting the medical practice for the theatre, Cody became well known in stock and later toured the United States in vaudeville. His first role in pictures was as leading man to Bessie Barris cale in " Mating " in 1915, under the direction of Thomas Ince. Among the last silent pictures in which he played stellar roles are " His Secretary," " Sporting Venus," " Adam and Evil," " Baby Cyclone," " Beau Broadway " and " The Single Man." He has a great part in the P.O.C. film " Beyond Victory." Cody seems to have shown a preference for whimsical comedy roles, but confesses to a secret ambition to be sophisticated ! His favourite sports are swimming, golf, tennis, and riding. The theatre affords his principal diversion, he is regarded as being exceptionally well read, and is an accomplished pianist. He is the finest after-dinner speaker in Hollywood. His height is 5 feet 11 inches; he has black hair and brown eves. JUNE COLLYER June Collyer, whose real name is Dorothy Hermance, comes of theatrical st)ck. She was born in New York City and educated in the parochial schools of that city. Her mother was Carrie Collyer, a well-known actress, and her grandfather, Dan Collyer, was celebrated in his day. Her father was a non-professional. She had hoped to be a dancer and had done some amateur work along this line when Winfield Sheehan, of Fox Films, saw and urged her to take a screen test. It was successful and she was immediately given a role in East Side, West Side," made at the New York studios. She then went to Hollywood, where she appeared in " Hangman's House," "Woman-Wise," " Me Gangster," " Four Sons," " Red Wine," and " Not Quite Decent " for Fox, and " River of Romance " for Paramount. She was next given a big role in First National's all-Technicolor picture, " Kiss Me Again." Born in New York, August 9, 1907 ; height, 5 feet 5 inches ; brown hair and eyes. RONALD COLMAN See Page 75. BETTY COMPSON "As I look back on my piotessional life " says Betty Compson, whose ability and blonde beauty have made her one of the screen's favourites, " 1 realise that there have been several distinct eras in my progress since the days of one-reel comedies. " For it was in such one-reelers that I began my screen career. Coming to Los Angeles in my early 'teens as a vaudeville violinist, I was placed under contract by Universal and worked under the direction of Al Christie in Nestor comedies. This comedy experience constituted the formative period, which also included subsequent work in my first dramatic role (with Monroe Salisbury in ' The Light of Victory ') and some rousing ' Westerns' with William Desmond. " Then came ' The Miracle Man,' which was undoubtedly the greatest milestone in my career. It served to establish me in the position which we of the screen all covet — stardom. And as they say in the story books, this went on for years I " And then happened one of those things that happen so often in Hollywood— ' the breaks ' somehow went against me, and I went out like a light. My contracts completed, no more calls came from studios. Entirely forgetting the ' big ' producers, I reigned for more than a year as ' the Queen of Poverty Row.' " And then came the talking pictures, and with them the beginning of \ Leila Hyams was a popular stage star before she made a talking picture hit in " Alias Jimmy Valentine." the fourth era of my screen career Though I had had no experience on the stage, my voice tests in various Hollywood studios were found satisfactory enough to ensure my appearance in a number of the early talkies, and I was reputed to have staged a more or less astounding come-back. At any rate, I am happy to be able to say the talking pictures are now keeping m> decidedly busv."