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Hollywood’s
Real Life Fairy Tales
Stars who Rose from the Ranks
HOLLYWOOD'S Band of Hope — that enormous register of names at the Central Casting Bureau — affords a greater example of “ hope springing eternal in the human breast,” than even the purchase of Irish sweep tickets.
Perhaps one in every ten thousand extras achieves stardom. Yet everyone of those thousands goes on to the set wondering whether the lucky break, that is going to make him or her a topliner, is due to arrive.
Perhaps they will be noticed by the director ; or be singled out to do some little “ bit ” that will eventually lead them to the starry heights.
Perhaps their particular talent — for every extra believes that he or she, given the opportunity, could be a second Shearer, Garbo, or Gable — will one day attract attention in the right quarter, and bring them fame.
For even in Hollywood, city of disillusionment and synthetic romance, real-life fairy tales like these have been known to come true.
Any extra girl will point with pride to those fortunate ones who have risen from their ranks. “ And if they can do it,” a little blonde extra girl once said to me. “ Why shouldn't I ? ”
“ Why shouldn’t I ? ” Those three words express, in a nutshell, the philosophy of the average Hollywood extra.
And these modem fairy tales do come true, but the fairy godmother is a casting director, and the enchanted palace a mansion on Beverly Hills.
* * *
Janet Gaynor must surely be the envy of all the extra girls who are struggling to get work. Her progress to stardom was as Cinderella-like as the wistful roles that she plays on the screen.
Janet never knew the dreariness of long waits at the casting offices ; she never suffered the disillusionment of being told, time and time again, “ No more casting to-day.”
For a time, she worked in an office in San Francisco, until her family moved into Hollywood.
Until then, a screen career had not entered Janet's head. But after living a short time in the film capital she soon got bitten by the movie bug.
The studio gates seemed to open as if by magic at her touch. On her very first application, she got work as an extra, and it was not
by
Oliver Dawson
very long before she was acting minor roles for Fox.
These small parts quickly became larger ones, until she was selected by Frank Borzage for the
Richard Arlen
role of Diane in that epoch-making success. Seventh Heaven.
With a send-off like that, Janet’s screen future was pretty well assured.
Unlike many other meteoric successes, Janet has succeeded in retaining her position as one of the five most popular stars of the screen ever since.
For which the Gaynor brand of wistful appeal, that oiled the hinges of the studio gates, and paved the way to early stardom, is to no small extent responsible.
It is not everyone, however, who can climb the ladder of movie fame so easily and so rapidly.
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