Hollywood (Jan - Oct 1934)

As told to SIGURD ERICSSON PLAY-GIRL This colorful scene from Flying Down to Rio illustrates the play-girl's conception of life in Hollywood. She discovered too late that Hollywood is not a glittering world where stars spend most of their time in a constant whirl of parties place my name in lights. I know now that I'll never be a star. I never could have been a star. My attitude was wrong from the start. "Before coming to Hollywood, I lived in a small Middle-Western town. I was the prettiest girl in that town — and don't think for a moment that I wasn't well aware of the fact. "In high school, I was a ring-leader of the fastest crowd. I had a 'wild' reputation, and I was proud of it. I was in half-a-dozen 'scrapes' by the time I was eighteen — but I managed to get out of them all without any actual scandal, and they made me all the more conceited. I wanted to be considered a 'woman of the world,' and I felt that I was irresistible. "I was married when I was nineteen — and I regretted it before I was twenty. My husband was a good dancer, but he was lazy and shiftless, just a small town 'sheik.' "I rebelled at the monotony, and longed to get away from that one -horse -town. Hollywood was the end of my rainbow — and you can imagine my excitement when I won that beauty contest and was notified that I would be sent to Hollywood. My only regret was that my husband decided to come with me. "I was given a screen test the day I arrived here and two days later, I was called to the studio and offered a contract. My starting salary was $125 a week, and each three months, if the studio exercised its options, my contract would be renewed and my salary increased. "The idea that the studio might refuse its options never penetrated my conceit . . . and neither did the idea that I owed the studio anything in the way of honest effort. I pictured Hollywood as a glittering world where glamorous stars spent a few care-free hours now and then before the cameras, and the rest of their time in a constant whirl of dizzy parties. My salary, during the final year of my contract, was to be $2,500 a week, and I proceeded to spend it five years in advance. To give my husband — ex-husband now — all due credit, he gave me enthusiastic help in incurring a mountain of debts. • "I was turned over to a dramatic coach, a kindly old veteran of the stage, who sincerely wanted to help me. He told me, repeatedly, that no actress could succeed without unceasing study and work. He cited examples, famous stage stars of whom I never had heard — and I laughed at him. I had read that many stars had never spent much time studying their 'art,' and I felt that I was a great deal more attractive than some of those stars. Several directors and several prominent leading men had shown me attention already. Everyone said that 'pull' was the one sure road to screen success and that was the road I decided to take. "I played my firse role in an underworld melodrama. The director — I'll call him Stanley Feldman, although that isn't his real name — went 'on the make' for me the very first day of production, and I not only knew it, but encouraged him in every way possible. I knew that he had plenty of influence with the 'big boss.' "Feldman took me to dinner several times and, of course, it got into the gossip columns. My husband was furious and we had several nasty quarrels. Finally, I left him and Feldman helped me pick out an apartment in one of the swankiest apartment houses in Hollywood. "What I didn't know was that Laura Daimler (that's not her real name, either), one of the biggest stars on the lot, was in love with Feldman. And neither did I know just how stupid and amateurish my work in that first picture was. "My first jolt came when the studio failed to take up my second option. I hadn't saved a dime and I was headover-heels in debt. "Feldman handed me my second jolt when he and Laura Daimler announced their engagement. He had been playing me for the little fool I was from the start. I was Plense turn to i>j»k«' fifty-one 43