Hollywood (1939)

Do Girls Grow Up Too Soon in Hollywood? [Continued from page 19] to come to Hollywood. There the great production genius cast her as an understudy to Jean Rouverol, who was the understudy to Gloria Stuart, who was to play Hermia in the Max Reinhardt version of the Shakespearean fantasy in the Hollywood Bowl. First Jean and then Gloria had to drop from the cast at the last moment due to motion picture work. Livvy found herself playing the role. When Warners signed Reinhardt to direct the film version, Livvy, too, was signed. Luck took her that far. Her own talent and earnest efforts carried her the rest of the way through fifteen pictures, including Captain Blood, Anthony Adverse and Robin Hood, to well earned stardom, and her present role in the technicolor special, Dodge City. That she has grown up too soon, Livvy also admits, as others before her have done, and others after her will do. "Little Shirley Temple is a classic example," Livvy said. "What average child of nine or ten could handle an interview with the president of the United States or daily meetings with a celebrity-hardened press with the amazing savoir faire she displays? She is mistress of every situation, and Hollywood stardom is responsible." But if, as has been said, Shirley is the notable exception to all rules, Livvy claims that she still can prove her contention that girls grow up too soon in Hollywood by citing her own experiences. Looking older than her actual age would be her first point. "Last year I went back home to Saratoga for a visit," she said. "One day I popped across the street to see a dear little old lady I had known from childhood. While we were having tea and cookies an old schoolmate of mine happened to call. She is a year older than I, married and has a husky baby boy. I looked at her in amazement and, I must confess, envy. Her whole body seemed to breathe vitality and well-being. Her eyes were clear and gay and full of life. Her skin was smooth and glowing and fresh. What's more, the roses in her cheeks were real, not the kind that come out of a rouge pot. She was young and she looked young. "I hadn't seen a face like that for months, the face of a girl who looked her age. Certainly I hadn't seen one in Hollywood. When I got home I inspected my own in a mirror, trying to discover exactly what it was mine lacked. I could not find the answer; all I could see was that in spite of the care I try to give my body, in spite of living as simple a life as possible, I still looked older than a girl who undoubtedly had far fewer comforts than I. It wasn't exactly a cheering discovery." ■ The average girl of twenty-two has an unstudied attitude towards romance. Boy friends are boy friends, and casual association with them is as natural as living. If love comes, all well and good; if it doesn't, it is nothing extraordinary. Either way, it's strictly her own business. In Hollywood, a young girl's romance is everybody's business and definitely A PROBLEM with a hundred and one "angles." "As result, its chief charm, that of spontaneous gaiety is lost," Livvy said. "You become, of necessity, romance-conscious. You see romance being used for a thousand and one purposes, for publicity to build a new star or to save a falling one, for convenience in the matter of escorts, for a desperate grab at happiness, for saving face. Selfish motives, all of them. "And so much importance is attached to it! Friendship for friendship's sake alone is rank heresy; it's got to be Romance or nothing, and as much everyone's rightful concern as the daily weather reports in the newspaper. That being so, a girl must be on constant guard lest some casual or thoughtless act be misinterpreted. Who ever heard of young love on guard?" | Livvy had her baptism in Hollywood romance when she was eighteen and had been working at the studio less than two weeks. After exactly one dinner date with Dick Powell, a movie columnist had Why not try the uniT FACIAL MASK? All Grocers Sell UNIT 51