Hollywood (1942)

we* MAY DRISCOLL | What's happened to Maureen O'Sullivan? When she first came to Hollywood ten years ago, she was one of the most promising young actresses in pictures. But for ten long years now, Maureen has been little more than a demure ingenue to whom nothing happens, her career further stalemated by the fact that she has been pigeon-holed as Tarzan's mate and as such may be doomed to spend the rest of her screen life up in a tree with Johnny Weissmuller and a couple of apes. Maureen has suddenly grown up. Something has jolted her out of her nice little fairyland, and it is a jolt which may be the beginning of a new and more exciting Maureen O'Sullivan. Three years ago Maureen sat on the terrace of her luxurious Bel -Air home and knew that she was the most blessed of women. She had a handsome husband, John Farrow, successful writer and producer, and a healthy baby boy, Michael Damien. Life was snug and secure and as her contentment in private life grew, her interest in her career lessened. She planned to have a houseful of children, and if maternity and wedded bliss killed her career she didn't give a hoot. She may have thought now and then, most casually, that she should be doing more standout roles. There were excellent things just patterned for her — the turbulent, tragic Maeve in My Son, My Son, which made Laraine Day a star, for instance; or the tender, bitter-sweet role of Fredric March's wife in So Ends Our Night which fell to Frances Dee, or the vivid girl Geraldine Fitzgerald played in 36 Wuthering Heights. These were roles with depth and strength which might have made Maureen a more definite screen personality instead of the perpetual ingenue. Then suddenly, Maureen's snug design for living collapsed. Her husband, an English citizen, enlisted and became a Lieutenant Commander in the British Navy two years ago. Maureen saw him sail away from Vancouver one gray, chilly evening and from her tears and heartache, the attendant anxieties and personal adjustments, was bom this new Maureen O'Sullivan. Protected all of her life — first by her family, then by her husband — by nature feminine and extremely sentimental, it was difficult for her to carry on alone. At first she fell to pieces. "I couldn't take it at the beginning," she recalls in a small voice. "I gave up the large house and moved into a small bungalow, to save money and to escape memories. I wouldn't see anyone. I shut myself up with my own misery and refused to go out. I wasn't making a picture just then and didn't care if I never did. I stayed home with the baby and we retired at the same early hour. The more I secluded myself, the more wretched I felt, but I didn't have the will to go out. "Then I received a call to report for another Tarzan picture. People have often asked me if I haven't ever regretted being in the Tarzan series because it typed me and might have cost me other roles. I never thought one way or the other about it, but now I have a definite feeling about Tarzan — a feeling of gratitude — because Maureen O'Sullivan is grateful to Tarzan for saving her career in the nick of time. She's in Tarzan Against the World Tarzan saved me. I was listless, worried, uninterested in things up until the moment I walked on the set, and then suddenly my whole viewpoint changed. When I saw Johnny Weissmuller, and the same director and crew, I felt their friendliness leap right out to me. There were the same jokes, the same teasing. It was the first time in months that I laughed, and I felt better immediately. "Even the baby seemed to notice it when I got home. That evening I realized how foolish it was to mope and shut out everyone. If I kept that up, what sort of dreary character would John come home to? So for the first time since Johnny left I faced facts." And that's when the change in Maureen came about. She enlarged her activities, increased her friendships and most revolutionary, decided to concentrate more seriously upon her career. "When I reached that state of mind, life became full again. I had loads of new friends — amusing, witty people. I went out a good deal and I didn't mind being the 'lone woman.' I took a greater interest in my clothes and my appearance. I experimented with new hairdos and gowns. I went to New York for a holiday and had a wonderful time meeting new people and seeing all the plays. My scope was widened and my personality with it. "As for my career, I realize now that I don't want to sit in an African jungle all my life, but I do owe a lot to Tarzan because working there set me back on my feet. I have never really been a career girl. I love acting but it was always more important for Johnny and me to be happy. Now the career looks more important than ever. Perhaps I shall do a play. If I do, I'd choose a character who is strong and earthy, not an ethereal little clinging vine. I'd like to do something really fine to keep me busy now so that John might be a little proud of me, just as I am very much so of him. This may be the best thing in the world for me, for perhaps I'll fight for my parts as I have never fought for them before." Somehow you know that Maureen means it. She would not have been capable of it a few years ago, but she is now. The new responsibilities have given her the drive she needed, the inner turmoil is furnishing the vitality, and being her own mistress has given her a more tangible dignity. You notice it instantly. Why, she even looks different — her eyes are graver, her chin more out-thrust, her hair isn't worn girly girl fashion tumbling to her shoulders but in a more sleek style on top of her head. That doesn't sound like the fragile, wistful Maureen O'Sullivan of old, does it? ■