Hollywood (1942)

# earls are a fashion must . . . they enhance your beauty and charm . . . lend smartness to every costume. Especially if they're fine quality Deltah Pearls, whose Orientalpearl like sheen and color are a constant source of admiration. Note the women who wear them! eltah ^Pearls* RLDS F'*fST REP*ODUCT'0 Created by L. Heller nnil Son, Inr.. Fifth Arenue, \eic V AT BETTER JEWELERS EVERYWHERE ■ They tested forty actresses for the role of Tamara in The Tuttles of Tahiti, before an R-K-0 talent scout suggested a test for Peggy Drake. No one slapped him enthusiastically on the back. After all, forty established actresses is a lot of talent, and the Drake girl was just someone the scout had spotted in a small theater on a Hollywood side street. Her background consisted of bits in a few pictures and some dancing done in San Francisco. The least excited of all was dark-eyed, twenty-year-old Peggy herself. She was so sure she wouldn't get the part anyway, that she wasn't the least bit nervous when she reported at the studio at six-thirty one evening. She was even less optimistic when she learned that Jon Hall, who has the romantic lead in The Tuttles of Tahiti and who had made the tests with all the other candidates, had left at six. Another actor was to substitute for him. That showed, she felt, that the studio had as little hope for this particular test as she had. Her real hopes were pinned on another test she had taken for Warner Brothers. That was for a stock contract, something quite within the bounds of possibility, and not a "reaching for the moon" proposition like the fabulous lead in a Charles Laughton picture. So when Warners informed her the next day that they had no part in mind for her, but invited her to sign a commitment with them, she jumped at the chance. Then she learned that she had been selected for the coveted role of Ta.ma.ral Heartbroken, she explained her predicament and R-K-0 agreed to wait two days while she found out if the other studio would release her. It took six days, because now her value was considerably increased, but finally Warners decided they wouldn't stand in her way. She was free to accept one of the biggest plums of the year, and to her great relief she found that R-K-0 was still waiting! That's the story behind the discovery of the town's newest Cinderella. From bit parts to a seven-year contract starting at $1,000 a week is nice going, even for a Hollywood Cinderella. So no one would have been very much surprised if Peggy's head had been turned just a little, and she had suddenly broken out in a rash of new clothes, cars and a swimming pool or two. But it would take more than success to turn this Cinderella's pretty head, or those of her family. She still lives in the same modest Hollywood apartment, with her mother and seventeen-year-old adopted sister. Her father still works on a defense project in San Diego, visiting his family on weekends. Her older brother still ranches in Montana. The only change is that her twenty-four -year-old brother, Albert, has enlisted in the Coast Guard. "He had to help support the family before," Peggy explained, "but now that I have a job, it's no longer necessary." That job she was referring to is her $l,000-a-week contract! As for moving out of the small apartment, Peggy raised her eyebrows when I suggested she might be considering any such thing. "What for?" she wanted to 44