Modern Screen (Dec 1940 - Nov 1941)

KNEE HIGH TO AN OSCAR (Continued from page 6) your lips and finger tips Women welcome this exciting new nicety introduced by Marlboro. Smarter, cleaner smoking is yours with the pert red Beauty Tip, Enjoy su perb Marlboros! No extra iiow Of)d cost for this extra luxury. Only ^ \ J * MARLBORO YOU CAN STILL OBTAIN FAMOUS IVORY TIPS — ALSO PLAIN ENDS at Universal Studios. Gloria is twice as pretty in person as the camera allows. Symbolically enough, she was dolled up in an old dress of Deanna's, a blue taffeta affair, much too long for Gloria, but that didn't matter. Gloria was in the portrait gallery for a sitting of head close-ups. While she waited for the lights to be set, she passed the time ripping open a stack of fan letters. Every now and then Gloria giggled. Finally she shoved one letter at me and smiled. When Gloria Jean smiles her dark blue eyes draw up in little violet slots and her eyelashes look like zippers. Her round, pink-and-white face topped by a neat mop of naturally wavy titian tresses smiles right along with her generous mouth. It was hard to concentrate — but I made it. "Dear Gloria," said the letter. "I am only thirteen and I know I am too young for love but I can't help it, you are the prettiest girl in the world. Will you marry me? Donald." She's a siren, this twelve-year-old! Why, some months ago Bing Crosby brought his kids on the set one day to watch pappy work. The next morning, bright and early, Gary, the eldest offspring, stalked into Bing's bedroom and woke him out of a sound sleep. "Well, Dad," stated Gary, "it's happened!" "What's happened?" inquired Bing, wide awake and wondering what epic event had arrived in the life of his son and heir. "Judy Garland's out," declared Gary. "I've got a new girl — Gloria Jean." Mesmerized young males by the thousands may moon over Gloria Jean, but right now Gloria isn't doing any mooning back. She's too busy savoring the wonders of Hollywood. And with all the real flesh and blood screen gods stalking around her sets (and being a terrific movie fan) Gloria is having a few crushes herself. Dangling from the charm bracelet on her wrist is a gold medallion embossed with the classic profile of Basil Rathbone. Gloria raved about Basil so much when she made the picture with Bing that The Groaner had the little gold gadget made for a parting gift. Gloria was faithful to Basil for a long time, even after her Charles Boyer affair, but recently the autographed picture which hung over her bed was given away to Brian Aherne's romantic face, also lovingly autographed. What's more, Gloria has a big box of candy from Brian to prove his devotion, whether Joan Fontaine likes it or not. John Sutton, a handsome young Universal newcomer, is now looming large in Gloria's daydreams, as are Spencer Tracy and Errol Flynn, and it's to be expected that almost every dashing movie hero who visits Universal to make a picture will have his brief but blazing day in Gloria's worship. To Gloria all this is a fantastic, wonderful dream come true — a dream that began quite a while ago back in Buffalo, N. Y., where she was born. When Gloria was too young to dream about Hollywood, her pretty, energetic mother did it for her. For if you ask Eleanor Schoonover, she will swear she knew Gloria Jean had a rare voice when she was only fifteen months old. The record reveals that at that age Gloria actually showed up on a Scranton radio program, and at five she made her debut in a big Scranton theatre officially classified as a coloratura soprano! From then on about all Gloria Jean did, outside of wolf her oatmeal and learn her ABC's, was to burst into song at the slightest provocation. Gloria Jean was pretty famous locally by the time Paul Whiteman came through on tour with his band and, after one audition, offered her a contract. BY that time there wasn't much doubt that Gloria was destined for a singing career, but Mama Schoonover and Gloria's Uncle Jack, a voice expert who really discovered Gloria's professional pipes, were set on grand opera. It took a lot of moxie to say "no" to Paul Whiteman, creator of stars, but they did, and lucky for Gloria, too. Because right after that she had her tonsils out, and complications set in that had her lying around a hospital for almost a year. Everyone thought she'd lose her pretty voice for sure — but when she got well, her singing was better than ever! Then Gloria's mother knew there was only one thing to do — get Gloria to New York where the big breaks were. They started out broke and had absolutely no trouble staying that way, for there wasn't enough money in the Schoonover family to maintain two homes. Gloria finally got a job with a little one-horse New York opera company but, when they worked her too hard and threatened to ruin her voice, Mama S. didn't hesitate to pound the pavements again. Just when it looked like back to Scranton for keeps, the good Hollywood fairy waved her wand with a swell sense of timing. Whether they wished upon a star or what, I couldn't say — but all of a sudden things certainly began happening. Larry Waterman, assistant to the president of Universal, was in New York and saw Gloria at a try out. He liked her! The next day Larry told Joe Pasternak, who was in the East on a pleasure trip, that he'd seen another Deanna Durbin. Pasternak clapped his brow. The last thing in the world he wanted to see or even hear about was another Deanna Durbin. Everybody he talked to had one. He wasn't interested in interviewing young hopefuls and mama's darlings — not this trip. He was on vacation and he meant to stay that way. No mix-ups with moppets! But there's a funny thing about Hollywood producers. When they think they are on vacation, they're often spinning their brains around a mile a minute over some future epic. Joe had bought an I.A.R. Wylie magazine story called "The Underpup," but he didn't have a typical American kid to play in it. Consequently, it was a cinch for Larry Waterman to break him down to an interview with Gloria Jean. She didn't even have to sing for Joe. She just played a couple of her records and turned on her smile. It was a ticket to Hollywood! Long before this, Gloria had started making scrapbooks of her particular movie favorites and dreaming about Hollywood as some sort of Seventh Heaven. She'd always pictured it as a lush, tropical place, where cocoanuts rolled around in the streets, green palm trees swayed and glamorous stars pattered around in a paradise of luxury. Well, it was sort of a shock to find Movieland just another big city full of noises, hard-working people, lots of traffic and practically no cocoanuts. Undaunted, Gloria Jean made up her mind to concentrate on the movie studios and their glamorous stars, and so far they DECEMBER, 1940 81