Movie Classic (Sep-Dec 1931)

Born to the 3 P o 1 1 i 3 h t Leila Hyams was bound to make good in the movies because she was reared in the theater. The daughter of well-known vaudeville parents brought her poise and talent to the screen — and uses them to fine advantage E,A HYAMS' cradle was the conventional troupers' trunk — and what is more, she slept in the tray for years afterwards. As everyone must know by this time, her mother and father are the well-known team of Hyams and Mclntyre, who have made a trek over the vaudeville circuits every year since some time before Leila was born. Little Leila trekked with them each winter for fifteen years. While other tots were learning their "Mother Goose," she was lisping, "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie." When she outgrew the trunk-tray, they got her a little red stool, on which she sat in the wings during every performance, so her mother could cast oblique glances from the stage and see that she wasn't getting into any trouble. Not just the life for a child ? Don't you believe it ! "A stage child is self-reliant," maintains Leila, with a candid blue gaze. "I really don't think anyone could have had a better upbringing than I had. Mother was very strict with me. I learned to mind, at an early age. I was much better disciplined than the pampered child who is surrounded by governesses. "And I escaped a lot of the silly, fantastic ideas that most children have. I never was stage-struck — I was so used to it all. Mother and Father made friends in almost every town we went to, and we were usually invited to somebody's house to dinner. I remember I used to think the children in those homes were silly. They were always crazy to go backstage, and got crushes on the actors, and they thought I was the seventh wonder of the world." Glad She Grew Up Backstage LEILA was given a part in the act at the age of five, so _/ naturally she became a very glamourous figure to all the poor infants who sat on their little red stools in mere nurseries instead of in the wings. "The life of the stage didn't make me hard, either — as most people seem to think it does. The people I knew were very wise and By HELEN 60 worldly, it's true. But they were lovely to me, and knowing them — knowing so many grown people — didn't affect me, except to give me a tremendous poise at a very early age. I think that is one of the most valuable things a child can have to start out in life with. I know that, no matter what happened, I could never be dismayed — I would take everything calmly, and feel sure that I would find some way to meet the situation. And I'm very thankful for that ability. "Don't get the idea that I spent my entire childhood in the theater, either. Mother and Father worked only in the winter. Every spring, we would go back to New York and go out to Long Island for the whole summer. We had a lovely home out there in the country, and all my friends were just ordinary children. In the summer I forgot all about the stage and went swimming and played and did all the things every other child does. "When I grew older, they began to give me 'bits,' which I hated. I was terribly self-conscious. If I had to stand in the middle of the stage during some scene, I imagined the whole audience had its eyes fixed on me, and it was agony. Her Suppressed Desire BUT I was ambitious. I wanted a career for myself, and the stage seemed the most logical thing. So I kept on. Finally William Collier, who is an old friend of the folks, wrote a comedy part for me in a play called 'Going Crooked.' It failed in New York, but was a great success everywhere else. The biggest thrill I have ever known was when I got my first laugh. "I'd rather play comedy than anything else. And though nobody will believe it, I'm a good comedienne. That's really the thing I have talent for. "That's what's so sad about the parts I have in pictures. Whenever they have something sobby, they call on Hyams." Leila heaved a philosophical sigh. "I hate it. Over at the studio they think I'm V A R D E N {Continued on -page JQ)