The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

Two Star-tling People about my life." she said. '"I am just an ordinary midwestern girl. I was born in Minneapolis, went to high school in Fargo, North Dakota. My real name is Virginia Briggs." "How did you happen to go into pictures?" "Six years ago I came to Los Angeles with my family. I had just graduated from high school and planned on going to college here, if the family budget could stand it. A chance visit to the home of William Beaudine. then a Fox director, resulted in a screen test. It happened so unexpectedly. Mr. Beaudine signed me to a personal contract. and I had to go to the court to have it approved. I was still a minor. It was then that I changed my name to Virginia Bruce. I made my screen debut in the Fox production. 'Exiles, ' starring Madge Bellamy. "Then Paramount put me under a one-year contract for my voice. William Wellman gave me my first bit in — oh. I can't remember the name of the picture now, it was with Hal Skelly. "I did a small part in the 'Love Parade.' with Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. I sang in this picture as one of the four ladies in waiting. "After doing small parts in a few other pictures. I started to slip, went on the downslide." She smiled with disarming modesty. "Ziegfeld borrowed me as a show girl in 'Whoopee.' It turned out to be a very fortunate connection. I went to New York. "I was nineteen. I had never been away from my parents, and didn't know anything about life, not a blessed thing. We thought of Xew York as a den of iniquity. My parents were worried. But I didn't have any trouble. I met a lot of men. but they didn't get fresh with me. I have found that most men have something good in them. At any rate. I seemed to appeal to their sense of chivalry. "Ziegfeld was very good to his girls. I was one of his six special show girls. He treated us with more consideration than he did most stars. We had the best dressing-room. etc. Fred Astaire and his sister Adele were the stars in "Smiles." the show in which I appeared. Adele gave me my first bracelet. 'It has brought me good luck.' she said. T hope it will bring good luck to you. too.' I was thrilled. It was very kind of her to single me out for that honor. Through her I met a lot of nice people." AS a Ziegfeld show girl Virginia had a ^~~* grand time. She shunned the phony counts, and chose her escorts from among Harvard and Princeton students. Samuel Colt. Ethel Barrymore's son. was one of her beaus. When George Jean Nathan saw her in "Smiles."' he was impressed by her likeness to Lillian Gish, and invited her to meet him at the Colony. She attended week-end parties on Mrs. William Randolph Hearst's Long Island estate, was entertained by the Ralph Pulitzers and others of the high and mighty. She met many famous literati. Noel Coward. Edna Ferber Alice Duer Miller, etc. Neysa McMein. who did popular covers for magazines, had her pose for her twice. Ziegfeld thought of her as the most beautiful blonde in America. But this gorgeous show girl did not have an evening dress! Part of her earnings apparently went to the support of her family in California, and she could not afford to buy the fineries her profession demanded. (Virginia Bruce) (Continued from page 31) "One night." she said, "I attended an important party given by Neysa McMein in her own dress."' After appearing in "America's Sweetheart," in which she had a speaking part, she came back to Hollywood to visit with her parents. Her work in musical comedies had attracted the attention of film moguls, and she was given a screen test with Robert Young for Irving Thalberg. Incidentally, this was the first time she had met Robert Young. He became her favorite escort for a year. On her way back to New York, she went to Fargo to stay a few days with relatives. A long distance call informed her that Thalberg had put her under contract. "I cried and cried!"' she said. "I didn't want to give up the freedom and the friends I enjoyed in New York. But this was a real break for me. "I did. nothing for six or seven months. Paramount, which had let me go, now borrowed me for 'Sky Brides.' with Dick Arlen and Jack Oakie. Other studios kept borrowing me. Then Mr. Thalberg gave me the lead opposite John Gilbert in 'Downstairs.' That was when I met Jack. I was working in 'Congo' with Walter Huston and Lupe Velez when we married. I gave up my career to concentrate on being a wife, which, after all, is the greatest career any girl can pursue. "My marriage was not successful, but it was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything else in the world. I have no misgivings about it. I did the best I could. "I had asked Mr. Thalberg to release me from my contract. He wouldn't. He thought I would be back in six months." She returned to pictures after an absence of eighteen months, more mature, mellowed by what she called "the greatest drama" in her life. Director Christy Cabanne. who had seen her three years before, and had not forgotten her. gave her the title role in Jane Eyre, produced by Monogram. Jane Eyre made for her a name on the screen. RKO borrowed her for "Dangerous Corners." and Twentieth Century for "The Mighty Barnum." commemorating the exploits of the first master of the great American art of ballyhoo, who made the observation that "There is a sucker born every minute." She was a veritable revelation in that rollicking picture, thriUing audiences not only with her ravishing beauty, but her extremely pleasing voice. "It had only 15 speaking parts in it and I didn't want to do it." she said. "But I got excited when I saw the pretty costumes I was to wear." She did in quick succession "Society Doctor," "Shadow of Doubt." and "Times Square Lady" on her home lot, trouping grandly in some difficult roles, and just finished a stellar part in "Let 'Em Have It." a United Artist release. M-G-M signed her up for "Escapade." with William Powell, and "Gold Eagle Guy." with Wallace Been-. Quietly, but surely, she is building fame of her own. after giving up her career, and today stands on the threshold of stardom. On the wall against which stood her couch there was a large picture of hers, a study with her baby. Susan Ann Gilbert. Is there anything more glorious and divine in this world than a beautiful young mother with her baby in her arms? I saw her little daughter the next day, as I went to her home up at Toluca Lake, ten minutes' spin from Hollywood. Mother-love shining in her eyes, Virginia spoke of her plans for Susie. "First of all I want her to have her own personality. I'll send her to the best schools. But I don't want her to spend more than a year at a girls' school. I believe in co-education. I want her to study languages, especially French and German, and learn to play a musical instrument. I want her to be humble and not to expect too much from life, which will spare her the pain of disappointment, and surprise her constantly with unlooked for successes. I want her to know people, all kinds of people, and learn to get along with both men and women." IN speaking of the training she would give her daughter, Virginia expounded her own philosophy of life. Nevertheless, I wanted to know what has beenthe guiding principle in her life. "There are two people in me. good and bad," she laughed, "but I always try to do the right thing. I couldn't be happy with a guilty conscience. And I always try to be honest, no matter what I do, although it gets me into the darndest messes. One way of gauging one's true personality is to find a favorite childhood memory. Virginia's favorite childhood memory is nine baby kittens that were born in the basement of their Fargo home in the Winter, which she mothered and cared for all during the cold months. You get the type. And today, she is fundamentally the same girl. She is that happy combination of the past and the present one so seldom meets. I can well imagine her romping on the green with a gang of merry children and gathering wild flowers with them on May Day. One of her hobbies is collecting first editions. I do not advise my fellow-scribes on the Boulevard to engage her in a conversation on classics unless they possess a Ph.D. in literature. I am speaking from sad personal experience. But her learning rests lightly on her shoulders. She would look ridiculous in horn-rimmed spectacles. And don't make the mistake of taking her for a saccharine tintype, either. She can spin around in a sizzling rash of jazz and sway dreamily to the purring notes of a crooner's song. When she came to Hollywood six years ago. just out of high school, she was learned not only in English and history, her favorite subjects, but in foxtrotology. She was the reigning belle in junior and senior proms. Her tranquil, ethereal beauty casts its own spell of magic over the public, quite unlike that exercised by any other star or near-star. There are. I suppose, different kinds of cinematic glamour. I like Virginia's. There can be no real beauty without that quality of understanding sympathy and loving warmth that characterizes this fair daughter of the Midwest. A game girl if ever there was one. She has the quiet strength of the truly strong. In these days of economic and mental depression, she is a valuable medicine. Her place in the honor roll of the cinema is like that of a mother's cool hand over the brow of a feverish child. She exhilarates and comforts. More than any other young actress, she deserves the title of America's New Sweetheart. —I don't give swimming all of the credit for my good health. I took a high dire into the diet problem, too. That's why Shredded Wheat is my favorite at breakfast—it's refreshing and helps build up lots of quick energy." -<. s. •*. Even morning millions of healthy outof-door folk dive into crisp, appetizing Shredded Wheat. Try it — heaped with fresh, juicy fruits or berries, swimming in milk or cream. You'll come up feeling fit for a hard day's work or play. ' Shredded Wheat, you know, is whole wheat — nothing added, nothing taken away. It supplies Nature's most perfect balance of the vital health elements — wrapped up for you in a delicious, nutbrown biscuit. So, come on in, the eating's fine. Kick up a wave of buoyant health with the food that's as good as it is good for you. Ask for the package showing the picture of Niagara Falls and the rid N.B.C.Uneeda Seal. "Uneeda Bakers' NATIONAL BISCUIT. COMPANY The Neic Movie Magazine, August, 1935 49