The New Movie Magazine (Dec 1929-May 1930)

The real story of Fifi Dorsay, who gave up marriage for the Hollywood Movies. heart. I am so happy. I get a wire from my manager to coom to New York Monday morning for a motion-picture test. 'A' ' first I haf thrill. What Monsieur Chaplin say has come true. Then I think, 'Ah, what's the use?' They giv tests to many. I should give up going to Detroit to marry for a test. I am in lof "I do not answer. The next day I get a wire to telephone my agent and charge him on the other end of it. Then I know eet is serious eef he pay for eet. But I am in lof. I go to Detroit and when I get there who do I see but my manager! He has suspect me. "He tell my sweetheart what a beeg part eet ees with Will Rogers. I must not let lof interfere with me. My sweetheart, he sees eet. He does not want to stop me from being a big success in the movies. I go back to New York. "I go into a beeg office. The first thing they say ees take off your hat. I am tired ; I am deesapointed. " 'Eef you don't like me the way I am, I will go back to Detroit and get married!' "They haf lots of people to test. I am sorry I come. I wish I am in Detroit. But at two o'clock eet ees my turn. I sing, 'Give The Little Baby Lots of Lovin'.' Eet ees my goodluck song. I sing eet for Paul Ash. That I will tell you later. "Eet ees Saturday. They do not tell me how they think about it. I go back to the girls in the show at Rochester. They all expect me with a wedding ring. I come with no ring but maybe a vamp to Will Rogers. "Eet is the thirteenth of June when my manager telephone to say he have a contract and everything. On the twentieth I am in Hollywood. Just three weeks on the same day I am for the first time before a camera. What Charlie Chaplin has say happens that all of a sudden ! "With all the girls in Hollywood and New York, for them to chose me. Eet was just like God pointing a finger to Pittsburgh and picking out one Fifi .Dorsay!" SHE sat back, sighed. "But eet has not always been so easy. I haf work very hard. Then just when I am ready to marry "Yes, I still lof heem. I have much, what you say respect. I haf a deep friendship for heem. But " she hesitated; her eyes brooded. "I don't know. He think I do not care so much. But here in peectures you work so hard there is not so much time to care. He ees my man. I haf lof only heem. But I haf my career — Maybe I should have got married! "But I haf always a family at my back! I must theenk of them always. My brother ees sixteen. He works in New York. I must send for heem to come to Hollywood. And my sister. She is twenty-one. I am twenty-two months older. She ees stenographer in New York. My mother and father have died. See? I carry always the beads which my mother have in her fingers when she die. I promise I will take care of Roger and Alice. I must do eet. I cannot let lof stop me. They are the last of the keeds. There are thirteen. "You theenk that is many?" She laughed. From Fifi's real name is Yvonne. She was born near Paris and migrated to Canada when her father crossed the Atlantic. She came to New York as a stenographer. pensiveness to gay humor in less than a minute! "You should see my aunt. She haf twenty-two children and three husbands. The husbands all die. She still lives. We are a good family. Some day, I too — I lof children, When I haf made my name and my money. "But I have not always the advice of Monsieur Chaplin to help me. I have struggle. Oh, my life eet ees sad at moments. I do not know how '""pHEY call me Miss Fifi from Paris. I am not Fifi. A I am not straight from Paris. I am Yvonne Dorsay, born in Asnieres, near Paris. I was to be a nun. They send me to a convent. But even the sisters they tell me not to be a nun but to go on the stage. In the little acts we give I sing and dance. The nuns themselves say, 'Fifi, you should go on the stage.' I make up my mind then. But the stage does not come easy." Another pause; another sigh; another wistful expression. "My father work for the government. They send him to Canada. I am a stenographer. I write in shorthand both English and French. I still have my accent but I can write English as well as American girls. After four years in Canada I am still wild for the stage, so I haf save enough to coom to New York. I think then eet will be easy there." She shrugged. "Life ees never easy. I find that out. I work as stenographer six months before I have chance to even look behind a curtain. Then I go to the office of John Murray Anderson. I am desperate. I am sixteen. I must get started. (Continued on page 112) 77