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BY
SIDNEY SKOLSKY
in the Jolson role. Since the picture was being made at Columbia, we decided to interview those actors on the Columbia contract list. Parks was interviewed and agreed to make a test. He was eager. It was a big chance. He got up on the song ‘Swanee,’ put on a Jolson make-up and costume, and pretended he was singing while a Jolson record played ‘Swanee.’ The test was so good that we didn’t bother looking for anyone else. Larry Parks was to be A1 Jolson.”
“You mean,” said the columnist, “that the first actor tested for the part got it? That you didn’t start a national search for an actor to play A1 Jolson? There wasn’t a big campaign and plenty of publicity? That you didn’t make it appear difficult? You’ve got plenty to learn about this business as a producer before you’ll be any David O. Selznick!”
“Suppose,” said Producer Skolsky, “that you stop belittling and just tell me what you want to know.”
“I want to know a little about Parks’.s background. Where he comes from? How he became an actor? Whether he’s married?”
“Well, Larry Parks hails from Olathe, Kansas, and the date is December 13, 1914. He was christened Sam Klusman Laurence Parks. He is five feet eleven inches tall, weighs
Larry as Mammy singer, A1
160 pounds, has brown eyes, brown hair, a set of muscles and really likes to work.
“He studied to be a doctor at the University of Illinois. But after becoming a member of the Dramatic Club, acting in plays, singing on a local radio station, when he was graduated he decided to become an actor. He went to the place where most people who want to be actors go— Broadway. Like most other beginners he found it difficult to get work as an actor. To make money to buy food, he took a job as a guide at Radio City Music Hall, where later he was able to sit and watch himself on the screen in ‘The Jolson Story’!”
“Just give me the information,” said the columnist. “Don’t try to write it for me.”
“Anyway,” said the producer, ignoring the interruption, “Parks later got a job as an actor with the Group Theatre. Never had a leading role. Just bits. Realizing that he was getting nowhere, he decided to try Hollywood. His father had died. He had his mother to think about. She lives with him. She’s been ill for years and his devotion to her is great. It wasn’t easy to get started in Hollywood. He played in a few forgotten pictures before he was signed by Columbia. Then he be