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Come True?
in order to meet Norma Taldramatically disillusioned and how her dreams did come true.
\\torth Fitch
"It was a tragedy — then. Now I realize what a blessing the situation was, for a trusting fan's first month in Hollywood, in an active studio, is not conducive to rationality of conduct or tranquillity of outlook. To some, the experience must be dreadfully disillusioning, but I was too interested in basic facts — too intrigued by the colorful, truthful parade.
"You see, my ambition is to be a press agent, so perhaps at heart I really loved the lessons I learned. It isn't the fans do not know in advance that movie castles are backed by wooden props, that there is a publicity ■ department in every studio, and that the stars receive such quantities of fan mail that if they read it all, they would have no time left in which to face a camera. I knew these things, but you'd be surprised how jarring it can be to encounter the genuine thing, to learn in reality what you have steeled yourself against in theory!
It was different to see A" unusual picture of the bags full of mail Miss Talmadge on the delivered to the stu sands near her beach home
Norma Talmadge dislikes diffusion, because she receives so much of it insincerely, and is bored by emotional demonstration.
dio, and watch it being sorted by disinterested workers, often running across trusting letters from familiar fans in the daily collection of Norma's mail. But to me, at first, the awakening was only fascinating. The pain was far surpassed by the thrill of contact with things pertaining to Miss Talmadge.
"That first day at the studio, gazing emotionally at the spot which my guide pointed out as the scene of her latest dramatic episode— the thrill of going through her bungalow, sitting in her chair, peeking into her clothes closet — you can't imagine how wonderful it all seemed ! That is why I say it is best not to have met her during those first months of excitement and adjustment. There would have been a scene. Emotion and embarrassment on my part, with impatient tolerance, no doubt, on hers. But at the time I could not realize this. The dreadful shock of disappointment was followed by weeks of longing, during which my name was placed on the studio pay roll and the return half of my round-trip ticket stored away in a trunk with various other souvenirs. Then — her return from abroad, and those days of nervous tension passed in the fear that she might walk into the office any minute. I need not have worried so Continued on page 110