Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

49 Six Steps to Success One by one, they have led Barbara Kent from a prairie farm in Canada to the heroine of Harold Lloyd's new picture. B$ A. L. Wooldridge MAMMA CLOUTMAN called Papa Cloutman" into the farmhouse on the wind-swept reaches of western Canada for a little talk. She had a few things on her mind which she intended to unload. Mamma Cloutman was tired of living in isolation. She and her husband had lived comfortably in England some years before, when there fell into Papa Cloutman's hands some inflammatory literature telling of the fortunes to be made in the province of Alberta, Canada. There were pictures of the great, rolling prairies, fields of swaying wheat, and happy, prosperous families living "out where the West begins." Papa Clotitman suddenly found himself tired of his job in a London publishing house, and yearned for a place where he could stretch. "Why," he argued, "we can get a quarter section over there, raise bushels of wheat, have a cow and chickens, and live in God's pure air away from these fogs." In time, of course, Mamma Cloutman gave in, and they bade good-by to old friends in England and set sail for America — bound for those broad, rolling prairies. Immigrants! Homesteaders! Two of the 86,796 souls who poured from the United Kingdom into Canada in 1906. Inspection by the immigration officers on the East coast, a long trip by railroad, and Mr. and Mrs. Julian Cloutman stepped off at a lonely station far out in Canada's land of rolling prairies. Followed years of pioneering. The farm developed, revenues increased, but it was lonely. There were the long,^ winter evenings when the northern lights cast intermittent glows of bright yellow and red through the heavens, when the wolves howled and the coyotes yapped. There was the wind which blew for days and days — and work, work, work! Into the house of the homesteaders came a baby, a pretty, blue-eyed infant whom they named Barbara. Little Barbara developed into a girl of unusual beauty. She learned to ride, attended school, and grew into a wild flower of the wheat lands, doomed, it seemed, to spend her days in that remote spot in Canada. Right then it was that Mamma Cloutman rebelled, and called her husband in for another talk. " — and just as soon," she concluded, "as we can sell off these things and get out, the better it will be — better for us and for Barbara." Break No. 1 it was for little Barbara, the first of an amazing series of breaks destined to carry her before the spotlight of the world. The family cut loose, disposed of its holdings, journeyed by boat and train to San Jose, California, and a little later to Los Angeles. There Barbara entered Hollywood High School. Break No. 2 for Barbara came before lone. Her Photo by Freulich Barbara Kent combines the freshness of an open-air girl with the poise of a finishing-school product. striking beauty attracted attention in the city of films, and presently she was chosen to be "Miss Hollywood" in a civic celebration. Break No. 3 followed quickly. Paul Kohner, casting director for Universal, saw her at an auction sale, sought an introduction, and asked her to come out to the studio for a film test. "You should screen like a million!" he prophesied. Break No. 4 came the same week. It was an offer for a contract. "Get some other name than Cloutman," said Kohner. "It's too long, and isn't especially pleasing." "I'll be Barbara Kent," she replied. "Kent was my mother's maiden name." Here, almost in a flash, a girl from the prairies had been transported to California, crowned "Miss Hollywood" in a city of thousands of beauties, then offered work in films. She could hardly believe it. There followed a few "cow operas," with "Curly" Witzel, and Fred Humes, a leading role with Reginald Denny — then Break No. 5. "Metro-Goldwyn wants to borrow you for a role with John Gilbert and Greta Garbo, in 'Flesh and the Devil,' " Mr. Kohner said. "Will you go out for a screen test?" Would she ? The little wild flower felt the blood surge to her temples, and things swam before her eyes. She most certainly would, if the motor of her little car would hold out long enough to get her there. Continued on page 110