We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
A STRONG-WILLED STAR THE FOUNDLING T o Wallace Ford, who won talkie fame overnight opposite Joan Crawford in *' Possessed, belongs probably the most unusual life story of any star. He is English, but does not know who were his mother and father, and only just over two years ago discovered, from a copy of his birth certificate, that he was born in Bolton. He was left as a tiny nameless baby in Dr. Barnado s home, where he was given the name of Samuel Jones. He was still so young when he was sent to Toronto to be adopted, that even the voyage across the Atlantic left no impression. The family to whom he was sent were farmers in Manitoba and adopted him not because they wanted a son, but because within a few years, he would be cheaper than a hired labourer. A charity boy they could feed less and work harder and ill-treat, without fear of him giving notice. He was allowed one pair of overalls and one pair of boots a year. He never knew what Christmas was, or heard of Santa Claus, or had any companionship— and he has never been to school in his life. At last he became so miserable that he ran away, a boy of eleven, with no money at all. For years he lived as he could, until a job with the Permanent Players, of which Theodore Roberts was then director, made him decide to be an actor. He mixed the life of actor with the life of a tramp, and while “ on the road ” met a tramp philosopher from whom he took his present name—his own he had forgotten, and answered to anything he was called. This tramp was his one friend, and his death was an irreparable loss. And the greatest thrill in his life is to realise that he has a home of his own, with a wife and daughter to love him. L ily DAMITA S return to the screen in talkies was a tribute to the will-power that dominates her tiny beautiful body. She had appeared only in two silent American pictures — " The Rescue ” and “ The Bridge of San Luis Rey" when the microphone men- aced all the foreign studio players. Lily resolved to beat the microphone, for her accent as revealed by“The Cockeyed World ’* was so strong that it was almost un- intelligible. Many foreign stars went back to their own countries. Lily stayed. “ I have work like a dog,” she says — she took lessons in voice control, diction, singing and dancing, and after working each day, she studied in the evenings. Then she decided that she should have stage ex- perience, so she went to New York, and was engaged as star in ** Sons o’ Guns.” During the twenty-six weeks of her appearance, she continued her lessons. She began them at eight in the morning and ended at five in the afternoon, leaving her just time for a meal and a short rest before her performance on the stage. Even there she continued her studies in the dressing- room. At length, having satisfied herself, she went to Paris for a holiday, feeling a little homesick for her native city And before she had even finished her shopping, she received a cable from Hollywood asking her to play in “ Fighting Caravans.” Lily Damita is a living contradiction of the old axiom that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” Her work to conquer her accent was unremitting—she certainly had no time for play. Yet no one could possibly have accused the Lily who returned to Holly- wood of being dull—she was, if possible, gayer and more radiant than ever.