Radio Digest (June 1932-Mar 1933)

jean ^argent Removes Her Mask By Hilda Cole AT LAST we have the real Jean f\ Sargent. Everybody is talking I \ about her sudden and well deserved success. How can a girl reach such heights in so short a time? I asked her, and she said she had shed her mask. Of course that takes some explanation. It would be hard to imagine why such a charming girl should wish to conceal her pretty face behind a mask. ; (See portrait on opposite Page.) So I jaunted along with her from the Columbia studios on Madison street to her apartment opposite the Ziegfeld theatre and she told me the story. She had Barney, the little Scotty, on a leash. Barney must have his daily stroll. "So many of us are wearing masks, and we don't know it," she said after I had brought up the subject again. "We imagine everybody is looking at us at all times and thinking unpleasant things about us. So we hide behind masks. to conceal the true selves that are within. Why should we be afraid when there is nothing to fear? The most of us after all are decent and respectable. But I guess there never was anyone in all the world so self conscious and afraid as I, when I was in the teen age." (She recently celebrated her twentieth birthday.) "One day the thought of the mask occurred to me. It was during the plans for a school play. Let's see, was it the Friends Seminary or the Mary Lyon School? Well, anyway they all said I had to take a certain part. It was a Girl Scout play. At first I was pleased with the idea. Then when I thought of appearing before an audience, alone, I fairly choked with fear. It was a terrible sensation. And as the time came for me to go on I became more terrified. So finally I said I would not attempt it unless I could wear a mask that would conceal my identity. And that was what I did. Behind the mask I was quite a different person. Nobody knew my real self, so it didn't matter. . . . Oooh!" Jean suddenly jerked Barney to her side and looked around at a pudgy little man who had just passed. "Why, what's the matter?" I asked. "Don't tell me you didn't see that man!" She exclaimed. "He was cross eyed, I swear." The crowd jostled us. "What of it?" I was amused and a bit embarrassed. "You don't suppose it was a mask?" "No. But I'm going to knock wood." She darted across the sidewalk and tapped a little sign to an optical shop with her fingers. "Sure I'm superstitious. (~ZLO ZIEGFELD, world famous _/ glorifier of American girlhood, found himself signed up to a series of broadcasts with any number of new and perplexing problems on his hands. The first was to find a perfect radio personality girl. Then he heard of a new face and a new voice in the latest Broadway musical show, "Face the Music." There he found ]ean Sargent and immediately adopted her into his magic circle. Hilda Cole found that ]ean was like a butterfly just fluttering from its chrysalis. Very briefly she tells about it here. I've dropped my mask, you know, and I'm not concealing the fact." "That's just another way of saying, 'be yourself isn't it?" I asked and inquired how she finally got rid of her mask. XT EOPLE seemed to think I could sing. Mother and dad are good singers, and we used to have songfests back home in Philadelphia. Mother is contralto and dad used to solo in the glee clubs at Yale and Brown. The others would get me singing along pretty brave at home, then they would fade out and the first thing I knew I would be singing all alone. "One day I visited a broadcasting station and when I saw that the person singing before the microphone was practically alone and unnoticed by anyone else I thought I would like to do that. And sure enough I had my chance. Then summer came and I went with mother to Santa Monica, California, where we have a bungalow. When I came back East my place on the studio staff had been filled. I had an idea I would like to write. Somehow I managed to see a newspaper editor and sell him the notion I could conduct a radio column. Then I had my experience at interviewing. That was the beginning of the process of getting rid of my mask. It was easy to see how many people -wore masks when they were interviewed — and it seemed silly. "But the first real effort came when dad arranged for me to sing during a certain dance intermission at a hotel roof garden. I rehearsed with the orchestra. They all gave me great encouragement and I resolved firmly I would stand up and go through with my song come what may. "The dreadful moment arrived with me quaking and gasping but steadfastly determined. My legs carried me forth but as soon as I saw the faces looking up at me the knees began to weaken and I actually collapsed over a railing. The folks were kind, however, and applauded vigorously. That stimulated me and I went through with it. The old mask took an awful wrench with that experience. "It wasn't half so hard later when I was asked to sing before a newspaper club. And that was how I came to arrive in New York." Jean told how she had gradually begun to realize that real human beings were interested in true other human beings. She resolved to be just as natural and true to her individual self as possible. She sang unaffectedly, and there was a man in the audience who seemed more than casually interested. He was enthusiastic. After it was over he urged her to go to New York and see his friend. Sam Harris, who was working on a new show. He gave her a letter of introduction. Just before last Christmas she came to New York with the letter and went to the theatre where Mr. Harris was rehearsing the show now so popular on Broadway, "Face the Music." Irving Berlin, who wrote the music, was there (Continued on page 48)