Screenland (May-Oct 1939)

pot on the outskirts of the town for a cup J coffee and a bite to eat. It seems that in lie excitement he had failed to eat all day. They chose a hamburger joint in a quiet jfcreet and Errol settled down at a table in ne corner and stretched out his long legs. "(Boy, am I tired.'" he sighed. "Bring on L»me hamburgers !" But Dodge City didn't ect to let Errol out of anything. Hardly a 1 he buried his face in a hamburger with mions when a big colored mammy behind I ne counter shouted at the top of her lungs, | jLawd bless mah soul, if there ain't that [ jreat actor Mistuh Errol Flynn ! Ladies pd genmum. Mistuh Errol Flynn !" Well, ne boys and girls who were hanging around ae joint gave a western yell for Air. Flynn. nd the next tiling he knew he was being fisted up on the counter where he honored i limmy and her guests not only with a S>eech but threw in a couple of cowboy jmgs. Say. I'm all worn out just telling i :> >ut it. Think how Errol must have felt. But a little thing like being worn to a ITazzle didn't upset Errol at all. He found i ; couple of old guys there who had been Loretta Young, whose hats are always smart, wearing a bonnet-shaped one. -=rly settlers in Dodge City and though i"ery bone in his body was screaming for ri Errol sat there for hours, feet on table, air hanging down over one eye, and -.inned about the Old West. I've discovered ,iat to be the most ty pical of the Flynn •aits — when he gets to chewing the rag "ith people he's interested in he loses all rnse of time. That's the reason you never row in Hollywood whether Errol is going ') arrive two minutes late for an appointment or two days late. It just depends on ie people he's found to gab with. One time he found an old sea captain in mangy little restaurant down on the water'v nt and he and the captain discussed littleT.own islands in the South Seas for nearly Drty-eight hours. Errol returned to the rudio, blithely announced that he wasn't c ing to make his next picture, that he was raving for the South Seas immediately, "c rtunately for his studio, Errol can usually e made to change his mind when his first r.thusiasm wears off. On one of his picures production was held up for several ays while Errol discussed buried gold «".:h a half-cracked desert rat. A"hite tie and tails or smelly leather aeket Errol. I found out on that famous vinsas clambake, is much more "of the arth earthy" than any of those muchly "ublicized homespun philosophers. Errol las more real understanding of people in ds little finger than they have in their rr.ire bombastic bodies. His simplicity, unike theirs, isn't an act. It's the real thing. -Ie practices, what theypreach (for money). Well, bless mah soul, how Ah do go on ibout Mistuh Errol Flynn ! Folks'll be sus>ectin' Ah'se crazy about him. (Don't tell -ili or there'll be a hair-pulling match. What Loretta Young Tells Her Kid Sister Continued from page 25 of gorgeous clothes, and a big car, and boy-friends being bowled over by the dozens. She doesn't see that it sums up differently. I have all the clothes I want, yes. I have a town car, and I have had my romantic moments, but it isn't long after you've been working in pictures until you understand that, mostly, it's the work that is important. Luxuries won't thrill you permanently. The fame part is flattering, but as soon as you look about you understand how precarious and how temporary success in Hollywood is. But if she really loves to act, as I do, she'll not regret her step." I said, recalling how hectic Loretta's own life had become when she walked so confidently into the dangers and complications that make up a Hollywood life, recalling how genuinely devoted to Georgie she has always been, "Then what arc you advising her to do, and not to do? Surely she can profit by your experience." And I was thinking of how Loretta. thrust into the spotlight prematurely, had fallen in love with a good-looking actor, when they were cast opposite one another. She was seventeen by then, and the airplane elopement seemed the only answer. Her mother's heart very nearly broke at that impulsiveness. And" I thought of how, after a year of desperately attempting to patch romance with stern realities, Loretta had gotten her divorce and had rejoined her family and built this home for them. I remembered those months when she was ill from overwork, from overstrain. "But she can't profit very much from my experience," replied Loretta. That is one of those splendid, impossible theories. You can pay attention to good and bad examples, but every girl has to learn for herself — from her own choice. I don't want her to make the mistakes I made, so I'll tell her about them as she matures and is apt to meet the same situations. If I'd listened to the excellent advice I received I'd have saved myself so many unhappy times. But I didn't, I was headstrong, and I won't forget that. "So how then," asked Loretta, "can I honestly expect her to follow any system I could map out for her? Why, she's so much like I was ! I try to be as sympathetic as I can. I'm emotional myself, I've acquired some logic through the growing-up process ; but I still don't like to be bossed. I still have to be influenced subtlely. I try to remember this is true of Georgie, too. But first, she is not my child and I have no real jurisdiction over her. She's mama's child, and mama is a verywise and firm mother. I'm not the one to decide when she will have dates and with whom, any more than I was the one to decide on whether she could try pictures. I can only tell her things I've found out. things which may benefit her. I don't give her speeches on how to distinguish the glitter from the phony in Hollywood, for she would be bored, at her age. She'll discover what is sincerely worthwhile as soon as she begins to work steadily. She'll discover for herself how much pure luck counts in Hollywood, a pretty frightening discovery. She'll learn that being an actress means having your heart hammered, that she'll pay back for her 'glory.' her glamor, her big salary. Everybody she'll touch will be front page, which isn't at all what you want when the papers begin distorting facts. Yet she will meet brilliant people. It's too hard a fight for what you get out of it, for most girls. I happened to stand it, find the work and the money worth the drawbacks. Because I have a family I adore, and enough friends. "Georgie will have to learn for herself that the only way to rise above bad pictures is to just weather them. She'll be typed, maybe. Shell have to do fourteen pictures in a year as I did, maybe. She'll have to battle through confusion and doubt and learn to trust her intuition, as I did. And none of us here at home, even though we love her, can do this for her. If she is temporarily carried away with her illusions of prominence, as I'm afraid I was once, I'll do what my older sisters did to me : I came home, elegantly, to bump into a tremendous gold star pasted on the door to my bedroom. Each member of the family greeted me with, 'Welcome home. Star!' Yes," she laughed, "that cure worked ! You don't grow spoiled when you have a family with a sense of humor, so I don't believe Georgie will go snob on us. "I felt I wasn't beginning to live until I was working, standing on my own. Evidently Georgie feels this way, too. I didn't encourage her to; I had three sound reasons why I didn't want her to go into pictures at her age, even though I did begin a year younger myself. First, I can foresee the criticism she'll have to take, and it's tougher when you are young and so terribly sensitive. By choosing Hollywood she is letting herself in for cruel jabs. She's already had a faint taste; she asked me not to send the big car to school for her. They make wisecracks because I am her sister ! If she climbs in Hollywood she'll be envied, and this will be far worse than bridge-table chatter. This kind of gossip we get here can menace both our reputations as women and our careers, and it is so unfair because an actress cannot strike back at either the vague scandalmongers or the professional gossipers. Then, there is no need for Georgie to go to work yet. I planned to send her to college. I'd promised her a trip to Europe afterwards. If she were older when she began here she would have had years of fun without any extraordinary responsibilities, without any of the disillusionments you rate when you jump into competition with adults who suppose you can watch out for yourself. She would have had an easier adjustment to the way life is. I don't mean to be cynical ; I'm not ! I believe, absolutely', that we all eventually get just what we deserve. But we have to protect ourselves in certain environments, against certain sorts of people, particularly when we come up against competition as fierce as it is in Hollywood. And then," added Loretta, "I don't think pictures are as easy for an untrained novice as when I began. I don't think she needs stage training; too many of us got along without it. But today Hollywood is no longer a lark. Today it is big business, and an actress must know exactly how to play her role. Georgie will have to study extra hard. "She splurged with her first pay-check. But I wasn't surprised. The excitement in a contract comes from the acting they let you do, not from the money you receive. Anyway, money doesn't mean a thing to her. She's been raised in the lap of luxury. I wasn't, though. Still, money has onlymeant comfort and security to me. I've never felt splashy with it Mama has always handled our expenses and investments. One of mama's favorite tales is about how, after I'd been working for six months, I came to her so upset 'I have to have some money.' I cried, Tjut you must'nt ask me why. I just have to have it!' She replied. 'Why. all right; how much do you want?' I braced myself, and proclaimed, 'Three dollars !' I guess I'd borrowed some change and had to repay 75