Screenland (Nov 1939–Apr 1940)

"Golden Bill F 1 Company He's in fast company, all right! Get a good look at young "Golden Boy" William Holden, at left in scene still above, as he competes for acting honors with those shrewd veterans, George Raft and Humphrey Bogart, in "Invisible Stripes." Our guess is that Bill's surely Holden his own! OVERNIGHT, he has become the potential No. 1 man of pictures — a threat to every established * star. With a single picture, "Golden Boy," to his credit, Bill Holden seems to be headed for a place among the Clark Gables, the Tyrone Powers, and the Robert \ Taylors. The critics shouted about him. About his looks ; j his acting; his naturalness; and the fact that he is so utterly likeable. The great steam-roller of ballyhoo has started. A typical press agent blurb says, "Yesterday he was a college student, with a college student's interest in athletics, in school dramatics, in school dances. He dressed like a college boy, and thought like one and felt like one. And today he is a star. The implications of that are dazzling." The one person who is completely unconvinced by the ballyhoo is William Holden. "I'm not a star yet," he protested. "I can't see this business of calling a person a star when he's had just one picture released. If I'm ] lucky enough to have good parts in my next two or three \ pictures, then people might say, Well, he's a star potentially.' And ten years from now if I'm still in' pictures and a fine character actor, then that might be something to shout about !" Bill didn't look like a star, but like any twenty-one-year-old boy j who has just gotten out of bed. His blue and white striped shirt hung loosely over tan trousers ; his light brown hair was slightly mussed ; he was wearing carpet slippers. When j I walked in on him, he was leaning out of the (Please turn to page 96) BHHi Here's the very latest on that new Holden Boy By Sylvia Conrad 34