Screenland (May-Oct 1941)

READ Winning Letter in our Jeanette MacDonald Contest! First Winner of the 6-Star Contest! Continued from page 28 what have you to offer the theater or the screen? What makes you feel down deep within you that you are capable of making a niche in the field where ninety percent of aspirants fail each year? What is it inside of you which urges you to follow this ambition? Is it a deep, burning sureness that makes you know that regardless of everything, and everyone, and every sacrifice and disappointment, you still want to act? If it is that kind of ambition, I feel you won't need me or anyone else to advise you. For if that is the kind of ambition you have it will be accompanied by a determination which will sustain and encourage you and drive you upward. You will find a way to go to dramatic school. Nothing ever diverts the person who is sure of his or her objective. But do not underestimate that word "sure." It is the dynamo, the motor which forces progress. I wish you to be honest enough to admit that your indifferent decision that you can teach school, marry, isn't any assurance that you would succeed in either field. You'd hardly be fair to your pupils or your husband if you promise yourself in advance that you would be discontented. You must bring all this confusion and repression out of your mind into the open and analyze it. If teaching is your alternate choice of work, what are your qualifications for teaching? Can you, would you, direct the minds of children into constructive channels? Are you patient, understanding, compassionate? What gives you assurance that you would be a good school teacher, or a good wife, or a good mother? The world is full of people who have taken the easier road of second choice. I 265 Prospect Street Morgantown, W. Va. Dear MI-ss MacDonald: From childhood I have had one goal — one ambition — in my life and that is a theatrical career. When I graduated from high school, I begged my parents to send me to dramatic school. Believing me "stage struck," they would not listen to my pleas. I am a senior in college, twenty-one, and have participated extensively in college plays. My dramatic teachers say I am talented and that I should continue my theatrical training. I am prepared to teach school which I shall thoroughly despise. If I should go to dramatic school and try to advance toward a theatrical career, it would take possibly ten years before I would ever receive recognition. Ten years of hard work would mean nothing if I knew that I would be successful. Unfortunately I have no assurance of a successful career. Do you think that I should take a chance on a theatrical career or should I teach or marry, casting my life's ambition aside as a foolish dream? If I do the latter, I'm afraid I can never be contented because I shall always feel, within me, that my life has been wasted. Miss MacDonald, what shall I do? Sincerely, Margaret Gibson (Jane Gibson) P.S. I put Jane in parenthesis because I am called Jane and never Margaret. feel sorry for the husbands of girls whose acting ambitions were too frail for them to sacrifice the security offered by the man's proposal, but were yet too strong to be forgotten when they took their marriage vows. Yes indeed, I feel sorry for such husbands. They aren't getting a square deal. Such girls cheat themselves and they cheat their husbands. They carry a torch of frustration throughout their lives. They make no one happy. Not themselves, their husbands, or their children. And what is worse, they're pretty certain to deter their husband from his own deserving success. Few unhappy husbands reach their goal in life. In my experience I have met numerous wives who have confided to me that they had great talent in their youth and "never had the chance to express it." I have visions of what it must be every time this type of woman has a dispute with her husband ! I can hear her shrilling, "If I hadn't married you I could have become a great actress," etc., etc., ad infinitum. I'll guarantee none of these women ever really deprived the stage of anything. They simply did not have the self-discipline and intelligence to clarify their ambition. And today they place the penalty for their lack on others. No one has ever made a success in any line of endeavor by taking the easiest route. I know that every great pianist, singer, painter, and actress has had to fight through the maze of confusing advice from "best friends" and "good enemies." Their determination has had to be like a clear white light, leading them through all the darknesses of opposition and delay. That is why I say to you in answering your question, ask yourself if you really want to act. Find out if there is that something within you that won't even count the cost — in money or personal sacrifices — or even care too much for success. If that something is there, you won't need my advice, or the advice of anyone else. You zvill be an actress! Nothing can stop you. You'll go to a good dramatic school for a while, then get a job in some obscure stock company. You'll work toward Broadway— and on the way you may have to work in musty, dusty playhouses for "cakes," but you'll love it. You'll give your family the credit they deserve for insisting upon your college education. You'll find you can use it. There is no job in the world where education can be more advantageous — though, of course, it is true that in the acting profession many have become successful without it. However, if made the most of, a college education will immeasurably hasten your progress. It should give you understanding and adaptability. It should be an important asset in being prepared for your opportunity when it comes along. I do not believe in the adage that "opportunity only knocks once." I know opportunities are always coming along. We think it only knocks once because we only i hear it, recognize it, when we're ready for it. We're ready for it only once! To expect assurance that you will be ; successful in an acting career, is to ask ; something which no one can give you. j Something no one can give in anything. ; What assurance has anyone of anything? | But I promise you this : If you have determination and courage, you have the greatest assurance possible. That is all that ' Lincoln had, all that Curie and Paderewski i and Duse had. All that Columbus and Carnegie and Washington had. It ought to be enough. It's got to be enough — because it is all there is ! Oh, there are pats on the I back as one goes along. That's as close as | you come to assurance — and that is as tem ; porary as the pat, because assurance is like tomorrow, ahead of you always. That is why I say, Jane, that the first • step toward considering your ambitious undertaking is just: know yourself thoroughly. Make up your own mind. No person should ever take the responsibility of making a decision for another person. But, I unhesitatingly, I am telling you exactly what you must do when I send you into the recesses of your own conscience for your decision. Unless it's a means to an end. You can tolerate what you dislike if it I is the means to an end. As a youngster I Kiss the boy hello! After her final concert of current season Jeanette MacDonald is reunited with fond husband Gene Raymond. Her new film will be "Smilin' Thru." 74