Screenland (May-Oct 1941)

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Check Shade of Powder Desired: C Peach □ Light Rachel □ Flesh □ Rachel □ Dark Rachel □ Tan \'ame l Please Print) Street . City — made my living dancing. I never liked dancing. But I danced, because it was the only means I had of earning the money I needed for my voice study. If teaching school is your only means of financing your dramatic training, then surely you will find that you do not despise it too much. You ask, "Shall I cast my ambition aside as a foolish dream?" Certainly not. Make a decision, and stick to it. There's happiness in decisive thinking. I had the luck of early deciding. From the time I was a little' girl my decision was to become a concert singer. I never considered any work which couldn't help me in that direction. But ot\\y in the last three years has that decision become a reality. You, however, are considering an alternative course. If you take your second choice, dramatize it to first place in your desire for success. Give yourself a break, Jane ! Don't sentence yourself to discontent. I am fully aware of the reaction which a great many ambitious young persons will have after reading these opinions of mine. It's perfectly human for those who aspire to stage and screen fame to feel that whenever an actress has an opportunity she deliberately discourages all newcomers. They believe this is because she is afraid of her own throne toppling. They're wrong, of course. Any successful actress knows that she didn't heed such discouragements, that if a person has what it takes, then discouragements haven't a beggar's chance of getting any attention. Cautioning, suggestions are just tests that the aspirant has to pass — sort of "career algebra," I guess ! The world's most successful people have received their greatest impetus from what discouraged little people. Of course, it is the bitter test. If you have what it takes to overcome it, why you have what it takes, that's all. You'll make the grade. But all of the way it's up to you. Just you. And the first step is making your own decision. And remember, don't belittle the glory of teaching. Great teachers are so vital to democracy and civilization. An actress' success, no matter how great, can endure only in memory. A teacher can send her fine work into the future, into the hearts of generations to come. And don't belittle marriage! It's woman's greatest happiness — actress or teacher. Make your choice, Jane, but don't ever have second choice in your mind when thinking of marriage. Think over what I've said, Jane, and good luck! Maris Wrixon has an intriguing name and a most intriguing face to go with it. She'll charm you in Warners' "Santa Fe Trail." Oscar Levant: Sourpuss to Sweetie-Pie! Continued from page 26 lywood for a Bing Crosby broadcast. Crosby was about to do "Rhythm on the River." Oscar doesn't know, never having asked, but has a feeling it may have been Bing who catapulted him into his film career. Back in New York, a Mr. Salisbury of Paramount phoned and offered him the part. He said no. Saying no is an impulse with him, frequently indulged in. Then he told his wife. "My old lady talked me into it," he explains. "She's known me a lot of years and she's very good on decisions for me. So I thought, all right, if I'm lousy, I'll blame it on her." He made his acceptance subject to one condition. "You've got to wire whoever's directing it," he told Mr. Salisbury, "that I can't act, and it's unpredictable if I can even make a gesture to get away with murder." The west coast .was delighted with such diffidence. Had Oscar searched for a formula that would cinch the deal, he could have done no better. He arrived quaking, so overconscious of his own ineptitude for the job that to say he was frantic with fear is putting it moderately. When the time came to speak his first line, he lost his voice. He also arrived with a chip on each shoulder — in the language of psychoanalysis, a defense mechanism. On the strength of his reputation for the acid comeback, the press had built up a similar front. Quivering in anticipation of the knife-thrust, they tried to beat him to it. From such encounters, each side withdrew snarling. "What do I want to be interviewed for?" roared Oscar. "I'm not an actor." And, "You can't photograph me. I've got a sourpuss." With his conclusions at least, the press found itself in fervent accord. The picture was finished and released. A couple of Oscar's close friends attended it with him and, in the open-hearted way of their circle, told him he stank. "Which dispelled any tendency I might have felt toward a cute reaction. Anyway, I agreed with them. It wasn't my face that shocked me. I'm used to that. But I felt the effort behind the wisecracking was tiresome. As I watched I'd think, I hope I don't make another try, and damned if I didn't. So when we got home, my wife gave me a pep talk. So I went to bed." The public disagreed with Levant and his cronies, bearing out Oscar's theory that his wife is good on decisions for him. Paramount left him in no doubt of their findings. They invited him back for a second picture. Between the first and second, Oscar acquired a perspective. It was plain that he hadn't been as bad as he might have been. Having passed through the first ordeal, he was by so much better armed for the second. And even though he flopped, the world wouldn't topple to gehenna. His tight nerves eased, and with them his truculence. For suspicion that every man's hand was against him, he substituted an open mind. "The press doesn't like me," he told the aforementioned publicity man. "I didn't intend to antagonize anyone, but neither did I expect to be put on show as this freak wisecracker. It's not the ultimate achievement to make wisecracks. There's always some other frustrated exhibitionist coming up to provide the next one — he or his press agent. All right, so I've made some cracks over a period of years. If you count them, there aren't so many. What there were came out of functional circumstances, not 76 SCREENLAND