Screenland (Jul–Dec 1946)

Just Who Is Geraldine? Continued from page 42 she'd done in the pre-Welles period. Nobody cared. She was drama with capital letters, someone to watch out for. And that was that. Geraldine admits she unintentionally helped the legend along. "I wasn't used to the friendly informality of Hollywood." she explained. "I thought all studio people must be very old friends because I never heard any one use a last name. In Ireland and England we seldom called anyone by first names outside family and close friends. If a man said Hi, Cupcake' to a girl on short acquaintance he might as well have pinched her you know where. A girl who would say Hello, Mac' was asking the man What are you doing tonight, toots.' I don't say European etiquette is better than American but I do say it's different and that I didn't understand. *'So, being new around here and frightened of my impressive buildup I didn't get acquainted very quickly and was considered stand-offish. I suppose you'd call it Irish moodiness, but I simply can't be cheerful and hearty in the morning. I hole up in my dressing room as quiet as a leprechaun until time to go on the set. That's how I acquired the unflattering title 'Lady' Fitzgerald. I haven't lost it yet, either," Geraldine said with a rueful smile. "I've often wondered how long I'd have lasted on the screen if someone had taken charge of me and groomed me as a special, stylized kind of actress such as a sophisticated woman, a glamor girl, or a witch. I've been everything from sweet to sinister. At Warners I started as the sympathetic friend of Bette Davis in 'Dark Victory.' Next I was the subdued, melancholy wife of the gloomy Heathcliffe in 'Withering Heights.' Then Warners got the idea that I could be a menace and a monster. I know one thing — I can never be any more monstrous than I am in 'Three Strangers.' Now, for a change of pace and to confuse things further, I'm a rich, sexy, and lonesome widow in 'Nobody Lives Forever.' ''Again, we have Fitzgerald the selfless, ladylike second wife of the Twentieth Century-Fox picture 'Wilson.' Universal prefers me as the sly, scheming sister of 'Uncle Harry' — a beastly woman, intent upon ruining as many lives as possible in the ninety minute course of the picture. "At Paramount," Geraldine continued, relentlessly cataloguing herself, "I'm quite probably known as a slop. During wardrobe tests for 'O.S.S.' we tried all sorts of French peasant girl costumes, most of them in the Charmaine tradition with the dainty cotton blouse falling gracefully off one shoulder. What we finally decided upon was realistic rather than pictorial. I wore a man's cardigan which was too large, a heavy dark woolen skirt of unbecoming length, black cotton stockings, and heavy shoes. My hair was disarranged and my face dirty. When I went to lunch in costume I'd see people on the lot looking at me askance, seeming to wonder where that fugitive from the ashcan came from." A look of quiet amusement lighted her face. Added to the impressive display of her versatile talent is still another type Geraldine will create soon on the New York stage. That of. in her words, "a rather nice, slightly glamorous girl who doesn't throw one fit and has no complexes." Some day, some producer is going to pull a fast one and ask Geraldine to do a comedy part and will she be surprised! The fascinating prospect of what she'll be called on to do next is intriguing. By playing it "close to the chest" and maintaining an open-minded attitude about the parts offered her, she has developed a facile quality which few "type" actresses possess and the girl with the longest name on the screen will undoubtedly continue to enjoy a long and diversified career. "I think there's only one other actress whose career is similar to mine, although she's done a much better job of it than I," said Geraldine with unaffected modesty. "That's Margaret Sullavan. Put her in any part and she becomes that person." Set visitors quite often naively remark to actors that they must be exactly like the characters they portray; otherwise how would they know what those people think, how they feel and act? This happens to Geraldine time after time, and although it's a dubious compliment when she's being a particularly awful character, she doesn't get her Irish up. It's a great satisfaction to be able to convince so many different people that she's so many different people. The instinct for humor which started her on this checkered career has survived although the reputation for comedy hasn't. To the few people who do know Geraldine personally, she's a bird of still another feather. There's a pleasant, quiet charm about her that instantly brings up the question of how she could possibly be those villainous women on the screen when she's so totally unlike them. She's a small-boned, delicate-looking gal. Her auburn hair is somewhat darker than it appears on the screen. Dressed in a gray flannel skirt, red and white checked gingham blouse, flat-heeled shoes, with two small velvet bows in her hair, she looks like her son Michael's older sister. Michael is six and wears size nine clothes, a well-poised youngster who looks very much the man until he smiles and reveals two grown-up second teeth that have parted a neat row of smaller baby teeth right in the middle. His serious brown eyes are enormous and his hair is straight and dark brown. There's a generous ration of freckles on his tanned, cute little face. Sometimes this clothes-conscious young man has trouble with his tie and the short end comes out on top. but he's independent and insists on dressing himself. 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