Silver Screen (Nov 1938-Apr 1939)

The Mo-vies Are In Need Of New Faces And There Is A Man In Holly-wood Who Helps Ambitions Youth To Reach 'The Enchanted Spot In Front Of The Cameras. T ^ALENT Department," reads the sign on the door of a sprawling structure on the Paramount lot. As you enter, you find yourself in an exciting place, the studio's dramatic school, presided over by that noted star-maker of Hollywood, Oliver Hindsell, one of our specialists working behind and not in front of the camera. Mr. Hindsell has interviewed at least 100,000 people for the movies, and some twenty stars and starlets owe their careers to him. He discovered and trained Robert Taylor, and among his finds and proteges are Robert Young, Mary Carlisle, Irene Hervey, Jimmy Ellison, Bill Henry, Michael Whalen, Cecilia Parker, Edward Norris, Virginia Bruce, Shirley Ross, Karen Morley, Martha Sleeper, Gertrude Michael, Ann Dvorak, and recently, Ellen Drew, ex -sales girl in a Los Angeles confectionary store, the new candidate for stardom at Paramount. Such things as an amateur today and a star tomorrow do not happen any more. Behind every "break," every meteoric rise staged by a newcomer on the firmament of the screen, you will find months and even years of intense study and preparation. The Paramount talent department is a hubbub of activity. Doors fly open, and in rush bevies of attractive girls with scripts under their arms. Or tanned young men, some of them dressed like fashion plates, others coatless and with the collars of their shirts open, come and go, or loiter around, murmuring their lines. There is immortal ambition, the hopes and dreams and doubts of youth, in their eyes. All of them are under probation, their options may not be taken up after six months or a year, and it is practically a matter of life and death for them to make good. Oliver Hindsell attracted the attention of Hollywood when the Dallas Little Theatre, of which he was the director, won all honors at the National Little Theatre tournament in New York City for three successive years. He is the author of "Making the Little Theatre a Luise Rainer knew the magic of footlights and had heard the symphony of applauding thousands, but her future depended upon her speech — in English. One of Mr. HindselPs pro teges is Mary Carlisle. At the left, above, is Robert Taylor, who was discovered by Hindsell in a college play. Charles Boyer, whose screen success was possible after he learned English from Hindsell. Pay." Louis B. Mayer called him to Hollywood, and he started a school for actors at M. G. M. For the past two years he has been connected with Paramount. Hindsell has injected into the atmosphere of Hollywood the idealism and traditions of the stage, and has maintained a standard of individual instruction which has enabled many young players, with no stage experience to speak of, to learn the tricks of the trade. His assistant, Harold Helvenston, is a product of Professor Baker's famous dramatic workshop at Yale, was seven years director of dramatics at Stanford and worked two years with Walt Disney before his present connection with Paramount. He is the author of a book on scenery. These two men make the talent department of Paramount the outstanding training ground for young screen actors in Hollywood, if we except Professor Max Reinhardt's new school, which, however, is not connected with any studio, and is primarily devoted to the theatre. Hindsell is a man with prematurely gray hair, and of imposing appearance. His department is one big happy family, and you see young men coming in and greeting; their 32 Silver Screen