Silver Screen (May-Oct 1939)

Silver Screen for October 1939 69 Career Girls Don't Cry [Continued from page 64] "If I get this role I'll play it, even if I have to have a nurse — and you — on the set every minute of the time." When the studio added its veto to that of the doctor and she realized that she wouldn't be allowed even to try for the *ole — there was a truly bitter pill. 1 And she took, the bitterness with her to the horrid, enforced, brooding idleness which was. supposed to be a "rest" for her. One day a friend said, timidly, "Perhaps— if you'd, tried to play the part when you were so tired — you wouldn't have done your best. Then you'd have felt still worse." Olivia thought about that for a while. "Then," she told me, "it occurred to me that I wasn't quite ready for it, anyhow. I remembered something Constance Collier had said — advice to girls who wanted to act and who .hadn't had a chance to try. She said, 'Get ready. It doesn't matter where you are or who you are. When you are ready, your chance will come. It always does.' "So-o-o, I thought here I was in Hollywood with a contract and every opportunity to 'get ready.' Chances coming up every day all around me. How lucky I was and what a ninny I'd been to feel sorry for myself and wail over one lost opportunity. Maybe the studio and the doctor knew that I wouldn't do my best — and maybe they'd saved me humiliation. "Now I know that I can't waste time and good red corpuscles wailing over one lost opportunity while I see the possibility of some others in the offing. When there aren't any more opportunities in the offing, maybe I'll worry. But I shan't be sure — for a long time — that there aren't. . . ." They all, it seems, reach the conclusion sooner or later that they can't afford time out for sniveling. Bette Davis is, perhaps, our fightingest feminine star. Her career has been studded with brisk and energetic battles. She thinks that the ones she has lost have been just as valuable as the ones she has won — in the long run. "You think it matters a lot how the fight comes out," she says. "Some times it does. But the main thing is that you grow stronger when you fight — win or lose!" She was fired, you know, from Universal because no one thought she had glamour or that she would ever have anything that would be worth money at the box-office. She and her mother bought tickets for New York and packed their trunks and bags to the last tooth brush. "If Mother knew how hurt I was inside, she didn't show it," Bette said. "I hummed and remarked that it was a nice time of year for the trip. But you can imagine how you feel, if you really care about your job, to be told that you have neither looks, glamour or talent. ... I just hummed. . . ." The humming was interrupted by the call from Warners' to make a test with George Arliss for "The Man Who Played God." And the rest is brilliant history. Bette says now, "I keep in practice for my humming. None of all this has been easy. I don't expect it to be easy — ever. I expect to fight and fight. But a sock in the teeth isn't going to get me down. Not ME!" Even little Judy Garland learned that lesson, not so long ago, at the age of fourteen. Stranded in Chicago with her mother and sister, short of money and food, almost devoid of costumes necessary for their act if they could find a place to do the act. At last, a chance to perform and even the miracle of a small advance. They decided to eat in a restaurant, have a solid meal to bolster their morale. When they came out, their suitcases with the carefully refurbished costumes had been stolen. "It was the end of the world!" Judy looks tearful about it even now. "But, y'know I got hysterical or something. I began to babble and the others began to laugh. After all, we'd had the meal. And we could laugh. Because we weren't scared any more we went to the man and he gave us another advance and we got the costumes and the job. That's the last really bad thing that's happened to me. But I shan't be scared next time. . . ." They've all had to learn not to be defeated by the bad breaks. Even the youngest of them. If you've had any bad breaks yourself, as of course you have if you've lived at all, you know how difficult that lesson is. The point is that these girls feel that they can't take time out for self-pity, can't afford to admit defeat. SH-H-Hf NOBODY MENTIONS BAD BREATH/ /A THAT'S WHY CAROL WAS UNPOPULAR I WISH I'D NEVER COME ON THIS CRUISE! / HATE IT! EVERYBODY'S SO STAND-OFFISH NO, THEY AREN'T, CAROL j —REALLY! , COLGATE'S COMBATS BAD BREATH , ...MAKES TEETH SPARKLE/ "9 "Colgate's special/>e»etrating foam gets into hidden crevices between your teeth . . . helps your toothbrush clean out decaying food particles and stop the stagnant saliva odors that cause much bad breath. And Colgate's safe polishing agent makes teeth naturally bright and sparkling! Always use Colgate Dental Cream — regularly and frequently. No other dentifrice is exactly like it." BUT YOU MAKE \JHARD FOR PEOPLE TO LIKE YOU, CAROL. I KNOW NOBODY MENTIONS BAD BREATH, ! BUT—WELL-" WON'T YOU TALK TO THE SHIP'S DENTIST ABOUT IT? I J m TESTS SHOW THAT MUCH BAD BREATH I COMES FROM DECAYING FOOD PARTICLES AND STAGNANT SALIVA AROUND TEETH THAT AREN'T CLEANED PROPERLY. I RECOMMEND j COLGATE DENTAL CREAM. ITS SPECIAL PENETRATING FOAM REMOVES THESE ODOR-BREEDING DEPOSITS. (THAT'S AND ' WHY.. LATER... THANKS TO COLGATE DENTAL CREAM COME OH MD-6IVE THE REST OF US A BREAK! EVERY MAN ON BOARD'S i DANCE I KNOW BAD BREATH KEEPS ROMANCE AWAY! PLAY SAFE! USE COLGATE'! TWICE A DAY!