Silver Screen (Nov 1939 - May 1940)

S I L V 1! R S c; R i; M N for May 19 73 From Riches to Rags [Continued from page 45] beautiful hats with great plumes on them. Stuff that she has since given to a museum." She has been greatly attracted to three things all of her hfe — drawing, writing and acting — with their importance in the reverse order. She won't give up any of the three, but acting has the edge over the others. So much so that at swank Rosemary Hall school in Greenwich, Connecticut, she went in for dramatics when they were, perforce, done on the students' own time. You don't memorize a great chunk of "Macbeth" outside of school hours unless you're slightly serious about it all. After Rosemary Hall, she put in a stretch at Fermata School in Aiken, South Carolina. Then Sarah Lawrence for two years and a tour of Europe. On her return she was able to get into a school much less social, but much more practical from the standpoint of her aims — the Paramount School {then existent) in New York. "I put in three valuable months at the school, but the thought of the Coast was too much for me. So — I packed up the pictures Arnold Genthe had taken of me and headed for Hollywood with my sister, who also wanted to break into the films." It was at this point that the waiter, who had come to take away the tea things, hiccupped and it was at this point that whatever it is that good schools and good breeding do for people came quickly to the rescue; she really handled the situation. She went on: "My sister and I studied everything under the sun we could think of that might endear us to the movie people — even if they did stay in their own houses and didn't come near ours. Then things began to look up and MGM gave me a test. It didn't pan out. Mr. Gregory Ratoff arranged a test for me at 20th Century-Fox, but this was no go, either." This didn't discourage her. You might well think, having lived the sheltered life that money and position can provide, that Janice would be readily bowled over by the first run of bad luck. Not so, she stood up to the slings and arrows of outrageous Hollywood with as much fortitude as girls who'd faced adversity at every turn of their lives until they had become so hardened that nothing fazed them. Meanwhile her family was none too pleased with her endeavors and her father frankly didn't believe she had a chance. So you see they weren't pulling strings to help her along; she had to ring doorbells like anyone else. "I managed to get an agent to take me over to Paramount. The man I talked to there asked, 'What experience have you had in the movies. Miss ah, Miss ah, Miss Logan?' I told him that I'd had none so far and he threw up his hands in despair. 'Just one thing,' I said to him, 'if you don't give me a chance how am I going to get experience — will you tell me that?' He didn't answer." She tried to answer it herself by wriggling into Paramount's school on the Coast. She worked earnestly with a young bunch including William Holden, later to be the star of "Golden Boy." Then Paramount discontinued the school. "I think the Scarlett O'Hara test was a good thing for me," she said, "because it brought me to people's attention. I'm sure it had a great deal to do with helping me get a test at Paramount. And it was this test that resulted in my first movie role, 'Undercover Doctor.' " In spite of her dramatic schooling, she was terrified by the mechanics of a busthng studio with time and money elements involved. She didn't even know where the camera was that first day and she had a sneaking suspicion that she should. So she asked a dark-haired man, who sat nearby studying the script. He pointed it out and introduced himself. He was the villain, Mr. Naish. "Every actor and actress I've met in Hollywood has helped me," she admitted. "As we did each scene, Mr. Naish would whisper, 'Turn a little more to the right,' or 'A little to the left this time, it's a better angle for you.' Believe me, those things help." Following "Undercover Doctor," Miss Logan was at liberty. She didn't like being at liberty, in fact, resented it heartily. So, she began harrying (that's the only word that will describe what went on) the man who was about to produce "Dr. Cyclops," a Technicolor-thriller Paramount had up their sleeve. She camped on his doorstep and literally made a daily demand for the lead, but he was taking his time about choosing the cast. Finally, as if in answer to the auto suggestion she had been directing at his mind, or perhaps in sheer defeat, he stepped to the door and crooked a finger at her. Miss Logan went in with a well-it's-about-time air and calmly asked for her script. "That was the twelfth of June," she said, "and I didn't draw a rested breath until the picture was finished. Here I was. one girl, teamed up with a gang of husky men. They'd work by the hour until suddenly someone would remember and yell, 'Hey! Don't forget we've got a girl here, she may be a httle bit tired!' I usually was, but I tried to keep it to myself." She described the group as an "unknown cast." You often hear movie people say that about the movies their pals are in, but you never "hear them refer to their own films in any such fashion. It is a cast of unknowns — with the possible exception of Victor Killian, and he is known only to your thorough student of the cinema. The point in this paragraph is that she was honest enough to admit it. Briefly, and in part, the story is this. Charles Halton, a biologist, and his technical assistant, Janice Logan, arrive in the Peruvian jungle where Albert Dekker, a rival, has been for two years. Other people become involved in the plot and the bunch land in Dekker's camp, where he is hiding a uranium mine in his back yard. 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