FINDING A STAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

FINDING A STAR

Talent Scouts Don't Use Telescopes!

NO matter where you are or how small your chances may seem, there is usually someone around who is "scouting" you for films. Scouts took John Trent out of an ncroplane. Others removed Larry f'rabbe from the water for his big chancj. Dorothy Lamour was an elevator operator when op|Kirtuuity knocked. Ellen Drew worked in a r-weet shop. Fred MacMtirrav was tooting u saxophone when "Lailv l.uck pave him tin? wink." Susan Hayward, tired of modelling, simply walked in aiul asked for a job. Bob Bums, weary of waiting for the breaks in Hollywood, returned penniless to New York, only to be discovered as a radio personality and returned to Hollywood. Boll's leading lady in "I'm From Missouri," Gladys George, had to break her nose before being noticed. It was while convalescing in the eame hospital ns a well-known star and producer that Gladys' potentialities as a musical comedy typo were realised and she was offered her chance.

Frances Farmer wrote a thesis while attending the University of Washington that won her a trip abroad to study other Government systems. It was while 011 the return trip that a scout insisted she should tie tc-ted for pictures. Lew Ay res was dancing in the Coconut Grove ith .loan Crawford when scouts told him to report for a test in "All Quiet on the Western Front." (Jail Patrick li«d her photograph taken for a bet and someone entered it in a "Panther Girl'' contest in Alabama. Paramount scouts saw it and soon Gail was 011 a train for Hollywood. Donald O'Connor, the boy who appealed to audiences bo in Bing Crosby's "Sing You Sinners," was doing a little dancing act for the Federal Theatre in Los Angelos when Artie Jacobson gave him a contract. You will see him soon in "Beau Geste." Film scouts know no rules or systems. You will find them everywhere, always looking for the types the screen can use. The important thing is fo ba able to deliver when and if they give you the lucky tap.