Elsie The Cow Welcomed To Hollywood

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13137, 11 September 1940, Page 6

Elsie The Cow Welcomed To Hollywood

The only actress who ever admitted she was a cow arrived in Hollywood recently to commence her screen career. I have told you about her before. She was Elsie, the Oomph Girl of the Pastures,” and star attraction at the New York World’s Fair, who is to take an important part in the production of “Little Men.” She will appear as “Buttercup.” Elsie travelled across country in a luxurious special car attached to the Sante F© express. Waiting to greet her at the station—in a typical Hollywood welcome that included a brass band and a committee, all of whom wore silk flags on their coat lapels reading. “Hollywood Welcomes Elsie”—were Kay Francis, Maureen O’Hara, Margaret Tallichet, Fay Wray, Ann Gillis, Virginia Vale and a dozen lesser members of. RKO’s roster. Few in the vast throng that crowded the Spanish patio of the Union Pacific station took the slightest notice of them. As they, and the rest, waited in the 99 degree noonday sun, the wiseguys were busy with obvious cracks that must have fallen—but not lightly—upon the glamour girls’ ears. \ “The first time there’s ever been a mob to welcome a four-footed cow to Hollywood!” “Who’s Elsie’s cowstar in the film?” These, and other sallies, were passed around as the leading ladies paced up and down, with publicity men from the studio doing their best to keep them as contented as Elsie proved to be on her eventual arrival. The centre of attraction was led to the patio by a pair of milk-maids carrying, pails. There she was, the subject of a coast-to-coast broadcast, during which she Was introduced to the gathering celebrities. Her beautiful eyes surveyed the crowd, but in true filial star tradition, she appeared unmoved by the adulation. A novel note was given to the proceedings by the cow’s custodian, who warned those pressing too close that Elsie did not like being petted, and might kick. After the preliminaries, Elsie was loaded on to a truck, and a thirtyfive car parade, followed it to the Ambassador Hotel, where more crowds were on hand. There" a “Pasture Lunch” was set on tables on the lawn. As the train was an hour late the sandwiches, exposed to the hot sun, w'ere a trifle turned up at the edges by the ‘time the guest of honour arrived.