Earlier Lives

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 241, 8 July 1938, Page 18

Earlier Lives

Stars That Have Changed

Their Courses

jVTOST of the screen stars changed x their courses to reach their destination.

Robert Taylor studied medicine to follow in the footsteps of his father, Dr. S. A. Brugli, a physician in Beatrice, Nebraska. A screen test while he was a student at college resulted in a contract witli Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which led to stardom. If he were not a screen star, Taylor would prefer to be a physician. Clark Gable began as an oil field worker, with early determination to make his fortune among the derricks where his father had worked. He drifted from Ohio westward, worked in the northern lumber camps and the Oklahoma oil fields, turned finally to the stage, and eventually to extra work in Hollywood. Gable would take a whirl in the field of business if he left pictures, and aviation would be his choice, he says. Lionel Barrymore, despite his theatrical background, and his instinct by heredity and environment, studied art in Paris, with every intention of devoting himself to painting. He still makes beautiful etchings, and were he out of pictures, painting would lure him back. Beery Was Animal Trainer. Wallace Bgery set out with a circus as a boy, became an animal trainer, and had visions of owning his own

show. He found himself in Hie and presently became a comedian in the early silent films. He still has a deeprooted feeling for the life of the circus. Nelson Eddy always aspired to be a singer, but he directed his course toward concert and opera. Substituting for a concert baritone in Los Angeles, he attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executives, and became one of Hollywood’s foremost singing stars. Nothing else would interest him. Myrna Loy began her career as a sculptress. Her talent caught the attention of Rudolph Valentino, who induced her to appear in pictures. She is still a talented sculptress aud modeller.

Robert Montgomery, son of a prominent New York business man, was educated and trained for an executive post in the world of commerce. He toured and studied in Europe, and in early youth faced the reality of disaster when his father died, with the family fortune shattered. Montgomery .would go into the business world if he were not a star. William Powell was destined to study law at Kansas, University. An aunt loaned him the money to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Art instead. Of all professions, Powell chooses that of acting, but he- would make au excellent, investigator,:he says he wants to believe, perhaps a super-sleuth. Spencer Tracy, son of-.a -Milwaukee motor-lorry sales manager, always took it for granted that he would go into business, presumably that of his father. Instead, he went into the navy during the Great War, and on his discharge liegau to study drama. If Tracy changed his career, he would go into some business' that would require travel, most of it at sea.

THE noted character actor. 11. B. M ar--1 ner, will play one of the principal featured roles in Robert-Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped.? He was east by °Oth Century-Fox to. portray, an attorney of the eighteenth century in the famous story. Warner joins a east headed by Warner Baxter, Freddie Bartholomew and Arleen Whelan, who is playing her first role, the leading feminine one.

TAMES NEWILL, baritone, makes his screen debut in “Renfrew of the Royal Mounted.” In sylvan settings of the Canadian Rockies, he sings the song of “The Mounted Men.” He has signed a contract for a series of “Renfrew” pictures-.