FORTUNE WITHOUT WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 112, 14 May 1938, Page 27

FORTUNE WITHOUT WORK

Hollywood has made Gustav Wally, j a Continental musical comedy star, a rich man in one year without letting i him do a bit of work before the cameras. He says that his experiences seem like a fantastic dream. Wally's contract expired on March 10. During the first six months in Hollywood he earned £100 a week for doing nothing. Then he obtained a 50 per cent. rise. Every Saturday night in his last six months as a movie actor who never acted, the cashier handed him a cheque for £150. Wally has saved most of the money, and plans to take it back to Europe, where he is certain none of his friends will believe him when he tells of his experiences. don't even believe the story myself," he said, while relating his experiences to the New York "Morning Telegraph." "Here I've got all this moneyit will be a fortune back in Denmark —and I haven't done a thing to earn it. I haven't met the executives at the studio. They didn't seem to be interested. I hardly know anybody besides the cashier and Old Jim, the gateman. "The money, though, is real. I've got it. The rest, well, it's incredible." Officials at Paramount Studios, which put the 6ft Sin Wally under contract a year ago and publicised him as | "a new Gary Cooper," said his case was not unusual. They said there were actors in studios all over town kept away from the camera for all sorts 6f reasons. Wally said he spent his first six months taking English, singing, dancing, and acting lessons at the studio's

expense. He did that in the morning. ; The afternoons he spent in the studio ; gymnasium, playing paddle ball and taking sun baths. "I was getting a little bored," he said, "when they raised my salary. Then one of the producers said he had a fine part for me in "The Big Broadcast of 1938." A couple of weeks later I reported back for work, and the producer said he was 6orry, but I earned too much money. He said bis budget would not stand for my salary, "So there I was, a complete blank. I couldn't understand it. It meant that Paramount was paying roe such a big wage it couldn't afford to let me earn it. I went back to my lessons. "A few weeks later they raised my hopes again by saying they had a part for me in'Marlene Dietrich's picture 'French Without Tears." I was exceed again—and then they decided not to make the picture." Wally was singirig the leading, role in a Copenhagen revue when a studio scout persuaded him to proceed to Hollywood. He took a test at Paramount. The next day he was handed his contract, and his life of enforced idleness began. Studio, officials said they were sorry they had been unable to find a part for Mm. His accent made his casting difficult. ' • "Perhaps it did," Wally said. "Anyway, I'm grateful-for the money, the delightful vacation, and all the lessons they gave me. I'm going back to Europe a far better performer than I was when I left. I'll never forget Hollywood. It will seem like a fantastic dream. It does already,"