FILM INDUSTRY.

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 74, 29 March 1939, Page 6

FILM INDUSTRY.

Talent Scouting.

Talent scouts in the flesh are cold, calculating dealers in potential personality and dramatic ability. That is a blunt evaluation of the "secret service" of the movie industry—a body of well-trained men who literally cover the country in a never-ceasing search for new faces. These young countenances, unknown today, may well become and often do, the shining lights of tomorrow's screens. A girl, scarcely out of her teens, in a few short months becomes a world-renowned figure, a personage stormed- by adoring crowds wherever she goes making the headlines as often as dictators, presidents, and international bankers. All this because when she was taking part in a small college play for example, the shrewd eye of a talent scout was attracted by some quality in the way she spoke, or walked —or smiled. He knew that this quality, if projected on a thousand screens, would result in immediate fame. A scout from the Warner Bros.' talent department made the following statement: "Finding new talent today is no longer a hit-or-miss proposition. We have men, all of them welltrained judges of talent who have been on the dramatic and movie front, so to speak, just about all their lives. They cover all the, Broadway productions, of every nature, most of the larger college shows —and a good many of the smaller ones —night clubs in all the principal cities. And even with this vast coverage, their job is not ended. The scout is on the alert for his quarry when he walks down the street, when he steps on a train, or a boat, or a plane—even when he drops in at the corner drug store for a soda." In addition to the company's own staff, there are people around the country like house managers, dramatic group instructors, for whose judgment the talent staff has great respect, and as a result more than one star in Hollywood today was "discovered" through just such a channel. Often after picking up a prospect the scout will have to coach and advise his "raw material" for months, or ' else just watch from the sidelines to chart the progress made until such time that the scout steps in with a contract.

Beverly Roberts, for example, was "spotted" singing in a New York night club. It was weeks before Warners signed her, during which time she was ready. Dick Powell was a master of ceremonies in a Pittsburgh theatre, the manager liked him, had him scouted, and he was on his way. Olivia De Havilland was playing in a school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" when one of Max Reinhardt's scouts was attracted. Jane Bryan, pretty young player of "Marked Woman" and "Kid Galahad," Wayne Morris, sensational star of the latter picture, Gloria Dickson, seen in Mervyn Leßoy's 'They Won't Forget," are all new faces and talent seen in various group theatre productions. In fact it is safe to say that about three-quar-ters of the stars in Hollywood today have come from the ranks recruited by the scouts. "Talent Scout," a First National picture, is corning to the Paramount Theatre on Friday. It was written by George Bilson and William Jacobs, and directed by William Clemens.