The Tivoli

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7062, 23 January 1933, Page 3

The Tivoli

RUTH CHATTERTON IN “ONCE A LADY” Long before Ruth Chatterton ever dreamed of following a screen career she turned down a fortune offered her to appear in pictures during her spare time from stage work. It was in the silent picture days, when Miss Chatterton was soaring to the heights as a young Broadway stage star. A film corporation, now out of existence drew up an unusual contract under the terms of which Miss Chatterton would have received over £IOOO a week for an entire year. It was proposed to follow the star and her play.-, on tour ana maintain picture schedules from nine in the morning till four in the afternoon, with no work on matinee days. Miss Chatterton was then directing her own vehicles and Henry Miller, with whom she was associated, urged her to accept the unprecedented picture offer. The star refused to sign the contract because she was not to be permitted to pick the story material. The star continued on the stage for several more years before making her screen debut. This little-known chapter of her career was revealed during a talk with Geoffrey Kerr, one of her two leading men in her new picture, “Once A Lady,” on the set at the Paramount Hollywood studios. ‘Once A Lady,” which opens at the Tivoli theatre today, relates the dramatic experiences of an adventuress who marries into a respectable English family-, and is unable to temper her appetite ftr good times with the conservative habits of her politically- proper mate. A matinee will be held to-day at 2.30 p.m.