Roland Young In “Topper Takes A Trip”

Northern Advocate, 15 July 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

Roland Young In “Topper Takes A Trip”

Roland Young is very glad he’s Roland Young. It means he doesn’t have to work very hard when he acts and nis movie career is no bother at all. When Roland steps in front of a camera he doesn’t bring a thing that he doesn’t have on Hollywood boulevard when he’s shopping for a new pair of socks. There’s no other star onlhe screen—male or female—who has it that easy. Roland’s movie career isn’t much bother to anyone else, either. When he reported for work at the Hal Roach Studios for “Topper Takes a Trip,” all the department heads made a point of seeking him out to say hello. They’re always delighted to see him; he never causes them any work.

He wears his own clothes so the wardrobe department doesn't have to worry about costumes. He uses not one speck of makeup, so the powder-puff-and-grease-paint department is happy to ignore him. His hair’s a little thin and other actors might want a “front piece” or even a wig, but Roland doesn’t so the hairdressing department is glad to pay him no attention. ,

That’s the way Roland feels about it. That’s the way he talks, too. He pauses between words, then as if to make up for wasted time, suddenly runs three or four words right together. The actor says he feels sorry for his fellow thespians who spend half their working days in makeup and costume departments. When he has a studio call for 9 o’clock in the morning he simply shows up at 8.59.5. When he gets through at 6 in the evening, he’s through.

Young says when he started in movies he would have used trick makeups and hair dresses if anyone had told him to. But the natural Roland Young seemed to be entirely satisfactory and now he says if anyone tries to change it, it’ll be a shock to him. He’d have to change the whole regime of his life. In “Topper Takes a Trip,” he joined forces with Constance Bennett, Billie Burke, Alan Mowbray, Verree Teasdale and Alexander D’Arcy.