Opportunity Knocks

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23037, 14 May 1938, Page 16 (Supplement)

Opportunity Knocks

HOLLYWOOD SUCCESSES

Hollywood, the "Alice in Wonderland" city of quick successes and equally sudden oblivion, is the exception that proves the rule, "opportunity knocks only once." In Hollywood, opportunity has even been known to knock thrice.

If this were nob true, the majority of to-day's top-ranking stars would have long since retired from the limelight of movie arena to arm-chair existence.

Clark Gable squirmed through dozens of ill-fated screen tests, until he flatly refused to face a camera and Hollywood was anathema. Rebuffed as an "extra," he returned to Hollywood after winning recognition as an actor on Broadway, and became a star overnight. Gary Cooper had boarded a train, en route home to forget Hollywood, when he reluctantly answered the last-minute call that gave him his start to screen fame.

Myrna Loy was so discouraged by failure when she sought the role of the Madonna in "Ben Hur," that she left the studios where she was working. It was several years before she found her niche in a comedy role.