CINDERELLA IN REAL LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23061, 11 June 1938, Page 13 (Supplement)

CINDERELLA IN REAL LIFE

MR. DALE CARNEGIE, whose valuable book "How to Win Friends and Influence Peo- ' |>le" has been so widely read, now gives us "Five Minute Biographies," Ifrhich is described as short glimpses into the lives of fifty celebrated people.

It is a publication that is certain to bttract a great deal of attention. In jßvery case Mr. Carnegie has emphasised the "human" touch that makes fche story of the famous individual Stand out from that of the multitude. SZiegfeld (of the "Follies"), Hearst Kthe American newspaper magnate), ithe Mayo brothers (famous surgeons), Culbertson (of Contract Bridge), Sir Malcolm Campbell (racing motorist), Caruso (the great tenor), Mary Pickford, Andrew Carnegie, Mussolini, J. iP. Morgan, and Lionel Barrymore, are fcome of tho subjects of these highlyInteresting "glimpses." Always Something New Mr. Carnegie has an attractive style !bf writing and says a great deal in a few words. There is an entire absence jof "padding." He gets down to the "'essential story." To borrow an American phrase, he has "got something," fcnd he makes delivery without frills. The selection of the subjects for this fcook is in itself the work of a master land. It is safe to say that it will fce read "straight through" in the knanner of a novel, for every chapter Seals with a personality in whom the general reader is keenl}' interested. And the author always seems to have Something new, to tell us. Of the popular cinema actress, Joan Crawford, he lays: A dozen years ago, a little college feirl in Missouri used to cry herself to sleep at night. In those days, she cried because she was lonesome. But to-day, excited crowds surge about her whenever she appears in public, and her face and name are known by countless millions of people on every continent hashed by the seven seas. Waiting on Tables A dozen years ago, this girl waited ®n the table's at Stephens College in order to pay for her board; and she so poor that she borrowed fifty cents now and then from the night **tchman. Sho couldn't go out to a party even if she got an invitation, 5?°* US6 she,,had nothing to wear but ■o® cast-off clothing other girls had her;

To-day she is one of the best-dressed women in Hollywood. To-day her clothes are so smart, so chic, that she creates vogues, and her gowns are eagerly copied by women all over the world. Dressmakers beg her to make their fortunes by wearing one of their latest Creations in public. Who was this lonesome, miserable, unhappy little girl—so poor she couldn't afford to buy herself a dress? Her name was Lucille LeSueur. Never heard of her? Well, that's her real name; but in Hollywood she is known as Joan Crawford. Without a Dime Joan Crawford is the tops now. But she knows what it is to be stranded in a strange town without a dime. She knows what it is to be hungry and not have a nickel to buy food. She knows what it means to battle her way through years o'i heartache and unending struggle. As a child in Lawton, Oklahoma, Joan Crawford spent most of her time racing around the neighbourhood playing marbles and skinning-the-cat with the boys. But the greatest thrill of all was acting. She and her playmates took some old empty boxes out to the barn and made a stage out of them. They lighted a lantern to give the effect of footlights; and there with the horses and pigeons and English sparrows for her audience, Joan Crawford began her amazing career. She determined then and there that one day she would be an actress and a lady and wear fine clothes. She promised herself that when sho grew up, she would wear a red velvet gown with gold slippers, and an enormous hat with ostrich plumes. In a Convent

When Joan was' eight years old, her mother moved to Kansas City, and put Joan in a convent in Kansas City, where she had to work for her board. No more exciting races with the boys now. No more acting in the old barn. In return for her board, she had to help clean fourteen rooms, cook and wash dishes for twenty-five children, besides undressing them and putting them to bed. She wore blue and white calico dresses and slept in one of a long row of iron beds.

Six years later she decided to "take a flier" in higher education; so she enrolled as a student in Stephens College at Columbia, Missouri. Money? She didn't have any money. As I have already said, she wore the cast-off clothes that the other girls gave her and she worked as a waitress in order to get free board and room. Some of the girls who snubbed and high-hatted her in those days because she had to work as a waitress now say: "Joan Crawford? Oh, yes, I know her well. We are very dear friends. We Jiflecl &o gq Jo college together."

Joan Cra Dieted He To Be

Stephens College itself now shines in her reflected glory, and a large picture of her hangs proudly on the din-ing-room wall and underneath the picture is this inscription: "Joan Crawford used to wait on tables in this room." Her burning ambition .then was to become a dancer. So when she was offered a job dancing with a road show for twenty dollars a week, she grabbed it, and felt she *vas tip-toeing on the edge of .paradise. Two weeks later, the show closed. There was no money to pay salaries, and she was left broke and stranded in a strange town. Did that kill her determination to go on the stage? Never! She borrowed money, got back to Kansas City, workea, saved her pennies, and boarded a Santa Fe train one morning and headed for Chicago. After paying for her ticket she had only two dollars left. She was afraid to spend that —so she missed a -couple of meals that day. Screen Test She got a job dancing in a cabaret; then she came to Now York and danced at the Winter Garden as a chorus girl. A movie scout for M.G.M. studios saw her dance in "The Passing Show." She had grace, rhythm, youth, personality and a beautiful legs. He suggested that she take a screen test. "What? The movies s Oh, no!'.' She aspired to be the Pavlova of Broadway. Finally, after much arguing, she condescended to take a screen test, and was handed'a ticket for Hollywood and a contract for seventy-five dollars per week. But Hollywood turned thumbs down on her name. Lucille LeSueur? Poetical —yes. But disastrous for a movie actress. Nobody could remember it or pronounce it. So a movie magazine staged a contest, offered prizes, and names came pouring in by the thousand in every mail. As a result of that contest, Lucille LeSueur became Joan Crawford. But she was still far from being a star. She plaj'ed bits, acted as an extra, doubled for Norma Shearer. And at night she danced; the Charleston, the Black Bottom, the St. Louis hop. She wore out dozens of pairs of shoes in contests —and won dozens of loving cups. Plump Little Girl But she wasn't the Joan Crawford then that she is now. She was a rather plump little girl with a lot of frizzled hair and a hard-boiled manner that was supposed to cover up her shyness. Then one day she realised that if she was !;oing to stay in Hollywood, she would lave to change. Ambition made a different person of her overnight. She stopped dancing the nights away. She settled down to a routine of hard, serious study; French, English and singing. She began to reduce, and for three years she was constantly hungry. She rarely has anything for breakfast now except a glass of water flavourod with a dash of orange juice. Often she touches nothing but a little buttermilk all day. She worked hard, and began to be given better parts. In one picture, when her role called for an Apache dance, she fell and broke her ankle. But she was so afraid she would loso the part that she had the doctor tape up her log and foot, and continued with the picture. Astonished Herself Joan Crawford says that she herself is astonished at what has happened to her. She was born in poverty and now has every luxury that wealth can buy. She was born without position and she is now surrounded by mobs of admirers wherever she goes. She was born without beauty—and is now one of the moat beautiful women on the screen. ".Five Aiiaute Biosrraphios," by Dale Carnegie. .(Angus and Robertson).