The Fickle Jade

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23417, 5 August 1939, Page 20 (Supplement)

The Fickle Jade

Luck's Part in Bringing Fame to Actors Exemplified in Another Instance JEFFREY LYNN'S STROKE OF FORTUNE

Hollywood has the habit of finding its best material quite by accident. Each year thousands of pounds are spent on a hunt for talent, scouts comb the world's professional and amateur entertainments, and hundreds of men and women are tested, writes R. Ewart Williams in the London Film Weekly. Yet the new stars are usually found on the studios' own doorsteps and get their chances through an extraordinary chain of Coincidences or patronage.

SOMETIMES it makes me wonder if the film public is seeing the actors it deserves, and whether Hollywood's perpetual cry that there is a shortage of talent is not just an excuse for its own blindness. Those men and women who cluster round Hollywood's casting offices—are they all dud actors 1 Or are there a dozen, or even two dozen artists who might be good actors and big stars if given the chance 1 —* Jeffrey Lynn's story is a case in point. Here is a youn#; man who, in Hollywood's own jargon, looks as if he is going places. You will remember him if you have seen "Four Daughters," in which he was the musician who won his way into Priscilla Lane's heart by swinging on her fVont gate. Now he is in the news again. He is the hero- —or villain, according to the way in which you look at it—of "Yes, My Darling Daughter," a harmless little comedy which has sufficiently excited the New York censors to make them ban it. Seen by Bette Davis Hollywood is now patting itself on the back about him. But Lynn is a rising young actor not because the producers singled him out but because of the shrewdness of Bette Davis. This is the story. Jeffrey Lynn was a stage actor appearing in a touring company which was acting "Brother Rat," since made into a film. The company had an engagement at Los Angeles, where ib ivas seen by all the producers and talent scouts, but after the first' night only one producer was sufficiently interested to suggest that Lynn should make a test. The test was made and forgotten, and the company went on to its nest town. Nothing more happened until William Wyler was looking for a young actor to play Henry Fonda's brother in "Jezabel." Talent and Feeling Bette Davis joined in the search and someone mentioned tc> her that a young actor -in "Brother Rat" might be worth considering. v She discovered that s, test had been made of him and asked to see it. In the-friendly spirit' which they have in such -matters in Hollywood, the rival studio sent the test over to Warners and she saw it through, in the projection theatre. She came out full of enthusiasm. "He's got looks, talent and feeling," Bhe reputed to have said. "There's a future star." .So there began a search for the touring company. Jeffrey Lynn, rather bewildered by this sudden interest, was asked to sign a contract and go out to Hollywood at once to be tested for "Jezebel." That proved to be impossible, for his stage contract was not yet due to expire, but the contract was signed. ■ When at last he arrived in Hollywood, "Jezebel" was well under way. Lynn kicked his heels .and did bits in a technicolour short and in "When Were You Born" and "Romance and Rhythm." He also appeared with Bette Davis on the radio. ' Now' it was Errol Flynn's turn to give Lynn a helping hand. Flynn was due to appear in "Four Daughters" but. the storv did not. strike him as being in his line of-country. He went off for a fishing trip to the Bahamas and, when the studio sugfested that he reported'home for work, e said the fishing was so good that he couldn't tear himself away. Then the executives remembered they were paying a weekly salary to a young mjm whom Bette :Dav:is thought was good. So they gave him! a chance, and were sufficiently impressed by the results to decide thatjie needed "building up." ' ' Once a Schoolteacher This meant that, instead of being slipped into the first available part, there was a delay of several months while they decided what to do with him and wrote a part iipecially to suit his personality. "Yes., My Darling Daughter" was that picture. Lynn's life before becoming a film actor was not particularly eventful and can ,be told briefly.' ' / Born in Massachusetts twenty : eight years, ago, he was one of a family of eight—four brothers and three sisters. His name in those days was Ragnar Godfrey Lind. , • His first idea was to be a schoolmaster and he actually taught in a local high school until, in .the way of most American young men, he decided to drift around for a bit. ' In rapid succession he was a .clerk In a New York store, a commissionaire ' • y. /<#

for a Broadway cinema and an employee of a telephone company. It was then that ho took the step which he had been toying with for some months—he became an actor. He dropped tho "Ragnar" in his name, changed "Godfrey" into "Jeffrey"—which is known in America as anglicising it—and became Jeffrey Lind. His first stage job was in a stock company. It was a strange experience, for* this was •in the "great American depression. Because their local public was hard up, those who couldn't pay cash were allowed to pay in kind. And Jeffrey Lynn confesses that it was a great encouragement, when acting to a crowded theatre, to know that in the box office there was enough meat and vegetables to enable the cast to eat a decent supper! Likeable and Learning After a few months, he escaped the smell of vegetables in the theatre and joined a touring company where he was paid in real dollars. And while wandering about America he learned his job and paved the way for his great chance when tho "Brother llat" company made its appearance in Los Angeles. Now that he is on the way to success, I hope that Warner Brothers, his employers, will not type him as one of their ordinary juveniles. The average young hero, even when he has shown promise, gets such pigeon-holed parts that he can do little

with them. Lynn deserves a better fate than that. It would be absurd to say, on what we have seen of him, that Lynn is an outstanding actor. He is still not sure of himself, as was shown in the scene in "Four Daughters" where he learned that Priscilla Lane had jilted him and married his best friend. He should have dominated that scene; instead, he allowed himself to be dominated by the other characters. But he has a likeable, incisive manner. On the screen he gives the impression that he knows what he wants and will get it. That, to my mind, should be the keynote for his future assignments. Just one plea, however. Usually the young man who knows what he wants is shown in films as a bumptious, conceited person who antagonises all who meet him. , . , , That is a film personality which has become threadbare and wearisome. If Lynn is to be a youth who knows what he wants, let him get it quietly and without bragging. Filmgoers would be so grateful that this alone should boost Lynn to stardom!