MIRACLE OF AN ACTRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22164, 18 January 1934, Page 5

MIRACLE OF AN ACTRESS

PAMELA HARRIS’S RETURN DISFIGURED FACE RESTORED. Once known throughout the world as “ The Girl with the Chocolate-box Face,” Miss Pamela Harris is now staging a “ cofne-back ” to fame after months of agony endured during a remarkable fight to restore her beauty (says the Sunday Chronicle). Now. six months after the terrible car crash which it was feared would disfigure the most-photographed girl for life, Miss Harris is back at work. Early last year hers was the most sought-after face in London. Her photograph was in newspapers and magazines every day. Her profile was as familiar as that of any film star. For 12 months Miss Harris’s beauty had dazzled across the footlights of the stage—and then—“ I thought everything was finished for me,” she said in an interview. She suffered shocking injuries in a road smash. Pamela, they said, would never see again. Miss Harris fought hard against her fate, and eight weeks later the bandages were taken away. She saw in the mirror the face that had once been beautiful—and she screamed. An ugly scar ran down the centre of her forehead, another scared her cheek, two others made a gash above and below her lips. But the brave girl smiled bravely through her tears. “It looks as if my face, will be my misfortune now.” she said to her nurse. Then her luck changed. A famous surgeon wrote to her and said he would do his best to restore her face to its former beauty—for nothing. Pamela accepted the offer. For months she was in the hands of the expert while the ugly scars were smoothed away. “ Even when I had left the surgeon s hands,” said Mis s Harris, “ I was terrified of trying to get a job in case I was told that my face was ‘unsuitable. Then I came across an old friend, a showgirl. She was on her way to rehearsal for a pantomime at Hammersmith. She persuaded me to go down with her and ask for a job. “ I rushed and bought some make-up, and down we went to Hammersmith. Before I could open my mouth to the stage manager he pushed a contract into my hands and said: ‘Sign that,’”