VETERAN OF THE SCREEN

Southland Times, Issue 23499, 4 May 1938, Page 8

VETERAN OF THE SCREEN

Jean Hersholt Has Unique Record Jean Hersholt has begun his 26th uninterrupted year as a film star. No other actor in Hollywood can claim any comparable record. Only Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Wallace Beery and Slim Summerville, of all the other celebrities who worked with Hersholt in the incredible Hollywood of 1913, still survive, writes a correspondent of The Herald, Melbourne. Hersholt alone of the galaxy that included Arbuckle, Reid, Mabel Normand, Farnum, and the others whose names meant headlines two decades ago, has worked steadily on, through boom and depression and war and peace to make a total of 440 pirtures. In commemoration of his 25 years before the cameras in Hollywood, Twentieth Century-Fox Studios held a luncheon at which the curly-headed, twinkly-eyed Hershot was guest of honour. On his right was the wife of

24 years (their married years may make another Hollywood record). In Hersholt’s hand was a file of congratulatory telegrams and cables. One was from his tailor in Copenhagen. “He of all men is responsible for my start in Hollywood,” Hershoß said. “When I came over here as ,a stage and screen actor from Denmark, I rode to the end of the street car line to the Ince studios near Santa Monica. Then I walked the rest of the way through the sand. It was hard going, because I was dressed in a morning coat and striped trousers and an Ascot tie and patent leather shoes. I was trying to make a good impression. “I asked to see Mr Ince, but he didn’t see me at all. All he saw was my clothes. There had never been such a rig as that in Hollywood, and he hired me at £3 a week. A couple of weeks later I was playing cowboy and Indian. I would be the cowboy, taking potshots at the Indians. Then I would quickly change my clothes and be an Indian. In one scene I was wounded, and did such a fine job of grovelling in the dust that they gave me a rise. My new salary was nearly £4 a week.” This actor has played leading man for virtually every studio in Hollywood, and has been many types of characters. Hersholt has just finished work on “’Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and is engaged on “Censored.” In June he will again assume the role of the country doctor in the third Dionne quintuplets film, “Everybody’s Sweethearts.” His contract extends over many years to come.