THIRTY YEARS IN FILMS

Southland Times, Issue 24001, 16 December 1939, Page 19

THIRTY YEARS IN FILMS

Wallace Beery’s Long Career STAR GIVES FORMULA FOR SUCCESS “Let them ‘type’ you for maybe three or four similar roles in a row, then do something different.” This was Wallace Beerys answer when asked recently how he had managed to stay at the top for thirty years. “Never let them ‘type’ you for life, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star warned. “Just let them do it until you become known for that sort of portrayal. And then try the new ‘type’ for three or four pictures in succession, if possible. By then it will be time to switch over to something else again. Beery would advise a leopard to change his spots every few months even if it meant bringing in the wardrobe department. “He might be the same old leopard, but with new spots he would look a different one. “I started in pictures thirty years ago,” he recalled, “and I have been up and down the ladder of success at least three times since I first went to work with Essanay. It has all been a combination of luck and the art of ducking the bad or unsuitable stories. “Each time I came back, it was the luck of drawing a good story that did it. And each time that I did get back I managed to stay there awhile by avoiding poor stories and by not allowing them to ‘type’ me. I have played all sorts of parts, but nobody knows just where I am going to bob up next. Keep your fans guessing, and then fool them. Come up with a role they hadn t even thought of.”

THE PEOPLE Beery advocates working with new people as often as possible. “I like to have new faces appearing with' this old one in my pictures,” he said. “New faces liven up a picture, and add glamour. A change in directors, cameramen and other workers helps, too, because new people have new ideas.” Beery follows this advice himself. Laraine Day nad Alan Curtis were unfamiliar faces in “Sergeant Madden.” Beery made his first screen test in fifteen years with Virgina Grey to help her get the part of his daughter in a forthcoming M.-G.-M. picture, and that is Miss Grey’s first leading role. Beery likes to take up new things, and he has even gone in for magic. At the M.-G.-M. studio he has been trying to keep up with Chester Morris, a professional magician, in entertaining electricians, sound men and extras. “I guess that’s just about what success really is,” he said. “You have to learn a new trick every week.”