STARS GROW OLD GRACEFULLY

Southland Times, Issue 24446, 28 May 1941, Page 8

STARS GROW OLD GRACEFULLY

• I ELDERLY ROLES ARE POPULAR I Movie stars who formerly thought that glamour was their chief requisite are gladly turning into old ladies nowadays. Martha Scott has scored the first important acting triumph of 1941 in Hollywood as a 70-year-oid school teacher. Barbara Stanwyck will be 100 in the opening sequences of “Pioneer Woman,” and will play much of that story in 75-year-old make-up. The acting merits of three actresses, all young and good to look at, are being considered at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio for proposed remake of “The Sin of Madelon Claudet,” in which the heroine evolves from 20 to 80. In “Back Street,” recently finished, Margaret Sullavan ages gracefully from 35 to 60. While she does nol need to be very old, it is interesting to note that Joan Leslie, 15, will be Gary Cooper’s wife in “Sergeant York.” Many actresses think that a good character study as an elderly woman may win them an Academy award, and they are prepared to hide beauty in an endeavour to obtain one, writes a Hollywood correspondent. The position was clearly explained to me when I called on Fred Fredericks, the man to whom the actresses first turn when they are entrusted with an old-age character role. He is the chief hair stylist at the Max Factor studio and he has made old-age wigs for many years. “Screen stories are beginning to reflect a real-life trend,” Fredericks said. “Elderly women today are not the wallflowers they once were. They’ve spruced up. Grandma is paying more attention to her appearance. “It isn’t any wonder, then, that actresses—l mean the actresses who can really act—seek those ageing roles. They get opportunities for dramatic expression not found in callow youthful impersonations. The fact that an actress can play an old lady

and still reflect a bit of glamour is one good reason for the trend.” For Martha Scott's role in “Cheers for Miss Bishop” Fredericks created half a dozen wigs, ranging from the light brown of her teens to the snow white

of 70 years. The increasing part wigs play in the life of film actresses is indicated by Miss Sullavan’s use of them in her

“Back Street” role. Never before has she worn anything but her own hair. But in this picture she ages, and very attractively, with a set of half a dozen _______