HOLLYWOOD REBEL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 563, 17 September 1932, Page 24 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD REBEL.

Ann Dvorak Will Work in England. Hollywood’s rebel star arrived in London recently—still rebellious. You should know about her, not because she is famous, but because, like all rebels, she is a definite personality. Her name is Ann Dvorak. Her age is nineteen. Her colouring is a sort of blonde-brunette. Her voice is a whisper. Her dominating characteristic is timidity. Yet in Holly- , wood’s eyes she is a rebel.

Many so-called stars defy Hollywood, but generally they are on the downgrade. Ann Dvorak is different. A golden future spreads out before her. Yet she iust “walked out” on Hollywood. * This is Ann’s story, as told to a London correspondent:— Looking for Work. “I went to Hollywood with the ambition of doing something big. But could I get a chance? For two years I trailed round the studios looking for work. No one would take the risk with me. I was unknown —and there were so many ‘knowns’ about.

“Then one night at a party I met Howard Hawkes, the director. He was looking for a girl for ‘Scarface,’ the gangster picture. I got the job, and was signed up by Hawkes’s employer, Howard Hughes, at £SO a week. It is said that I was a success in ‘Scarface.’ I never disbelieve that sort of story. . . .”

Howard Hughes sold Ann Dvorak’s contract to Warner Brothers for a huge sum, and Warners were approached by another firm, who thought she would make an ideal leading lady for Ronald Colman.

Little Ann of the whispering voice and the timid nature registered mild surprise when she heard this news—and decided that it was her cue for a rebellion. Could it be true that having made the abnormal number of eight pictures in seven months at a fixed salary of £SO a week, she was being “farmed” out to a third company' at a salary of £SOO a week ? Being a shrewd girl she also looked around. £2OO a Week. From England came a Gaumont British offer to appear in a picture at a salary of £2OO a week. The little rebel sailed in the first available boat for Europe. “I have six years of my' original contract with Howard Hughes to run,” she told me. “Really, I do not think I have been treated fairly. “The last straw was when I discovered that the parents of a child with whom I was appearing in a film were receiving twice my salary'.” One great stroke of luck has come to help this Hollywood rebel. Iler husband, Leslie Fenton, is an Englishman—so she needs no labour permit to continue her career in England. Lost 140,000 Dollars. Eugene Pallette is not thinking of his youth when he cracks his jokes About twelve years ago he made—and lost — .40,000 dollars in the Texas oilfields.