OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 122, 26 May 1938, Page 3

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

HOLLY MOOD SUCCESS Holly wood, the “Alice in Wondeiland city of quick successes and equally sudden oblivion, is the exception that proves the rule, “opportunity knocks only once.” In Hollywood, opportunity has even been known to knock thrice. Ii this were not true, the majority of to-day’s top-ranking stars would nave long since retired from the limelight of movie arena to arm-chair existence. Clark Gable squirmed through dozens of ill-fated screen tests, until he flatly refused to face a camera and Hollywood was anathema. Rebuffed as an “extra” he returned to Hollywood after winning recognition as an actoi on Broadway, and became a star overnight. Gary Cooper had boarded a train en route home to forget Hollywood, when he reluctantly answered the last-minute call that gave him his start to screen fame. Myrna Loy was so discouraged by failure when she sought the role of the Madonna in “Ben Hur,” that she left the studios where she was working. It was several years before she found her niche in a comedy role. Another Grim Story. The brothers Grimm break into ’he medium of Walt Disney’s productions again. Disney’s feature-length version of their “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is currently breaking box oflice records all over the country. Now, Mickey Mouse is at work, starring in the title role of the Grimm’s “The Brave Little Tailor.” This, however, is to be a short subject. Most people will remember the story of the puny little tailor who was so proud of having killed seven flies at one blow that he made himself a belt upon which he embroidered “Seven at one blow.” His adventures in this respect, with everyone taking the seven to mean human beings, comprise the rest of the story, with the tailor winning half of a kingdom and a lovely I princess for his “brave” deeds. In the | Disney version. Minnie Mouse piays the role of the princess whose hand I Mickey wins.