The Washington times., 1924-02-29
PRESS STORIES
A|MUSE FILM
ACTRESS
Fern Andra Laughs at Tales
Of Aristocratic Birth and
Tells Truth.
By PATRICIA DOUGHERTY,
Cosmopolitan News Service.

GARY, Ind, Feb. 29.-Fern Andra
has stood the test of greatness.
A woman of gorgeous, vivid
t1beauty and unutterable charm, a
baroness and the greatest movie star
in Central Europe, she sat in the
tiny old-fashioned parlor Of her
mothers flat in Gary's most un-
fashionable district ana talked hap
PLY Of her earlier, humber days.
She doesn't dramatize the strug-
gle Of her youth as other movie
stars have done, she doesn't try to
wiring your heart. She laughs and
she hopes you will.
Laughs At Papers.
when l read about myself in the
American newspaper, screamm
she said, curling up in a big, leather
morris chair beside the sewing ma
chine where she had been at work.
They say:
Miss Andra was captured by the
German film magnateS while in Lon
don studying music. 1t was only
after persistent pleading that .1er
parents allowed her to enter the
movies!'
IF they knew.
THE truth of the matter, l was
born in Watseka, ILL.,, and we never
had dime. We were poor and
one day the circus came to town
and my mother heard that Bird
Millman, the little tight rope walker,
wanted a travelling companion.
got the job
The little travelling companion,
was almost entirely by courtesy and
was probably calculated to make UP
for the small salary attached to
the office. l was her secretary, her
| maid, but l didn't care because
knew she and her parents were
hooked to do vaudeville tour in
Europe.
Learned Some Tricks.
"Of course, being with her con-
stantly, l learned several tricks. I
could walk the tight rope and had
\ lost all sense of fear. When we
arrived in Germany, the movies
had just begun.
'"They were making those old pic
lures where the heroine always
saved her virtue Ivy dropping lightly
off cliff or something equally
acrobatic. OF course, we were curl
Gus about the movies and one day
we were invited to visit a studio.
| "They needed girl who could
do the stunts 1 had learned from
the Millmans and they hired me.
After that worked, just as every
American movie star has worked
until / was made a star.
Married for Love.
'"Then 1 married Baron Weiches,
fell in love with him, honestly,
wholesomely, and 1 married him
because l loved him
Every year, my darling mother
comes to see me. Every time she
comes l beg her to stay. can
| give her palace with a lot OF
servants to play with, or she can
have half mine, but she won't do
it. And 1 send her gobs of money
and she puts it in the bank.
Il don't know what to do with
her. So finally 1 said, The only
thing to do is to come over to
America, pick out a nice home for
her, furnish it, sit her down in it
and come back to work.
That's what came for.
ScOrns Count Salm.
IT must sail again on March II.
But I'm coming back as soon as
l make four more pictures. l shall
come to America and make my pic.
lures here. The first one will be
The Temptress' by Blasco Ibanez
for which 1 just paid $15O,0OO.
II am looking for a leading man
My favorites? Tommy Meighan
Charles Ray and Richard Barthel
mess. What do you mean, Count
Salm? He's no movie actor. ]
only hired him for one picture be-
cause l needed a really aristocratic
Austrian guardsman for the role. 81