New Britain herald., 1927-01-28

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 The pictures would not be read
 for two days. And those two day
 were like eternity to Robbie. She went to moving picture shows
 She walked all over Hollywood. Sh , manicured her nails until her finge ends felt raw and uncomfortable.
 One morning she went out to Cul yer City, where some of the greates fstudios stand. She had a wild idle; that perhaps some director-som' producer-might see her, and sud denly decide he neede her in a pic ture. After all she was a type. ant miracles DID happen sometimes. Robbie, who was so wise ant sensible about so many things wa: like child when 1t came to her am. bition.
 As she was going along beside g high white wall that hies from view the greatest movie "lot" iT the world, Q door in it opened sud denly.
 "I'll just try to slip inside" she thought, when the door suddenly banged shut.
 It might have been the gates of Paradise closing in her face.
 She stood and looked at it with disappointed eyes for a second, and then placed the fiat of her small t,o pushed it gently-and she stepped inside!
 CHAPTER x
 Robbie expected to see something like glorified circus-grounds beyond the high white wall of the studios.
 She expected color and confusion and glitter. Noise of shouts and ham, mer blows. Painted people in gay costumes coming and going in the brilliant southern California sun shine. Movie cameras.
 But instead of that she found her self in a sort of street. Low white plaster buildings faced it on either side. A truck stood before one of them, and two huskies in overalls were unloading furniture from it.
 At the far end was the one touch of romance in the whole scene-a Chinese street set, built long before evidently. For the banners that flut- tered from it's balconies were tatter- ed and faded by many suns, and the gilt paint around the latticed win dows was tarnished.
 Hey! Whatcha doin' there" roared a loud voice suddenly, and Robbie jumped.
 For Q minute she wondered where that great rough voice was coming from, and then all at once she saw. the wall of the nearest building, and a red-faced man was leaning out from 1t. It was he who was doing the shouting.
 'Didn'tcha see the sign to keep out?" he roared. His bulldog face vanished from the window and ap- peared in the doorway of the build ing.
 He narrowed his little black pig gish eyes. and waved fat hand at her. The fingers dangled from it like uncooked ausages-plump and mottled and dead-looking.
 Now get out-and STAY OUTn he yelled, coming toward her threat eningly.
 But Robbie, rooted to the spot where she stood, could only stare at him with wide fascinated eyes. She had never been spoken to like that before in her life. Never-and she didn't know how to take it.
 She had been spoiled and scold- ed, protected and petted all her life at home, by her father and Aunt Gertrude. Andy Jerrold had always treated her as if she were price, less bit of Dresden china that would break with rough handling. Her beauty had always caused her to be singled out in a crowd at home.
 Now she saw that she was less than nobody at all to this rough- looking man who was coming toward her. What was one good-looking girl more or less to him, who had seen half the beauty in Hollywood?
 To him she was just another of these fresh broads who try to horn in everywhere"-and it was his job to put her out. It was his job to be For the film studios of Hollywood are guarded like art mu- scums and national banks. Strangers simply are not allowed within their gates-and that's the end of it.
 What d'ya mean, buttin' in here?' he asked roughly, and laid his sausage-like fingers on Bobbie's soft little wrist. She winced.
 Take your hand off my arm!" she said to him, exactly as she might have spoken to Q bad child in the first reader room at Locust street school. At that touch all her courage rushed back to her.
 She stopped feeling like a naughty little boy caught sneaking under the flap of a circus tent, and began to feel like herself again and quite brave. self-relant self.
 But her courage had no more effect on the hardboiled gatekeepcr , han her beauty had had.
 You take yourself out O here," he said gruffly, and pushed her back ,oward the swinging white gate, still holding her by the wrist. Not l until she was out on the sidewalk | lid he set her free. Then the door slammed in her face.
 It was a moment of deep shame | Tor Robbie Ransom.
 Shame burned in her cheeks like | scarlet banners all the way back | 70 Hollywood on the street car. | Shame that blinded her eyes 10 the 1 sight of the distant foothills and the i streets with their palm trees and ! pepper trees-and deafencd her to 1, he cheerful sounds of q town that :