Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-11-07
By
Thyra Samter Winslow

ers she got her first chance to 90 on
the stage. A funny little vaudeville
house had q tab" show. They used
six girls and one Of them was Ill. he
told her.
She learned the easy numbers almost
automatically, managed to hook herself
into the costumes that we're q size too
small.
Then she went into a repertoire COM
pany-summer StOck-and then got a
bit in a legitimate show in Chicago.
Hal Stevens was the company man
ager. Whether he recognized Rella's
possibilities and looked for an easier
life for himself, or whether her beauty
attracted him, or whether he really fell
n love with her no n knew. Hal
never talked about things. He got in
touch with JaSonville and found out
that Harry Broker was already getting
a divorce.
Hal and Rella were married. Rella
was lonely, wanted some one to depend
on. The men she had met had all
worried or bored her. Now she had
got over some Of the pain of losing
Harry. she liked Hal awfully we'll.
Under HAS management, ReIla
started getting ahead almost immedi-
ately. Hal knew who people were, how
to reach them. They went to New
York as 500 as they could raise the
money. Hal changed Rella's name
and got her a job in a real show. Luck
lily, she always looked younger than
she really was.
A better part each season, now. Stock
in summer for experience. Studying
all winter, IN spare time. Skillful pub
licity. A chance at the movies. Rella
had a good movie face, and Hal knew
how to take advantage Of opportuni-
ties.
When Rella started out in Chicago,
luck guided her. Even going on the
stage had been an accident. Under
Halls direction she was Skillfully man
aged. An ambition she never knew she
possessed woke up. If, sometimes, Hal
made it necessary for Rella to use her
feminine attractions -Why not?
Wouldn't she have had to do that
more-if she were alone? Hal saw to
it that she worked hard-and that from
the first she had an aura Of success
about her.
BY the time the daughters were born
she was already on the road to fame.
Taking OIL a few months when they
arrived didn't hurt her progress. Hal
wanted the children as much as she
did. Just at first, it had seemed to
her that perhaps he wanted them so
that she couldn't get away. OF course
that seemed silly, now.
1t all seemed to happen naturally
enough, somehow, when it was hap
pening-thOse first small parts, the
good parts that followed, the skillful
publicity, the luxury that the good
parts brought, the children, the sleek,
sure success and position.
They went ahead, almost automatic
ally, from a room in a FOrty-fifth
street rooming house, smelling of mil
dew and Of poor cooking, to a theatre
cal hotel in the same neighborhood. A
little better, but still cheap. A room
with a torn carpet and a brass bed.
Then, a furnished apartment in the
theatrical district with a terrible little
kitchenette behind a door, but with
a bedroom separated from the living
room. Almost a home.
They had a fairly decent hotel after
that, a suite Of rooms and breakfast
in bed. Next, an apartment OF their
own. A real kitchen and bath, bed
though a bit more simple than the
ornate lobby had seemed to indicate.
Then came a hotel that had class"
to it. Then, really nice things, and
the babies and a place in the country
and a house in town.
1t wa all simple enough. Usual,
even. A smooth rise, once you started.
$50 you See," said Rella, there's no
story in it, after all-at least not after
I left ~JaSOnville, and I don't tell that.
I guess what / do tell-abOut getting
ahead-is more truthful than most
stories Of success, at that. I don't x
actly stress how much Hal has done
for me. Why should I? Most stars
don't get ahead altogether IN histronic
ability, if it ONE to that. 1 couldn't
have got any place without Hal, I know
that. The things he taught me, about
the stage, about books-people, every
thing. l try to give him as much credit
as I can. More than he wants. Yet,
if it hadn't been for-for' that woman
What became OF JaSonville?" I
asked, a bit hesitant. "Did-did Harry
and Margie get married."
"Yes," Rella answered. II saw them,
about five years ago. They came back
to my dressing room to see me. AWfully
embarrassed, both of them. Harry was
rather a pudgy little man. I had visual
lied him taller. He didn't know what
to say to me, nor / to him, for that
matter. l was dreadfully worried that
night about a contract, and about one
of the children. A hundred little
things of my own were in my head and
somehow / couldn't get Harry inside.
II couldn't ute take it in. There
was Harry-a funny little man who
didn't know what to do in a stage
dressing room. A bit overcome, I'm
afraid, by what l had become. BY
Rella Stevens. I don't think he quite
found Rose Broker, at all. He NUT
tered some things about being happy
about my success. / didn't have the
heart to tell him about the love letters.
He'll probably never know about those.
Somehow, from something he said, I
believe he thinks / would have sue
ceeded if I had stuck with him-would
have come out at the same place in
the end. He felt a bit cheated out Of
things because he wasn't here with me
instead Of Hal. Funny.
And Margie. She vas fat and had
eyes like a little pig. I'd never noticed
how small they were before. Dowdy,
and with an oily little smile. A bit
pleased, too, being in New York-and
married to a stars px-huSband"