Evening star., 1933-12-24

A N EXTRA player has more
~ chance at screen stardom than
~ a contest winner. Hollywood
4 i won't, or can't, give one OF
these discoveries 1air oppor-
tunity to make good.
A conversation with Charlotte Henry,
who is playing Alice" in Paramount's
screen production of "Alice in Wor-
derland," at Warner Bros Metropolitan
Theater. started this train Of thought,
What win there be for Charlotte after
Alice?
Paramount's search for a girl to play
the part is typical Of almost all
searches, although Charlotte, fortr-
nately. has had some brief experience
aIPEs misas 1900 little girls
piled for the role during the four
months the studio conducted its search.
Eventually Charlotte was selected.
And what happened? She immedi-
ately was placed on q level with any
great star. Not even Mae West nor
Marlene Dietrich received more atten-
ton than this impressionable, IT.
year-old girl.
Hundreds Of photographs were taken
Of her. in her "Alice" costume. Inter-
viewers stormed the studio for chance
to talk to her Working morning, after
noon and night, she could see them
only at meal times Her luncheons and
dinners became hectic affairs of bites
Of sandwiches between questions.
She has been lauded as 1.-THE per-
feet Alice" so frequently that she prob
ably believes it herself by now. Not
that she isn't! Because I don't think
Paramount could have found q better
Alice If they'd searched for four Yeas
instead of four months.
She has her own dressing room. She
has personal attendants from the ward
robe and makeup departments. II
she stubs her toe, she Is rushed to the
studio hospital for instant treatment
No star of the highest order ever had
more attention. But star, partic-
ularly one who has struggled up from
the extra ranks, can stand the adula-
ton. Long months, even years of work,
have prepared them for the plaudits
and encomtums that come with star
dom.s In their struggle to the top
beings after all. Laudation and flat-
tery leave them o bit cynical. They've
seen and heard too much Of It.
from obscurity and thrust into the
center Of the most searching, and the
most bitter, spotlight in the world, finds
herself faced by an entirely new prob
lem. First. she is dazed and panic
stricken by the attention. Then it be-
comes a matter of course, end finally,
In some unfortunate instances, expected.
Searches for Peter Pan, searches for
"It" girls, searches for "All-American
beauties" searches for this, searches
for that and the other, have thrust
totally or comparatively unknown people
into . maelstrom Of publicity. But no
previous discovery" has ever faced the
task that confronts Charlotte Henry.
Probably not more than 10000 600 Of
this Nations l20,000,000 people have
not read Alice In Wonderland" It Is
doubtful whether any one In England,
or its colonies, has not read the book
To many Of them the Lewis Carroll
classic is something very personal, very
human and very real. Charlotte has
to please every one Of those persons
she has to be their idea Of Alice" or
she will fail.
Some contest winners have been un-
able to Withstand the adulation and
attention showered upon them. Some
have been killed professionally because
they failed to iii the pubiics concep-
ton Of what they should be. Whether