The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-07-17
In New York
BY PAUL HARRISON

New York, July 17.-Success
stories, in reverse: Miriam Hopkins
would still be just bullet dancer
If she hadn't broken an ankle 1.
Until the war Leslie Howard was
a bank clerk. Afterward he was
too restless for the job, and tried
the stage.
Maurice Chevalier was bus
boy in a cheap cafe in Paris /.
Ronald Colman had $37 when he
cameto New York looking for a
job Gary Cooper intended to
be a cartoonist =. Gene major
Hoople) Ahearn learned cartoon
ing by drawing on wrapping paper
in the butcher shop where he
worked Jim Williams was a
cowboy, cavalryman and machin-
list before he guessed he could
draw things like "Out OuS Way"
If Eddie Cantor hadn't been
fired from a mailing room for
clumsiness he might never have
gone on the stage Wallace
Berry ran away from home to
join Brother Noah in a $25-a-
week chorus job Clark Gable
worked in the Oklahoma oil
fields, and wanted to be a doctor
=. Sam Goldwyn was foreman
in glove factory Congress-
man Sol Bloom expected to be
songwriter, and used to stand be-
hind music counters plugging his
ditties.
Acting Up
Mae West, Of all people, used to
do male impersonations Rosa
Ponselle and her sister Carmella
comprised team in vaudeville.
Ricardo Cortez was a doorman at
Hammerstein's Victoria. .Al Woods
operated a nickelodeon. And Gus
Edwards sang Illustrated songs
while his father pulled the slides
at Tony PASTORS Loretta Young
might never have had chance If
she hadn't answered a directors
hurry call for her sister, Polly
Ann, when the sister was out. :.
Walt Disney got his idea for Mickey
Mouse from the mice that shared
his dingy Office when he was start
ing out as an animated cartoonist.
One of Broadway's greatest pro-
ducers. Sam Harris, first ran
laundry, and then managed prize
fighters John and L.onel Bar
rymore both hoped, to be artists.
The latter was an etcher, and John
dabbled with pencils and paints.
Sister Ethel wanted to- be con-
cert pianist -. F. Ethel Norman was
stenographer -. John Golden,
another producer. first studied
law, then became a bricklayer !.
Morris Gest, whose biography now
Is being written, started In show
business as a circus wild man.
Frustrated Success
At IA, Jimmy Cagney was the
champion fighter of Manhattan's
Yorkville, and at that time wanted
to be farmer. Instead he worked
as office boy, bundle wrapper, mes
senger, and bell-hop at the Friars'
club. His first taste of the stage
was painting the backdrops for a
play given In New York settle
ment house >. T. s. Stribling, the
author, graduated from office boy
to writer of moral adventure stories
for the Sunday school magazines.
Almost invariably the villains of his
pieces were boys who smoked
cigarettes. Stribling still doesn't
smoke.
Marion Martin, who probably is
Broadway's best-known showgirl,
came here from Philadelphia
seven years ago to get an office
job. But she stopped to watch a
crowd milling around a stage door.
and the doorman told her to go
right in. Marion entered, having
no idea what was going on. Emerg-
ing hours later, with other victori-
GUS aspirants. she had a job in
Earl Carroll's ''Vanities.'
Charlie Chaplin would have
been famous much earlier but for
his timidity. He stuck to his $50
a-week vaudeville engagements in
spite OF better offers, several of
them from movie companies. But
what II I fiop?" he'd ask his
friends. "Then nobody would
ever hire me again."