Evening star., 1935-12-08

~OULD you win q contest?
A Would you win it, If you could?
If the prize we're trip 10
~ Hollywood, would you take a
chance?
Ann Loring, latest contest winner,
who stepped from college desk to the
role of Warner Baxter's leading lady
cries: Don't enter a contest! II you
do, don't win it,"
Gail Patrick, who has had three
years of steadily mounting success since
she won a Hollywood contest, is not
50 sure.
"A contest winner starts with q
handicap, yes; people think that she
can have no brains or she wouldn't
win; but at least she has an entree. II
she came to Hollywood without it, she
might hammer on the gates for 20
years and never get inside"
Ann Loring has blue eyes, brown
hair and a swift smile that appears
and vanishes as if it were afraid OF
being trapped.
II won my contest in New York when
the studio sent travelling studio
sound truck complete with test equip
ment-an over the country" related
Ann. twenty-five thousand girls were
tested before they decided on me. ]
wasn't very much interested, for
didn't expect to win. When I look
back on it, can't remember how
came to enter the thing, except that
have always been rather keen about
dramatics and perhaps I thought
might as well see what test was like
Another girl, winning, might have
faced q tremendous disillusionment
But when I was told that had won
realized at once that very likely all the
award meant was that I would get a
trip to Hollywood, see studio, pose fol
. o few pictures and then come home.
When I arrived in Hollywood, was
treated as a guest for two weeks, enter
tanned, photographed, introduced &c
celebrities. Then they told me they
had taken three-month option on me
and I was given extra work in pig
scenes, or very tiny parts, and forgot
ten.
II had expected something of the
kind, but it seemed to me waste of
my talent and their money. One day
I became so furious that when an ex-
ecutive asked me in passing: How are
things going?'-not really expecting an
answer, you know told him exactly
how I felt I said I had something TO
bring to pictures but I wasn't allowed
to let any one see what had, that I
felt cheated of opportunity and that
the company was losing as well as l."
THE fugitive smile came and went
Ia again as she continued:
He must have been impressed, for
he arranged to have my screen test,
made when I came to Hollywood,
shown to the producer, and he liked it
well enough to give me the leading role
opposite Warner Baxter. 1t was an ex-
cellent part and enjoyed doing it.
However, I realize-and so must
the would-be contest winner-that my
experience is a once-in-a-l lifetime
miracle.
"A contest winner must be mentally
equipped to take disappointment with
q smile, to expect it and not to be dis
iluSioned. Come to Hollywood pre-
pared to take your prize as vacation
and to leave the way open to go home
unless a good opportunity presents
itself. 1t is so seldom the breaks
come. The town is full of beauties
VINO have failed or who never had a
chance, and they're afraid to go home
so they wait on tables, shampoo hair
work at the 10-cent store and so on
1t takes courage to go home and ad-
init that you failed.
II had mental stability myself. In
spite Of being just a college girl,
know how to appraise life.
Hollywood is a city of glamour, a
fascinating spot where any girl might
easily lose her head. It is a privi-
1ege to get inside and see it as a
pageant, but it is folly to stay for
years merely to look on If you cannot
become a part of the pageant.
my first warning to contest win
ner would be: Don't stay unless you
conqueri'"
Is Further tips to young aspirants Of
3ered by the lovely Ann Loring are
these:
Beauty counts very definitely II
You would make good in Hollywood.
It necessarily must count, since every
star who mounts to fame has some
claim to beauty Of an individual kind
p, Don't initiate. Don't try to be
something you are not. Each one OF
us has q precious individuality as ex-
clusively our own as our fingerprints.
Cultivate this precious quality. Be
sincerely yourself.
STT IS necessary to have perfect die
ton. I had taught the subject
at college and had had great deal
OF dramatic work, so was prepared
there.
Whatever may be said of beauty.
brains are not an asset in Hollywood.
People here resent cleverness unless
it is very cleverly concealed"
CAIL PATRICK, tall and dark and
slender. moving in her rosy, hoop
ekirted gown with q grace as effort