The Washington times., 1936-11-23
ACTOR PREFERS
RUGGED ROLES
IN MOVIES
Sensational ere e n
Lover Starts Story
of His Life
BY LYDIA CALVERT
Special to The washingtOn Times
CHAPTER l

dropped my spoon for here
he comes-like a god from
Mt. Olympus, tall, heroic, with
flashing white teeth and a
head that might have been
carved by Praxiteles.
It is lunch time in the M.
G. M. commissary and the
place is as thick with stars
as the milky way. Here they
all are-Tone, Gable, Tracy,
Bruce-chatting and laughing
with their friends and fellow
workers. But here he comes
All heads turn. Conversation
ceases. The eyes Of the great are
turned to Robert Taylor making
his way through the tables. In a
black and white checked bathrobe
he dominates the entire room.
He radiates health and youth and
good humor and 1t catches like
happy laughter. There is awe in
the eyes of the mighty for it is
an aesthetic experience merely to
look at him.
Classic Sculpture
Yes, it is easy to see why he
is the "magnificent ohSeSSion" OF
American womanhood. He is un-
believably beautiful. Classic sculp-
ture with the breath Of life
breathed into it, q king trium"
phant from the cruSadeS. a mod
ern sculptures vision never at
tanned in clay-theSe are the men
tai canvaseS he paints in the mind
Of the observer.
The physical beauty, at which
his critics scott, I found out later
comes from within. He is good"
as King Arthur was good. He is
the pure in heart.
There has never been, in the
history Of the screen, a meteorlc
rise to fame such as his. In less
than three years he has sky
rocketed from obscurity to unpre-
cedented fame. From $50 a week
to $4,000 in the flick Of an eye
lash. No such record has ever
before been made in pictures.
There have been huge overnight
successes but nothing to compare
to his. Men have stumbled on
caches of gold. Others have
gained fame by their daring. But
his is a case apart.
Hates His Beauty
Sardonically the thing that he
hates about himself was the
winged chariot that carried him
to succeSs-hiS beauty.
He loathes "the beautiful Robert
Taylor" He wants the producers
to mess him up and streak his
face with dirt. His beauty has al
ways been a curse to him and yet
fate, with characteristic miSch1eV-
business, used this tool to make
him famous.
For that beautiful face and for
one smile from that chiSled mouth
a thousand young things would
breathe an ecStatic sigh and lay
down to die. For that beauty the
age.bound hearts of a thousand
grey-haired grannies step up their
beat to a sharp tattoo.
Old as Life
It's the story old as life of the
knight on the milk-white charger.
He is the knight. No dream on o
ragged tenement pillow or on the
lace and satin Of a mansion couch,
was ever too fantastic or too
gloriously ideal for him to fill.
Study his head and try to change
line. Your pencil will only re-
trace what has been done. And
yet he hates this beauty.
IT have never been happier than
I was in His Brothers Wife there
in the tropics with my shirt open
at the neck and sweat on my face"
he tells me, and rather bitterly
points to the costume he is wear
ing under the checked bathrobe.
It Is the Starched and ruffled
shirt which he wears as Armand"
to Garbo'S Camille" He hates
It. His lip curlS when he speaks
Of It. With it each hair has to
be in place, the eyebrows smoothly
arched like two wings, the makeup
neat as woman'S. It makes his
masculine soul rebel as it rebelled
back in college days when his
friends dubbed him "the sheik."
He's q Swell Guy
Oh, he's swell guy, this Robert
Taylor. He's honest and normal
and unspoiled as a new day. I
was to get to know him pretty
we'll in Hollywood but this first
meeting in the M.-G.-M. commits
Sary gave me the summary Of his
character first crack out Of the
box. His hearty handshake, his
beaming, unaffected smile, his
boyish pleasure at being inter
viewed, his refusal to represent
himself as anything but exactly
what he is, were all there in that
first short luncheon date we had.
He's not the Sophisticate who
tries to impress you with his
smoothneSS. He isn't a braggart
isn't really at all conscious even
yet of his fantastic popularity
though crates of fan mail come.
He's not frivolous.
He is SeriouS-minded. He counts
his success as a marvellous thing
that just happened to him. He
doesn't look for it to last any
longer than the average. In fact
he's very wary about it but he