The Wilmington morning star., 1940-03-02
Man bout

Nv GEORGE Tucker

NEW YORK, March 1.-UJ0Most
Broadway and Hollywood writers SIN
against accuracy every time the
use the words ''star" and great"
Especially is this rue when the writ
ing concerns the theater or the films.
On Broadway almost e body re-
fers tn almost everyone in The the
alter as q STAR" and in Hollywood
so many great" pictures are being
produced that conveyof-be'ts are
needed to get them out of the way.
There are about a dozen Broad
wav columns in the New York pa
pers. and this morning they listed
At actors and actresses as stars"
If Won checked those papers for a
week the total would run into the
hundreds.
T mention this as a deep-dyed
sinner-against-accuracy myself and
because, actually, there aren't more
than a handful of stars in the whole,
wide scope of the American taeater.
I would say that at most the thea
ter has only seven or eight women
stars, and maybe five or six men.
Helen Hayes, Lynn Fontanne, Ina
| Claire, Gertrude Lawrence, Katha-
rine Cornell, Ruth Gordon, and Ethel
| Barrymore just about conclude the
list. There may be one or two 9TH
ers. Among men I would name Wal
ter Houston, Alfred Lunt, Paul
NUM-, Leslie Howard, George M. Co.
han, and John Barrymore.
There are any number Of able,
conscientious people right behind
these. But they still have a long
way to go, and if any real standards
of acting r to be recognized they
cannot legitimately be classified as
stars.
You'll find on Broadway today
many nice people who have had a
hit now and then and who may have
other hits in the future. But one
hit, or two hits, doesn't make for
greatness. The woods r full of
one-shot Johnnies who flame bril-
liantly for awhile and never quite
fulfill their earlier promise.
A fair example of this, I think, Is
little Helen Claire who was on
Broadway last year in kiss the
Boys Goodbye" Miss Claire is a
lovely young woman with a face
and a figure that are very pleas
ing across the footlights. Her name
was UP in big bright lights and for
awhile she was the toast of the
town. But after awhile Kiss the
Boys Goodbye" ran its course, and
now-less than a year after-she is
remembered only a. the girl with a
southern accent who was very good
in one Broadway show.
While she was on Broadway she
must have been starred" hundreds
of times. But Helen Claire will have
to duplicate that success many times
and in many kinds of comedies and
dramas before she car hope to be-
long with the Lawrences and Barry
bores.
~ uluClI lOl DlOadWdS oAu SiS
stars. Out in Hollywood the boys
take their jays on an entirely diff
ferent brand of catnip. They go in
for great" / have read where at
least nine great" pictures have been
released in recent weeks. Gone" was
a great picture. MIR. Smith" was
great. So were Grapes and Mice
So was "Wuthering." "Pinocchio''
was great too.
Now, maybe all these pictures
really are great. But it seems to
me that at least one of these named
must be considerably better than the
others, and in that case you have
one great film and several very good
seconds. 1t also seems to me that
when greatness comes along in car
load lots the very qualities that malAe
them great become a commonplace.
And when that happens, what have
you got but a nice lineup of aver
age pictures?
I know of one movie, and only
one, that I think is great; it was
made 20 years ago and 1 think 1t
will still be great SO years from
now. It's name was THE Birth of a
Nation" How great do you think
The Grapes of Wrath will be, say
20 wears from now, in 1860?