The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-09
In Hollywood
BY PAUL HARRISON

HOLLYWOOD-There still seems
to be spray in his face and the song
of the winds in his h e I. The
young cap'n loves the sea-.
And so Sterling Hayden is an &C
tor.
I can't help feeling a little sorry
it happened this way. There are
plenty of earthbound heroes to dc
make believe adventuring for the
movies. There must be thousands
Of men for whom a voyage to Cat
alma in their own mahogany cruis
ers would be Odyssey enough.
And so this Hayden %youngster.
with horizons already broader thar
the studios myopic scenarists ev'
er dreamed of, has become an
to- 6 hireling in a pastoral drama
called Virginia" According to the
perversities of movie luck and the
drama Offerings of all the Local
females who have seen him, he'll
probably warp into a fullrigged,
matine idol, brass-bound and nice.
ly vanished. And I'll bet they
don't cast him in sea pictures, eli
Their.
Or am I bitter?
PHOTOS GOT
TO RIGHT PEOPLE
Anyway, if shuch things happen,
the guys I can blame r Larry
O'Toole, an artist, and numerous
newspapermen around Boston. Or
a voyage to the South Seas, O'Toole
brought up his notion of a movie
career for Hayden every time they
opened another can of beans. In
Boston, during the 1899 sailing Of
the international fishermen's race.
members of the press grew lyrica.
about the photogenic qualities Of
the tall, blond navigator of the
American challenger. Eventually
some photographs of Hayden have
reached the right people, and he
was handed a Paramount contract
If he doesn't remain in Holly
wood, the person responsible prob
ably will be Hayden himself. He
has been too busy, since anchoring
here, to correct his charts or over
haul his gear. But this is part of q
conversation we had:
DIDO you think you could be
happy here - among Hollywood
people, tied to a schedule, work
ing on sound stages where the
sky is a hunk of painted canvas?
A. tdefiantly)-Why, sure! You
talk like this is a tough life. Be
sides, there isn't any money ir
skippering a schooner these days,
Q.-But you're not really inter
ested in. the dough, r you?
A.-Well, no-but I'd like tc
make money enough to buy a
schooner!
That is why I have hopes for the
natural destiny of Sterling Hay
den. One of these years l can see
him shooting off to New Hebrides
or pitcairn Island or to Tahiti
again.
AROUND THE
WORLD IN SAIL
Hayden is only "a. Half Holland.
err, half English, he was born in
Montclair, N. j., lived in half a
dozen towns along the coast Of
northern New England, attended
and hated uppity private schools,
wen to sea right after the death
IF his father and the depletion Of
family finances justified the
change. His first voyage was down
to the Canal and up to California,
and he went back on a freighter to
a succession of berths on sailing
craft, including the Gloucester fish
ing fleet and the famed Gertrude
L. Thibaud. He had a masters pa
pers at 81.
He went around the world In
sail. as mate, and has commanded
four long voyages. He delivered
the all-teak Florence Robinson
built for the eastern rice trade, to
a BUYER in Tahiti-and through the
1888 eastern hurricane with an am
ateur crew. He helped buy the Al
debaran, second largest two-mas-
ter ever built, pulled it through a
storm off Hatteras and had to
abandon it at Charleston for lack
of money.
That's only a sketchy idea OF
what Sterling Hayden mas done.
Now he's an actor, and I'm afran
he's a good one. But he belongs
to the sea and I hope that soon,
again, his pants and his sails will
need patching.