Evening star., 1941-11-16

OF April /, 1877, a long freight
- train So cars - chugged into
the Los Angeles yards and came to a
stop. First to alight. after the usual
load of tramps had quickly departed,
was a tall, thin, narrow-faced. long
haired individual who stepped from
the caboose and walked in long. loose
jointed strides toward the freight
Offices. He stopped now and then to
ask the way, thanking the informers
with courtly bow and a swing of his
unbuttoned. loose fitting coat. He wore
no hat.
Arriving at the Office for which he
was searching, he picked out. by
desk nameplate, the official he wanted
to see. But the official was busy. The
tall man stood in the doorway for
minute or two, impatient. Nobody
paid any attention to him. Suddenly
there rang through the Office strange.
resonant sound. The stranger had
uttered single word. 1t was:
''Srr
Instantly every eye in the place
was upon him. Conversations stopped
in mid-sentence; pens sputtered and
quit in mid-signature; the clicking of
typewriters died out.
Our man remained in the doorway
for a moment, surveying the scene
with an ear-to-ear grin upon his an
gular face He then strode majestically
to the desk, took from the pocket OF
his scarecrow's coat sheaf of papers.
which he tossed with a flourish to the
desk.
There" he said, his voice still COM
manding the situation, "are your
bananas, sir! One trainload OF ba-
nanas, in from Ell Paso. Mr.. John
Carradine, in charge Of the consign-
ment and at your service. Kindly
inspect the train. sir. and sign on the
dotted line for your confounded fruit.
which will allow me to resume my
normal intellectual existence"
The Crsof Dseision
Illus came the turning point IN the
career of John Carradine. Or perhaps
the turning point had come before
that. The fact of his arrival in Los
Angeles as banana messenger (this
is the technical term) was, after all.
merely the elimination Of string of
events which reached back to the day
he decided to give up being an artist
in order to become an actor. A movie
actor.
For five years he had been theatri-
cal designer and sketch artist in New
York Gt seems superfluous to mention
that he was born in Greenwich Viii
lage). A contributing factor in his
decision to become an actor was the
circumstance that he was painfully
short of funds He had heard that it
rained dimes in Hollywood. So he
headed for the movies in the most
direct, simple and obvious manner
conceivable: he started walking West.
Hitch-hiking, plain hiking, conde-
scending upon occasion to the use OF
freight trains, he got as far as Shreve-
port, Louisiana, without quite starv-
ing But he was 50 close to it that he
now paused in his rush toward Holly
wood in order as he explains it, ito
build up his resistance" With his
last few cents he bought a pad OF
paper and pencil. went around to
Office buildings and called on the more
important executives, persuading them
to have sketch portraits made.
He sold enough to eat on, and con-
tinued the idea in New Orleans, Dallas
and Ell Paso. 1t would be long
Jump from Ell Paso to the coast -
through a region which appeared un-
likely to yield many art-conscious
executives. He fingered in Ell Paso.
trying to make up his mind whether
to push on or to rework the back trail.
Luck forced his hand.
One dav he was busily sketching