Evening star., 1941-09-21


~ from Copenhagen. wept her
way down a stairway of the Paramount
Studio, in Hollywood. She was on her
way outdoors.
Before she got to the foot of the
stairs. though, she had an incredible
bit of luck.
Once more she had offered herself as
motion-picture actress, and again
her accent had tripped her up - the
accent she had tried so desperately
hard to overcome. An accent, to be
sure, does not necessarily bar player
from the movies. They are in demand
for certain pictures. But such accents
must be definite and recognizable:
English, German, Spanish. Scandina-
Wan. or what have you. Our lady's
cross was that her accent (she had
learned English partly in Copenhagen,
partly in London and partly in Holly
wood) was unlike any accent ever
known. 1t was soft and musical and
charming, but it didn't seem quite
Danish, or Swedish, or well, it
didn't seem quite anything.
The girls name. by the way, was
Osa Massen.
So she was walking down the stairs
once more Her agent was with her.
They were nearly at the bottom of the
fight when Producer-D Director E. H.
Griffith started up. He and her agent
stopped to chat. And now comes the
almost incredible luck.
II am looking" Mr.. Griffith said,
"for girl to play dandy part in
Honeymoon in Ball. with Fred
MacMurray and Madeleine Carroll. A
girl with an accent"
What kind?" the agent asked
hopelessly.
MIR. Griffith scratched his head.
That's the whole trouble. She's
white girl - Dutch, presume. But
with a. he waved his arms around
-"Balinese-Dutch accent. Whatever
that would be. Something foreign, l
should think, but not too definite"
Miss Massen's agent held onto the
railing for support. Listen" he said.
He asked his client to speak. She
spoke. MIR. Griffith looked charmed.
We'll test her" he said. land if she's
a good actress, she's in"
Stole fhs Show
IHEY tested her. and she was in"
And her Hollywood debut turned out
to be one of those things that happens
about once in decade: newcomer,
bringing something new and fresh and
utterly different, bursting into pic
ture, and walking away with it.
And at its first showing, its premiere,
she sat outside the theater in an auto
mobile, weeping. Which we'll come to
in a minute :.
Miss Massen. no child of the theater,
started her professional life in Copen-
hagen as a photographer for Nordisk
Illustrations Bureau. Through her
work she became greatly interested in
the movies, but strictly on the tech
nical side. Her ambition was to be-
come a film cutter, or editor.
One day while making pictures at
the Palladium Film Studios, in Copen-
hagen, she was offered a screen test.
She declined. The movie producers
insisted. So she made bargain with
them: she would make test, and if
acceptable she would act in picture,
but in return they must promise to
give her a chance at film cutting and
editing. They agreed.
She took a test, it was good. and she
acted a small part in a movie based
on Robert Louis Stevenson's kid
Mapped" Then she made the studio
live I'D to their end of it, and got an
editing job. But opportunities to carry
on her new work were limited in
Copenhagen, so she went to London.
She got editing work there; but. how
ever, she found that unfamiliarity
with the language was too severe a
handican. She went to school and