Evening star., 1945-04-04
By HAROLD HEFFERNAN.
HOLLYWOOD.

Personality parade: From the most
exotic star on the New York stage
to her current role of the farm wife
in state Fair" is the transition Fay
BANTER has made in the last 20
years. She's just as convincing as
Iowas champion pickle preserver,
the part she plays in the goth Gen.
tury Fox musical, as she was 20
years ago in East is West" in
which she portrayed a glamorous
Eurasian.
How does she feel about the
change? She doesn't. Says Fay:
81 started in the theater at 4,
as child actress, and by the time
I became a star I'd been playing
older and Older parts for Is years.
I outgrew starring roles just as I
did child parts"
She never expected to be a star
1t Just happened. She attributes IT.
to luck and some good parts. After
she made the grade, she knew it
wasn't permanent, and arranged her
life accordingly.
while I was playing at the Max
inc Elliot Theater, I had the most
sumptuous suite of dressing rooms
ever assigned to star. I never let
myself get used to it, because / knew
it wasn't permanent.
II remembered some of the peo-
pie who had preceded me, especially
one star who had been there only a
| few years before. but had then dis
appeared from the theatrical hori-
zon. She was only in her 40s, but no
manager would give her part. This
frightened me until I learned that
/ she refused to play anything but
| leads for which she was too old.
Il made up my mind right then I
would never be too old, because I
would always insist on playing wom-
en- somewhere near my own age, re-
gardless of whether they were leads
or not
AT 40 I was playing a grand
mother, a part for which 1 was con-
sidered too young by my friends. but
l knew what was doing It's much
better to have people say she's too
young for the part than to hear
Who does that old hag think she's
/ Ffooling when she plays those young
girls?"
Fay believes that when woman
has passed the leading-lady age, it
doesn't matter how old the charac-
ter is she's portraying. There are
Just as many and just as good parts
for a 60-year-old woman as there
are for one in her early 40s.
MY role in State Fair is a good
one. Mrs Frake is woman of 45,
and being the mother of Dick
HAYNES and JEANNE Craine doesn't
bother me in the least" concludes
Fay. After all. I have 19-year-old
son of my own in the Army"
Should an actor live his role off
the screen? Don't even suggest it to
Franklin Pangborn, one of Holl-
woods most in demand character
players.
Pangborn is seen. often in the role
of the officious hotel clerk. There
fore. it is purely coincidence which
finds him in real life the owner of
an apartment building.
The small, bulbous-e fast
talking actor currently is playing his
18th role as hotel clerk in Para
mounts You Came Along" which
stars Robert Cummings and Liza
beth Scott
In his real-life role of hostel
keeper, he never bustles about, cast
ing suspicious glances at his tenants
as though they might be smuggling
alcohol burners into their rooms for
DIT of SurreptiouS cooking.
Il never see the tenants Pang-I
born said. m wonderful landlord
Never dun them for the rent OF
snoop around to see If the baby has
penciled the wallpaper. have
real-estate management to look
after the place. I pay them S per
cent. and give them 100 per cent of
the headaches"
Pangborn says that his ability to-
play hotel clerk has nothing what
ever to do with his real-life sideline.
1T was merely good investment,
he insists. only thing is, after own
ing this place for a year haven't
been able to get an apartment for